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Discussions had been held in relation to the construction of new public buildings for the County and City of Aberdeen since the early 1860s. Royal Assent was given to the Aberdeen County and Municipal Buildings Act 1866, which gave permission for a Court House for the County and City of Aberdeen; a hall for public meetings; a Town House for the City with offices for staff; a building for the accommodation of the Police Commissioners and their staff. Plans were drawn up by the Edinburgh architects Peddie and Kinnear and work on the demolition of buildings on the site (including the old Town House) at the junction of Castle Street/Union Street and Broad Street began in 1867. The offices in this section were occupied in January 1871. A lofty vestibule and broad circular stair led to the Town Hall and offices on the first and second storeys. The architecture is of a medieval Flemish style which recalls Aberdeen's trading links with the Low Countries. The building was completed in 1874. This image shows the partially completed building around 1869/70 when the 200-foot-high West Tower and one block had been completed - two more matching sections were still to be done.

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The foundation stone of the Aberdeen Town House extension on Broad Street. As stated on the stone, it was laid by Lord Provost Robert S. Lennox on 17th November 1975. The city architects responsible for the extension were I. A. Ferguson and T. C. Watson. It was built by Taylor Woodrow Construction (Scotland) Ltd. The stone also makes reference to a casket buried five metres below the foundations to commemorate the dissolution of the Corporation of the City of Aberdeen as part of local government reform. The casket ceremony was held on 15th May 1975 shortly after the last meeting of the Aberdeen Town Council which was being replaced by the City of Aberdeen District Council. The casket ceremony was the final act of John Smith as lord provost. The official switch over of councils was marked by the "Bon-Accord" bell of the West Church of St Nicholas tolling from 11:50pm to midnight on 15th May. Earlier in the day saw a fireworks display at the Queens Links, pipe bands and a special lunch and church service for members and officials of the corporation. See local newspaper coverage from the time for more details on the occasion. Around 80 people, including councillors, family and Taylor Woodrow employees watched Lord Provost John Smith place 29 items of interest into the copper clad box. Smith joked, "About the year 3048, an unsuspecting archaeological digger may come upon this box and he will no doubt remark on my genius." Among the buried items were copies of the Press & Journal and the Evening Express, local books, records and cassettes of Scottish music, local government data, sets of coins of the realm and postage stamps, local stones, a phial of North Sea oil and plans for the Town House extension. The casket was placed on a crane hook by Aberdeen Town House project manager Tom Nisbet and guided into the ground by foreman Andrew Benzies. The ceremony was reported in local newspapers and the July 1975 issue of the construction company's magazine, Taywood News.

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A photograph showing the construction of the chimney at the Dee Village Electricity Works taken on 24th August 1901. The original plans for the works included a 200 foot chimney and, due to its location in a residential area, it was one of the relatively few points of contention in the scheme. The function of the chimney was to release waste fumes created by the work's boilers. The chimney was fitted with a Green's Economiser near its base. This was then a common feature of industrial chimney and its function was to pre-heat boiler feed water using waste fumes. The Dee Village works had the biggest economiser in the city at the time. The chimney was demolished after the works were closed in February 1969 and the turbine hall was replaced by an office block. This image is from an album of photographs held by Aberdeen City Libraries detailing the construction of the Dee Village Electricity Works.

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An Aberdeen Journals Archive photograph of the Capitol cinema at 431 Union Street in February 1980. At this time the Capitol was in more regular use as a concert venue than as a cinema. This image shows large numbers of people queuing to get tickets for a performance by the band Genesis. The Capitol was built as a cinema back in 1933. A few days before its opening, it was advertised in local papers as "Aberdeen's wonder cinema". Opened to large crowds on Saturday 4th February 1933, the Capitol was then the largest venue of its kind in the north of Scotland and had a stage that could be adapted for both film and variety entertainment. The Capitol was built by Aberdeen Picture Palaces Ltd. on the site of an earlier upmarket cinema called the Electric Theatre that dated from 1910. When the Capitol opened, it was regarded as the most up-to-date theatre in the country due to its complex lightning system, organ music and other modern features, some of them being introduced for the first time in Scotland. The venue could accommodate more than 2,000 people. The building's plans were prepared by Aberdeen architects A. G. R. MacKenzie and Clement George. Local newspapers stressed the local ownership of the cinema and the local craftsmanship that went into its construction. Aberdeen City Libraries hold a souvenir brochure of the cinema's opening. One interesting feature of the brochure is the inclusion of specially created adverts for all the companies involved in the construction and furnishing of the new cinema. Some of the adverts provide rich information on the history of the companies and give an insight into how the companies saw themselves. The brochure details the companies behind every aspect of the buildings from the cinema seating and terrazzo work to the innovative lighting. On the opening day, Mrs A. D. Hay, wife of the chairman of the Aberdeen Picture Palaces, unlocked the main entrance door with a gold key. This key is still held by the Hay family today. The cinema's first, busy evening featured a variety of entertainment. In addition to the showing of films, there was a ballet performance by the Henrietta Fuller Dancers and Mr Edward O' Henry played the theatre's new top of the line Compton organ. During the opening ceremony, Bert Gates, another director of Aberdeen Picture Palaces, said: "It was a long lane that had no turning. They had built the Capitol not for to-day, but for the generations of Aberdeen people to come. The company had dedicated the Capitol to the people of Aberdeen, their children, and their children's children in the hope that in generations to come they might appreciate what had been given them." [Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson] Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd.

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A photograph showing the Capitol façade in January 2021. By the 1960s and 70s the Capitol was increasingly being used as a venue for live events. Michael Thomson credits its survival over the Majestic, closed down in September 1973, as due to the Capitol's superior stage facilities. The Donald family, the venue owners, had the stage enlarged in 1975. Appearances by popular groups like the Bay City Rollers in 1974 suggested the future for the venue at the time. The Capitol also saw performances by the Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, Queen, Boyzone and Chuck Berry among many others. The Capitol ceased showing films in 1995. The Capitol contained a restaurant, and subsequently bar, in the cinema's former café area around this period. 1993 saw the opening of the Art Deco and cinema themed bar Oscars in this space. The Capitol functioned as a wonderful venue giving North-East audiences the chance to see top performers for many years. It became increasingly uneconomic to run and the curtain finally came down on the venue on Monday 15th December 1997. The building was later converted into a nightclub and restaurant called Jumping Jaks and the Chicago Rock Café that opened in around 2003. These closed down in 2008 and the Capitol laid empty for some time. In 2013 Knight Property Group began plans to redevelop the site as a modern office complex. The £30m project retained and restored the cinema's original façade and employed an Art Deco style in its foyer entrance to reference the history of the building. The venue's auditorium that had been much altered and had fallen into disrepair was demolished. The launch of the new office complex was held on 10th June 2016.

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To celebrate the 31st modern Olympic Games taking place in Rio 2016, we have chosen a treasure which sheds some light on how the games have evolved over time by looking at the official report of the 4th Olympiad, held in London in 1908. Originally scheduled to take place in Rome, the Italian organisers declared themselves unable to host the competition, citing amongst other reasons, an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. As the runner-up in the award of the 1908 Games selection, it was proposed that they be held in London instead. The London Olympics of 1908 was the first to feature a purpose-built stadium and set the standard for all future Games. Another Olympic first was the fact that the sports arena included a swimming tank, whereas previous swimming competitions had taken place in open water. It also fixed the official distance of the modern marathon at 26 miles and 385 yards - the additional yards being added to ensure the finish line was in front of the Royal Box. The Summer Olympics of 1908 featured 2,008 athletes from 22 countries. By comparison, Rio de Janeiro will host over 10,000 male and female athletes from 207 nations, and feature 306 events in 28 Olympic sports. The 1908 Games were hailed as a great success - particularly considering the short preparation time, and they founded several key features of modern Olympic Games. View our touchscreens to find out more about the controversies of the 1908 Olympics, and some of the record-breaking medal winners.

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In this year of Innovation, Architecture and Design, we feature original building plans which provide us with an insight into the development of Aberdeen in the late 19th century. The plans were designed by builder John Morgan (1844-1907), who worked with many well-known city architects. John Morgan's memoirs are held in our collections and the 282-page document provides a first-hand account of the builder's career. Along with his memoirs, we hold a bound volume of Morgan's original plans which were donated by a tobacconist named James Yule Keswick, husband of John Morgan's eldest daughter, Elisabeth Jane. Together, the plans and memoirs reveal the personality of an important figure from our city's past, and map the changing landscape of Victorian Aberdeen as witnessed by Morgan himself. Find out more about John Morgan and the many buildings he constructed in the Treasures from our Collections interactive exhibition on the touchscreens in our libraries.

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This is the front cover of an explanatory brochure that was made to accompany the public exhibition of the City Survey and Plan prepared for the Corporation of Aberdeen by W. Dobson Chapman & Partners, town planning consultants. The exhibition, which also included exhibits by the Housing and Health & Welfare Departments, was held in the Music Hall from 6th to 27th July 1951. As indicated at the top of the cover, the exhibition was tied into the city's celebrations of the Festival of Britain that took place shortly afterwards, from 29th July to 11th August. This brochure was produced by W. Dobson Chapman with text by Charles F. Riley. It was printed by the Aberdeen University Press. It measures 28 x 19 cm and has 36 pages. The front cover features an aerial photograph looking up Union Street from Holburn Junction to the Castlegate. The back cover shows a section of a city model showing proposed plans for the same area. The model was created by J. B. Thorp, London. The brochure has the following contents: Title page, Foreword by Lord Provost William D. Reid, Description of Exhibition of City Plan, Description of Exhibition of Housing, Description of Health & Welfare Exhibits and Description of Film Display. It also features the following illustrations: Summerfield Residential Neighbourhood Unit Model Photograph, Tullos Industrial Estate Model Photograph, Colour Plate South Market Street, Colour Plate Sea Beach. W. Dobson Chapman and Charles F. Riley published their proposals the following year as a large hardback volume entitled Granite City: A Plan for Aberdeen (1952). Copies of this volume are available to consult at Aberdeen City Libraries. The city plan included a number of ambitious proposals that intended to be accomplished over the course of generations.

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This plate of two coloured plans was included in the book The reports by Smeaton, Rennie, and Telford, upon the Harbour of Aberdeen. Printed and circulated by order of the Harbour Trustees (Aberdeen: G. Cornwall, Herald Office, 1834). This volume contains two reports by Smeaton, dated 19th February 1770 and 22nd March 1799, respectively, plus a letter by him concerning the Harbour from the same date as the 2nd report. The two plans are titled Plan of the Harbour of Aberdeen as it was in 1769 and Plan of the Harbour with its Alterations, as proposed 1787 by J. Smeaton. Different versions of these plans can be found reproduced in the earlier book Reports of the late John Smeaton, F.R.S. made on various occasions, in the course of his employment as a civil engineer, volume III, (London, 1812). These other versions are also available to view on this website. Smeaton, along with John Rennie and Thomas Telford, was a key engineer in the development of the modern harbour of Aberdeen. Smeaton's most crucial improvement was the construction of the North Pier, completed in around 1780. A copy of The reports by Smeaton, Rennie, and Telford, upon the Harbour of Aberdeen. Printed and circulated by order of the Harbour Trustees (1834) is held by Aberdeen City Libraries in our Local Studies Reserve Stock.

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A sketched elevation of the proposed building designed by architect William Ramage (1819-1866) as an extension for Aberdeen's Royal Lunatic Asylum. The building became known as Elmhill House and was completed in 1866. This sketch illustrated the Interim report to the managers of the Royal Infirmary and Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen (1858). A copy of this pamphlet is held in the Local Studies collection of Aberdeen City Libraries. The interim report primarily consists of text by Ramage outlining his amended plans for the building. The amendments were informed by his visits, alongside a Dr. Jamieson, to "several of the most important Asylums in the Kingdom". Ramage refers to an accompanying set of four plans. The interim report only features this sketch and a plan of the main floor, marked as ground plan no. 11. The comments from the committee, that introduce and follow Ramage's report, written by convener David McHardy, indicate that the two illustrations from the pamphlet were drawn up at the committee's request and are separate from those plans mentioned by Ramage. Elmhill House was designed by Ramage in an Italian villa style with an E-plan layout. The building had three storeys above ground and a basement. The entry on Aberdeen City's Historic Environment Record indicates it was built to alleviate overcrowding at the main Royal Lunatic Asylum buildings at Cornhill. It was intended to be for the care of private patients able to pay a guinea a week or more. The above site also explains that the building was badly damaged by bombing in World War 2. Though much of the Elmhill House, including the elevation shown here, can still be seen at the time of writing in 2023. A comparable view is given, looking north, from Shaw Road. The building appears to be in use as private housing. In this sketch, Ramage is identified as the architect in the bottom left. In the opposite corner, the lithographers are given as Keith & Gibb.

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A plan of the main floor of the proposed building designed by architect William Ramage (1819-1866) as an extension for Aberdeen's Royal Lunatic Asylum. The building became known as Elmhill House and was completed in 1866. This ground plan, marked as no. 11, illustrated the Interim report to the managers of the Royal Infirmary and Lunatic Asylum of Aberdeen (1858). A copy of this pamphlet is held in the Local Studies collection of Aberdeen City Libraries. The interim report primarily consists of text by Ramage outlining his amended plans for the building. The amendments were informed by his visits, alongside a Dr. Jamieson, to "several of the most important Asylums in the Kingdom". Ramage refers to an accompanying set of four plans. The interim report only features this plan and a sketch of the main elevation. The comments from the committee, that introduce and follow Ramage's report, written by convener David McHardy, indicate that the two illustrations from the pamphlet were drawn up at the committee's request and are separate from those plans mentioned by Ramage. Elmhill House was designed by Ramage in an Italian villa style with an E-plan layout, as shown here. The building had three storeys above ground and a basement. The entry on Aberdeen City's Historic Environment Record indicates it was built to alleviate overcrowding at the main Royal Lunatic Asylum buildings at Cornhill. It was intended to be for the care of private patients able to pay a guinea a week or more. The above site also explains that the building was badly damaged by bombing in World War 2. Though much of the Elmhill House can still be seen at the time of writing in 2023. The building appears to be in use as private housing. The accompanying description in the interim report indicates that this plan contains "accommodation suitable for sixty-six patients of both sexes." We can also see facilities for a superintendent, a matron, pantries, dining rooms, day rooms, baths, toilets and a large hall.

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