A photograph of the Bon Accord Church that was located on Union Terrace. The building was previously known as Union Terrace Chapel.

In 1827 a number of the Trinity Chapel congregation split off after unsuccessfully supporting Rev. Gavin Parker, then working in Dundee, as a candidate for the then vacant ministry.

The new congregation and Parker purchased Union Terrace Chapel from a struggling Baptist congregation in 1828. It opened as a Presbyterian place of worship with a service on 27th July 1828.

For some years it operated as a chapel of ease before an reformist Act of the General Assembly was passed that erected chapels of ease into parishes quoad sacra. The building then became known as Bon Accord Church.

During the ministry of Rev. Hector M. Adam, the Bon Accord United Free Church congregation sold this Union Terrace building to the Aberdeen School Board and had new church buildings constructed on Rosemount Viaduct. These new buildings opened on 3rd September 1896 and still house an active congregation today.

The building on Union Terrace appears to have served as School Board, and possibly Aberdeen County Council, offices before being demolished at an unknown date during development to the street.

For more details on this building and the Bon Accord congregation, please see The Churches of Aberdeen by Alexander Gammie (1909, page 92) and Bon-Accord United Free Church, Aberdeen: a Retrospect of 100 Years 1828-1928 (1928). Both books are available to consult at Aberdeen Local Studies.

Location

Union Terrace

Keyword

Churches

Photographer