Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

ABERDEEN
quarter of almost any town in Scotland ; and the other
modern streets, whilst challenging no special notice, may
be described in the aggregate as equal at least to the
second and third class streets of most stone-built towns
in Britain. Few houses, or parts of houses, remain to
show the Aberdeen style of domestic architecture in
former centuries ; yet enough are standing to interest
both the architect and the antiquary. The vestige of a
tower, said to have belonged to the Knights Templars,
stands in Bothwell Court, adjacent to Justice Street. A
house with projecting circular staircase and antique
lintel, said to have been the parsonage of St Nicholas,
stands in School Hill. A building, called Wallace
Tower, having in a niche a rude and very ancient effigy
of Wallace, and said to have been occupied as an hostelry,
stands in Nether Kirkgate ; and another old tenement,
known as Mar's Castle, with a diminutive crow-stepped
and corbelled gable, circular staircase, and small square
openings for windows, stands in Gallowgate, and bears
date 1494. The four have strong generic likeness to one
another, and challenge more attention from antiquaries
than many old buildings elsewhere of higher note.
Every remaining specimen of the domestic architecture
of the later part of last century is entirely commonplace,
but No. 64 Broad Street possesses interest as the place
where Lord Byron passed his earliest boyhood (1790-98)
under his mother's care ; Thackeray visited it when
lecturing in Aberdeen on The Four Georges.
The plain old town-house was built in 1730, and the
court-house adjoining in ISIS ; but in 1865 it was re-
solved to occupy their site with a new suite of county
and municipal buildings, which, commenced in 1S67 at
an estimated cost of £69,000, were completed at a cost of
£80, 000 and upwards. Designed by Messrs Peddie & Kin-
near, of Edinburgh, in the Scottish Baronial style of the
16th century, with French and Belgian features, they
form a four-storied, Kemnay granite pile 64 feet high,
presenting one frontage to Castle Street of 225, and one
to Broad Street of 109 feet ; along both facades runs a
basement arcade of columns, at 12 feet intervals, sup-
porting elliptical arches, and surmounted by a second
and smaller arcaded range. At the streets' junction
stands the magnificent clock-tower, 28 feet square and
72 feet high, with corner pepper-box turrets 36 feet
more ; and, over all, a lantern gablet, culminating in a
vane at the height of 190 feet. In June 1S80 it was
decided to hang a fine peal of bells in this tower, which
almost dwarfs an older one to the E — sole relic of the
former town-house — although its lead-covered spire has
a height of 120 feet. Within are the vestibule and the
grand staircase (35 feet square) ; the Great Hall (74 by
35 feet, and 50 high), with five lofty traceried windows,
oak panelling, and open timber roof; the richly-deco-
rated town-hall, in the clock-tower (41 by 25| feet,
and 15 high), with three old crystal lustres ; the court-
house behind (50J by 37 feet, and 36i high), etc. : spe-
cial adornments are Provost Davidson's armour, Steell's
marble statue of the late Provost Blaikie, a marble bust
of John Phillip, and portraits by him of the Queen and
Prince Consort, of Queen Anne by Kneller, of Provost
Hadden, the late Earl of Aberdeen, and others. — The new
Post Office, at the foot of Market Street, was erected
(1873-76) at a cost of £16,000, and is a simple but effec-
tive edifice of Kemnay granite, 100 feet square and 40
high, in the Renaissance style. — The Market Hall, Mar-
ket Street, was built by a joint-stock company (1840-42),
at a cost of £28,000. It is divided into a basement
story and a galleried main floor, which, 315 feet long,
106 broad, and 45 high, has a Gothic roof of open timber-
work, and itself is divided by two ranges of massive
pillars into three alleys, like the nave and aisles of a
church. On 29 April 1882 (the fortieth anniversary
of its opening) it was completely destroyed by fire, but
has risen anew from its ashes very slightly altered from
its former self. — The neighbouring Corn Exchange, in
Hadden Street, measuring 70 by 40 feet, and 30 high, with
open roof, was built for £1000 in 1854, and except on Fri-
days serves as a public newsroom. — Close to the §E corner
of Union Bridge is the Trades Hall, a fine Elizabethan
8
ABERDEEN
granite structure, erected in 1847 at a cost exceeding
£7000, and containing an antique set of carved oak chairs
(1574), portraits by Jameson, and the shields of the seven
incorporated trades — hammermen (1519), bakers (1398),
wrights and coopers (1527), tailors (1511), shoemakers
(1484 and 1520), weavers (1449), and freshers (1534)—
whose curious inscriptions form the subject of a mono-
graph (1863) by Mr Lewis Smith.— The Society of Advo-
cates, chartered in 1774, 1799, and 1862, and numbering
124 members, has a handsome new hall, behind and
connected with the County Buildings ; in it is the valu-
able law library of 5000 volumes, established in 1786. —
The Medico-Chirurgical Society (1789), with 30 mem-
bers, has also its hall, in King Street, which, built
(1818-20) at a cost of £2000, is entered by an Ionic
portico, and contains a large meeting-room, laboratory,
library of 4000 volumes, portraits by Vandyke and T.
Miles, etc. — Westward of Union Bridge, the Music Hall
Buildings, owned by a limited company (185S), comprise
the assembly rooms, erected in 1820 at a cost of £14,500,
with portico of six Ionic columns, 30 feet high, and ball,
supper, billiard, and other saloons, to which, at a cost
of £5000, was added the music hall behind, opened by
the Prince Consort on 12th September 1S59, with a very
fine organ and accommodation for 2000 persons. — The
new Theatre and Opera House, in Guild Street, was built
in 1872 at a cost of £8400, seats 1650 spectators, and
has a frontage of 75, a mean depth of 90, and a height
of 50 feet.— The Masonic Hall (1871-76), in Exchange
Street, cost £2S06, and has a lodge-room, 50 by 32 feet,
and 20 high, with three stained windows ; the St Kath-
erine's Halls, with an organ, were opened in 1880, in
connection with Shiprow Cafe. — The Public Baths and
Swimming Pond (1851-69) are in Crooked Lane ; and at
the junction of Bridge Place and Windmill Brae is the
five-storied Hydropathic and Turkish Bath establish-
ment (1880), with a tower 80 feet high, six plunge
baths, and a cafe. Of 39 inns and hotels, 5 of them
temperance, the chief are the Imperial, Palace, Douglas,
Lemon-tree, City, Forsyth's, Adelphi, Waverley, and
Duffus' Temperance ; clubs are the Royal Northern
(1854), the City, the Aberdeen Club (1S62), and the New
Club (1867).
Aberdeen has two native Banks, the Town and County
(1825), and the North of Scotland (1836). The former in
October 1880 had 1021 partners, 51 branches, a paid-up
capital of £252,000, a reserve fund of £126,000, and de-
posits and credit balances amounting to £1,912,603 ; the
latter, with 2136 partners and 60 branches, had £394, 500 of
paid-up capital, £203,441 of reserve fund, and£2,678,172
of deposits and credit balances. The Town and County
has splendid new premises (1863) near the junction of
Union and St Nicholas Streets, which, Roman Classic in
style, cost £14,000 ; as also did the North of Scotland
Bank (1839), at the corner of Castle and King Streets,
whose Corinthian capitals exhibit a delicate minuteness
never before attained in granite. There are, besides,
the National Security Savings' Bank of Aberdeen (1845),
and branches of the following banks, with dates of their
establishment : — The Bank of Scotland (1780), the Com-
mercial Bank (1811), the National Bank (1833), the
British Linen Co. (1833), the Royal Bank (1862), and
the Union Bank (1849), with which was incorporated
the Aberdeen Bank (1767). The Scottish Provincial
and Northern Assurance Companies were further estab-
lished here in 1825 and 1836, the one with 20,000 £50
shares, the other with 30,000 £100 shares ; and there are
4 navigation companies and about 80 insurance agencies.
The Royal Infirmary, on the western slope of Wool-
man Hill, was founded in 1740,' enlarged in 1753, 1760,
and 1820, and wholly rebuilt (1833-40) at a cost of
£17,000. A Grecian three-storied edifice, with domed
centre and two projecting wings, it is 166 feet long, 112
broad, and 50 high, and, containing 20 large lofty
wards with 11 smaller apartments, can accommodate
300 patients. Epidemic wards were built on the links
in 1872 at a cost of £2500, and Loch-head House, with
3 acres of ground, was purchased in 1873 for £2250, to
serve as a convalescent hospital. In 1879 the total