Friday 24th September 1819
Friday Sepbr 24th After breakfast we started for Aberdeen 16 miles where we arrived about 1 o’clock we then walked out to see the town which consists of old & new Aberdeen the chief street is Union street where Dumfosters hotel (which is a very good) one is situated in this street it is nearly a mile in length & the houses very regularly built the other streets are narrow, the chief structure is the King College none of the other principal buildings are at all striking: Papa & Alexander, who had left us at Huntly to transact some business at the village of Leith returned late in the evening
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Aberdeen received Royal burgh status from David I of Scotland (1124–1153), transforming the city economically. The city's two universities, the University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495, and Robert Gordon University, which was awarded university status in 1992, make Aberdeen the educational centre of the north-east of Scotland. During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, which can sparkle like silver because of its high mica content. In 1647 an outbreak of bubonic plague killed a quarter of the population. In the 18th century, a new Town Hall was built and the first social services appeared with the Infirmary at Woolmanhill in 1742 and the Lunatic Asylum in 1779.
1772-90: Perspective View of New Aberdeen in the County of Aberdeen or Marn from The complete English traveller, or A new survey and description of England and Wales 1772-1790. http://www.rareoldprints.com/z/545
The council began major road improvements at the end of the 18th century with the main thoroughfares of George Street, King Street and Union Street all completed at the beginning of the 19th century. The expensive infrastructure works led to the city becoming bankrupt in 1817 during the Post-Napoleonic depression, an economic downturn immediately after the Napoleonic Wars; but the city's prosperity later recovered. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdeen
Union Street is a major street and shopping thoroughfare in Aberdeen, named after the Acts of Union 1800 with Ireland. It was built to relieve the strain of the small, cramped streets that caused problems for people coming into the city. It was built higher than the old town and was designed to include the five entrances from the city: Queens Road - Rubislaw from Hazelhead; George Street from Inverurie and Morayshire; King Street from the north from Bridge Of Don, Peterhead and Fraserburgh; Market Street, which leads to the fishing town of Torry; and Holburn Street to the Ruthrieston and Garthdee areas. Designed in the beginning of the 19th century under plans suggested by Charles Abercrombie, it nearly bankrupted the city.
2003: Union Street from the Citadel Taken from the Aberdeen citadel looking over the Castlegate and down Union Street , by Lyn Mcleod. This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Lyn Mcleod and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UnionStreet-287149-Lyn_Mcleod.jpg
The Denburn River still runs under Union Bridge but has been covered over by a dual carriageway road. The street is 0.8 miles long (Lucy says “nearly a mile”) and a feat of engineering skill involving the partial levelling of St. Catherine's Hill and the building of arches to carry the street over Putachieside. Union Street crossed the Denburn Valley by Union Bridge (constructed 1801–05) and holds the record of the 'Worlds largest single span granite bridge' at 130 feet (40 m) across. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Street,_Aberdeen
Dumfosters Hotel: No such hotel is listed in Hotel History of Aberdeen, a very comprehensive review of old Aberdeen hotels. http://www.mcjazz.f2s.com/HotelHistory.htm Lucy records that it was on Union Street. Hotel History records New Inn 1755 ~1839 (Anderson's Hotel) but it was on Castle Street. The next hotel listed chronologically is the The Athenaeum or Union Buildings, built 1819-22 on Union Street, but it was designed as a Reading and Newsroom for the Citizens of Aberdeen and only became a hotel and Restaurant when it was sold in 1888. The next hotel was built in 1835 as the Aberdeen Hotel, later the Victoria Restaurant.
The University and King's College of Aberdeen (Collegium Regium Abredonense), was founded in 1495 and is now an integral part of the University of Aberdeen. Its historic buildings are the centrepiece of the University of Aberdeen's Old Aberdeen campus, often known as the King's or King's College campus.
2010: King's College, Aberdeen by Nick Bramhall from Aberdeen. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. This image was originally posted to Flickr by Nick Bramhall at https://flickr.com/photos/53725815@N00/4315559621. It was reviewed on 28 March 2017 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King%27s_College,_Aberdeen_(4315559621).jpg
The focal point of the college, as well as its oldest building, is the late 15th century King's College Chapel.
2013: Aberdeen: King's College Chapel by Mussklprozz, the copyright holder, and published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AberdeenKingsCollegeChapel_2013-08.jpg
A number of other historic buildings remain, with others being subject to renovation and rebuilding in the 18th and 19th centuries. King's College Chapel is the main chapel used by the University of Aberdeen. Forming the north side of the original quadrangle of King's College, construction of the chapel began in 1498 and ended with the consecration of the building in 1509. The Chapel’s most notable architectural feature is its Crown Tower, an icon of the university as a whole. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_College,_Aberdeen
Village of Leith: There does not appear to be a village named Leith and although Lucy may have misspelled the town of Keith (see 22nd September) her father and Alex possibly transacted their business at Leith Hall in the village of Kennethmont, 8 miles south of Huntly.
Leith Hall was built in 1650, on the site of the medieval Peill Castle, and was the home of the Leith-Hay family for nearly three centuries. Since 1945 it has been run by the National Trust of Scotland (NTS). Leith Hall is set in a 286-acre estate with scenic gardens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leith_Hall
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2009: Leith Hall (rear elevation) For its history, see: http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/rhynie/leithhall/index.html . Photograph by Bill Harrison. This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Bill Harrison and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leith_Hall_(rear_elevation)_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1273765.jpg
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Can you help us?
Hotel: Was there a Dumfosters Hotel in Union Street in 1819?
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?