Old Aberdeen to Be Read in Conjunction with Section 1: Strategic Overview and Section 2: Management Plan 10 December 2015

Aberdeen City Conservation Area Character Appraisals and Management Plan Old Aberdeen To be read in conjunction with Section 1: Strategic Overview and Section 2: Management Plan 10 December 2015 Planning and Sustainable Development Aberdeen City Council Business Hub 4 - Marischal College Broad Street Aberdeen AB10 1AB www.aberdeencity.gov.uk Contents 1Introduction 3 Profi le 3 Summary of signifi cance 3 2 Location, History and Development 5 Location 5 Development history 5 3Character 12 Character Area A : Spital 13 Character Area B : Old Aberdeen Heart 23 Character Area C : Modern University Campus 39 Character Area D : Seaton Park/Hillhead/King Street north/ 52 Kettock’s Mill Character Area E : Balgownie 63 4 Management 73 SWOT analysis 73 Proposed Management Plan Guidance 79 List of Streets within the Conservation Area 80 Produced by Aberdeen City Council (Planning & Sustainable Development) who gratefully acknowledge help from Old Aberdeen Heritage Society, Old Aberdeen Community Council and University of Aberdeen in the preparation of this document. 2 Proposed Aberdeen City Conservation Area Character Appraisal | Old Aberdeen | 10 December 2015 Old Aberdeen 1 Introduction 1.2 Summary of signifi cance 1.1 Profi le Old Aberdeen is an extremely important Designation Date Old Aberdeen : 1 July 1968 (105.7 hectares) - Aberdeen conservation area because it encompasses a Town Council complete town centred on the medieval route from Balgownie Road : 26 July 1968 (4.8 hectares ) - Aberdeen Aberdeen north to the Brig o’ Balgownie, the fi rst County Council inland crossing of the River Don. Quite separate from Aberdeen, Old Aberdeen had its own burgh Extended 16 April 1973 (4.1 hectares added) - Aberdeen Town Council status from the late 14th to 19th centuries. It has 28 June 1976 (10 hectares added) - City of Aberdeen been an important religious and educational District Council centre as evidenced by some of its most impressive 23 April 2015 (5 areas, total 28 hectares added) - Aberdeen buildings, most notably St Machar’s Cathedral and City Council King’s College. The spinal route continues to be Previous character appraisals 1993 the dominant feature and there is a wide range of Article 4 Direction Yes - 29 February 1972 historic buildings of architectural merit along its Size (hectares) 124 length. As with other historic routes in the vicinity, Number of character areas 5 there is still a clear development pattern centred on medieval burgage plots. Number of listed buildings / structures Total 184 Cat A 12 Old Aberdeen was a thriving, independent Cat B 152 town until it was effectively by-passed by the Cat C 20 development of the new turnpike road north, King Buildings at Risk 2 - St Margaret’s Convent, Spital Street, and the new Bridge of Don river crossing in Wallace Tower (Benholm’s Lodgings), 1830. It retained its separate burgh status until 1891 Tillydrone Road when it merged with Aberdeen. The settlement was Scheduled Ancient Monuments 3 - Mote Hill palisaded settlement not re-developed in the 19th century as happened St Machar’s Cathedral and churchyard in many other places, which has left its historic Mercat Cross core largely intact. The University of Aberdeen has undergone considerable enlargement and change Adjoining Conservation Areas None in the last 50 years exemplifying the national post Sites and Monuments Record 17 war expansion in tertiary education. Proposed Aberdeen City Conservation Area Character Appraisal | Old Aberdeen | 10 December 2015 3 Old Aberdeen Location of the conservation areas within the City of Aberdeen Top: King’s College Bottom: New King’s College Key Old Aberdeen Conservation Area Aberdeen Conservation Areas N Urban and Built Area 4 Proposed Aberdeen City Conservation Area Character Appraisal | Old Aberdeen | 10 December 2015 2 Location, history and development 2.2 Development history until the construction of King Street and the Turnpike Bridge of Don in the early 19th century Although a signifi cant proportion of the effectively bypassed the Old Town or ‘Aulton’ as 2.1 Location Conservation Area’s historic buildings, setted it is known locally. To walk along the Spine today streets and narrow lanes owe much to The Conservation Area is bounded by Balgownie leads you through the heart of the Conservation developments in the 18th and 19th centuries, Old Road in the north and stretches down to King’s Area and past many of its architectural and Aberdeen is the result of two thousand years of Crescent in the south. King Street forms the historical gems. Old Aberdeen’s organically linear organic growth and evolution. eastern boundary and Tillydrone Avenue, form owes much to incremental development Firhill Road and Bedford Road in the west. Old For the vast majority of its history, Old along this well used route. The Parson Gordon’s Aberdeen is a very large conservation area, with Aberdeen’s simple street pattern remained Plan of 1661 is one of the earliest maps we have much of its northern area covered by Seaton virtually unchanged from its medieval layout. of the town and the point at which we can most Park and the Don riverside. For centuries the ‘Spine’ of the Conservation accurately begin to trace the development of Area was the principal route from New to Old the Conservation Area as we know it today. In Aberdeen and beyond to the crossing at the Gordon’s time, the High Street was lined by small medieval Brig o’ Balgownie over the river Don, cottages with long burgage plots or lang-rigs. Clark’s Lane 81 High Street 108-110 High Street Proposed Aberdeen City Conservation Area Character Appraisal | Old Aberdeen | 10 December 2015 5 Old Aberdeen Only fragments of the built fabric from before this Early history timeline time remain although vestiges of the distant past • 2nd century- Evidence of Tillydrone Mote, an • Early 14th century - Brig o’ Balgownie is can still be seen in the road layout and general early wooden defensive structure, set in a completed, a short distance upstream of the land use pattern. The original boundaries of some barren, boggy landscape covered in gorse and previous ford. A small settlement develops of the medieval burgage plots can still be seen natural scrubland. around the turnpike river crossing, which spans behind College Bounds. the Black Neuk, a rich salmon pool. • 6th century- According to popular folklore, St Machar establishes his church on the banks of • Late 15th century – Bishop Elphinstone the Don, having been instructed in a vision to establishes King’s College, making the fi nd a site where a river bends like a shepherd’s University of Aberdeen Scotland’s third and the crook. Although most historians think that the UK’s fi fth oldest university. Construction begins evidence does not support the existence of St on King’s College and College Bounds is laid Machar, this legend nevertheless has cultural out shortly after as an academic enclave. Old signifi cance because it is so widely believed. Aberdeen is granted Burgh of Barony status in 1489 with the right to hold two annual fairs and • 12th century- A Cathedral is established on a weekly market. The ‘Middle Toun’ develops the site where St Machar’s stands today. The up around the High Street as a market town. Chanonry is laid out as a walled, ecclesiastical enclave, with St Peter’s Hospital and Kirk • 16th century – Protestant Reformation slowly forming an outpost on the ‘Spital’ lands. The begins to make its presence felt in Old Spine appears as the main route connecting Aberdeen more gently than many other parts of New and Old Aberdeen and beyond. the country, with the Roman Catholic churches and canons’ manses gradually falling into disrepair and some buildings being converted to secular residential use. Parson James Gordon’s map c1661 © National Library of Scotland 2nd century- Evidence of 6th century- According to the popular 12th century-The Spine appears as the Tillydrone Mote, an early folklore, St Machar establishes his main route connecting New and Old wooden defensive structure church on the banks of the Don Aberdeen and beyond 6 Proposed Aberdeen City Conservation Area Character Appraisal | Old Aberdeen | 10 December 2015 By the time of Gordon’s plan in 1661, the Chanonry, Middle Toun, College and Spital were all very much in evidence, although the town was still distinct from New Aberdeen. It consisted of just a few streets, but would have been a bustling market town where traders, clergymen, students and academics mixed together. Thatched cottages, packed tightly, lined the road, with nothing but open fi elds beyond their lang rig gardens. The map shows Snow Kirk and Spital Kirk already in ruins, evidence that the Protestant Reformation had made its physical mark on Old Aberdeen. The growth of industry, including brick production, granite yards and stocking making, brought prosperity to the Aulton, leading to the construction of a number of buildings combining both granite and Seaton brickwork. By 1821 the combined population of St Nicholas’ and Parson James Gordon’s St Machar’s parishes stood at 44,796 with 41% map c1661 (Extract) living in St Machar’s parish, which gives some Old Aberdeen area idea of the relative importance of Old Aberdeen. showing the main street of cottages and the lang rig Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, older gardens behind. buildings were gradually demolished, rebuilt, © National Library of remodelled and improved and the elegant granite Scotland 14th century- Late 15th century- Old 16th century- Late 16th century- 17th century - growth 18th and 19th century

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