Aberdeen Town House and other photos

This week I had the pleasure of going into Aberdeen’s Town House, a civic building built in 1868-74 by architects Peddie and Kinnear. It is built in Scottish Baronial style which means it has a neo-gothic appearance and a roofline that resembles a castle more than a city town hall.

The inside of the building is equally impressive. It has a very long circular cantilever stone staircase that appears to float on air.

The paintings and photos lining the staircase are all the provosts (like a Lord Mayor) of the city over hundreds of years. At the bottom of the staircase is a statue of Queen Victoria.

There are some lovely rooms in the building. This next room is the Bon Accord room.

Apparently the chandeliers in this next room are priceless. It must be a pain to dust them all.

There’s even a working lift in the building that looks like it dates from the 1920s.

It’s a functioning civic building that’s used for ceremonies, civic receptions and council events. Some of the rooms can also be hired.

It has been warmer in Aberdeen the past week and all the snow we had a couple of weeks ago has long since gone. But I took some good photos while it was on the ground.

This is the Ferryhill Parish Church looking lovely in white.

The neighbourhood fox visited our backyard. Victoria was sat on the windowsill next to me watching him at the time and she hissed.

This next photos is a memorial at Duthie Park to Elizabeth Duthie, after whom the park is named. It’s also known as the Hygeia Statue, meaning Hygeia, Goddess of Health. Elizabeth Duthie was a wealthy Aberdonian in the 19th century and in 1880 she purchased 44 acres of land beside the River Dee and gifted it to the City of Aberdeen with the specific purpose of developing it into a park. Isn’t that wonderful? It was said at the time that the park be, “available for all classes of citizens, that it should have a broad expanse of grassy sward upon which the young might indulge in innocent frolic and play…”. It was opened to the public in 1881 by HRH Princess Beatrice and is still loved and used by all Aberdonians today.

Thank you, Elizabeth Duthie. I treasure Duthie Park and will be forever grateful for her donation. I wish we had more people like her in the world today. I guess wealthy people of the 19 century didn’t have private yachts, jets, and rockets on which to spend their money.