The Stately Drives of Pitmuxton

Aberdeen is Tycoon Town: if you're not a tycoon already, you will be soon. As everyone knows, tycoons usually live in lovely big houses, with grand, sweeping, tree-lined drives. It's one of the things which makes rich people so very splendid!

1862

Pitmuxton is a part of Aberdeen where once-grand houses bordered the main roads to the west and south, their sweeping, stately tree-lined drives impressing the high status of the estate-owners upon all who had eyes to see. Today, these houses and their drives are largely gone along with the social order which brought them into being.

1867

Gone though the stately drives of Pitmuxton may be, if we look closely, we can see the effect of this old order upon the psychogeographical environment of today:

This is the drive to Broomhill House today.
The house and outbuildings are gone -
replaced by lockups. But the tree-lined drive
remains - more stately than ever.

This is the gate to Newlands House today.
The house remains, but is today surrounded by
1970's flats and bungalows.

Anyway, so much for the past! What about our up-and-coming tycoons of tomorrow?

Well, it's great that planning policies in Aberdeen allow our arriving class of aspirant tycoons to rehearse their tycoon-hood by building themselves pocket simulacra of the once-stately drives of Pitmuxton.

Nice, clean lines. No dirty plants or insects or anything.
We're perplexed that they've chosen to retain the 'garden refuse'
wheelybin. There can be no filthy 'garden refuse'!

Being on the 'wrong' side of Great Western Road as it is, the vast majority of Pitmuxton is subject to none of the pesky requirements imposed upon hard-pressed homeowners by the strictures of so-called "conservation zone" planning policy.

The wheelybins balance the composition
 created by the pot-plants which flank
the front door. The whole picture is completed
by the tarmac crossover which creates a thrilling
'rollercoaster' effect for pedestrians.

The aspirational would-be tycoons of Pitmuxton are free from these petty planning niggles; free, as homeowners should be, to do what they like with their own property. Front gardens are soooooo time consuming anyway, who needs them? Some nimby naysayer meanie greenie extremist moaning minnies complain that converting front gardens to parking space a lovely driveway can be unsightly and restricts informal surveillance. They say that it radically alters the streetscape and has a negative impact on the character of the town. They moan that increased water-run off will overload drainage channels, they whine that the loss of urban green space will impact biodiversity and they bleat that pedestrians are inconvenienced by the creation of uneven pavement crossovers for cars. And lots of other stuff. There's a bunch of all this moaning here: 43 Reasons Not To Pave. Honestly, what a lot of rubbish! We think they're just jealous. Really, can't they afford a nice car?

This driveway is actually pre-fabricated sheets of plastic.
Which conveniently matches the plastic plants at the front door!

We can't understand why everyone doesn't do it. They must be 'bee-lovers' or poor or weirdos or something.

There's room for at least two silver-grey
German cars there for goodness sake!

All those flowers are sure to attract dangerous bees and other filthy wildlife - ugh!
And look at that mess on the floor!

Unfortunately, some of our proto-tycoons who're just starting out on their arc of success are obliged to live in starter-flats, which have no gardens to convert. In order to preserve appearances and not park on the road (people who use on-street parking look poor!) we recommend PaveParking:

How to do full PaveParking in Pitmuxton

The Broadford Hosepipe Towers

These occupants of the Aberdeen skyline sit amid the decaying ruins of the Broadford works, which, it seems, are being demolished piece by piece. By the looks of things, these edifices may not survive to occupy their iconic position in the hearts of Aberdonians for very much longer.

For the longest time, we thought that these impressive towers were chimneys of some sort. We just ignored the cognitive dissonance provoked by the fact that the 'chimneys' had windows at the very top. 

It was only as recently as recently that we learned that these 'chimneys' are, in fact, Hosepipe Towers which were a sizeable chunk of capital equipment back in the days when Aberdeen had a diverse economy. 

They were instrumental in the manufacture of hoses, and were used for bonding the rubber lining to the linen carcass. The unlined hoses were suspended on a circumferential rack inside the annular chamber at the top of the towers and liquid latex was fused into the woven carcass to form the water-tight pressure lining of the hose. 

Other aspects of hose manufacture are shown in a video hosted by the Scottish Screen Archive which can be seen on this web page:

Hosepipe manufacture at the Richards' Broadford Works

Watching the video, we were reminded of what we've seen of flexible pipe/hose manufacture in the oil industry. Here's a picture from the Techip factory in Le Trait in France.

NKT also employ similar techniques at their factory in Brøndby, Denmark.

There's a Texas company called Wellstream which does similar. 

What amazes and disappoints us is that we had a centre of excellence for hose manufacture here in Aberdeen, which we failed to capitalise upon when the world's largest ever market for flexible pipe/hose landed on our foreshore in the form of the North Sea oil and gas industry.

So, for the moment the Broadford Hosepipe Towers endure on the skyline at the north of the City Centre, sitting there at the end of Charlotte St: two fingers sticking up from the past, admonishing the Potempkin Village developers of the present and serving as a warning to the future about the necessity of adding value as a prerequisite to endogenous economic growth.

With thanks to Michelle Wylie and Richard Pelling for technical and historical detail of hose manufacture in Aberdeen.

Ruthrieston Pocket Park erases a dark period from our history.

Mere metres from the perma-queued traffic at the southern end of South Anderson Drive, we have to thank our favourite quango Aberdeen Greenspace for preserving and enhancing Ruthrieston's Pocket Park.

Down an embankment and screened from the road by judicious new planting, the pocket park is an island of tranquility for pedestrians and cyclists. A recent addition to the park is this piece of public art which is a homage to Aberdeenshire's Pictish symbol stones and to the people who made them.

Symbols (from bottom) show copies of the Pictish Comb & 

Mirror, Double disk and Z-rod and Flower (or Bronze strip)

This side depicts copies of the Pictish symbols for Goose and Salmon. 
A Bull, Boar and Wolf are being herded by a axe-wielding, bearded (yet bald or tonsured) 
tribesman who has been carved in homage to The Rhynie Man.

This new piece of public art has been placed as close as is possible to the probable location of Ruadri's Mound (Motte and Bailie castle)

Ruadri was a 12th Century war-lord and strong-man who declared his estate and made his citadel on this strategic sight. Raising himself up to the heights of his commanding Motte he could look down upon his peasants, land-slaves whom he would have bonded to the fertile earth in the broad flat fertile valley of the Ruthrieson Burn below. (Now the site of the Bridge of Dee shopping and parking experience and some playing fields stretching north to Auchinyell Bridge and west to Pitfodels; bounded by Kaimhill to the south west.

Also, Ruadri's stronghold would have commanded the Foords o' Dee crossing point (the only reliable ford on the Dee east of Park) where he could have demanded tribute from all crossing the river to and from the Causey Mounth - the only road (causeway, causey) over the mounth (hilly upland) which isolates the Dee Valley from lands to the south. (We'll be examining the Causey Mounth road in detail soon, so watch this space.)

Ruadri, along with Gillecoaim (Gillecoaim's town -> Gilcomston) signed a charter for King David in 1125 in the Book of Deer which sowed the seed of Aberdeen as a Burgh in the context of the very much wider 'Davidian Revolution'. This 'revolution' was  the 'enlightenment' of its day, though, em... medieval in content and context. Sweeping reforms under the hand of King David saw the 'Normanisation' of Scotland with the establishment of a feudal order over the existing tribal social organisation which had prevailed since pre-history.

Ruadri's titles - he was the so-called last Moramaer (tribal chieftan), and first Earl (feudal big-man), of Mar - underline this changing of the social order from the tribal socialisation of wealth and power to the feudal concentration of power and wealth in the hands of self-styled 'noble' families who were, in fact quite simply the most violent stop-at-nothing in their will-to-power land-thieves and court-prostitutes in any given locality.

Now that we've learned this, we can interpret the erection of this Pictish-homage monument as a thumbing of the nose at puffed-up Ruadri and his feudal, land-grabbing, hierarchical impositions. The message could not be clearer. Where once the King's agent and lickspittle lacky lorded it over the local tribesmen and extracted tax for transit and tribute for trade, now the aboriginal inhabitants of the land are depicted going about their tribal business, untroubled by Kings, lords, tax-collectors or local strong-men.

The stain of the brutish feudal era has been erased by Aberdeen Greenspace and the sculptor of this fine piece of public art in tribute to and in memory of our antecessors. Let's hope that those who'd like to try to dominate the people of Aberdeen today, and extract extra and novel taxes from our households and businesses to enable their own ego-massaging vanity-project land-grabs will similarly be snubbed by history, in time.

The A to Z of Aberdeen - E

E is for Energetica

Aberdeen's very own Local Development Agency quango ACSEF's flagship project is called "Energetica" and is a scheme to develop a "High-Tech-Corridor" between the Bridge of Don and Peterhead with the intention of "anchoring" the international Oil and Gas industry in Aberdeen and redefining the North East of Scotland as a "Renewables Hub".

ACSEF is an acronym for Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future. Until last year it used to be an acronym for Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Forum. Before that, it was NESEF: the North East of Scotland Economic Forum. A moving target is difficult to hit.

There's much disquiet in Aberdeen about ACSEF and their involvement in driving the project for the comprehensive redevelopment of Union Terrace Gardens. Our favourite Aberdeen author John Aberdein wrote an open letter to concillors in the excellent citizen-journalist organ The Aberdeen Voice which sums up this disquiet perfectly. Well worth a read, so we recommend it.

Anyhow, what's all this Energetica stuff? What's it for? And what does it mean?

Let's have a look at what ACSEF say on their website (PDF):

The need [sic] for Energetica
There is no doubt that the aberdeen City and Shire economy is extremely successful. Headline indicators of economic performance, in terms of Gross Value Added and the level of average earnings, show it to be amongst the best performing areas in the UK. There are however genuine anxieties about the medium to long term competitive position of the region which need to be addressed now. The ‘tightness’ of the labour and housing markets, and land market generally, have created something of a constraint, a brake, on development. Additionally there are real concerns concerning the need to ‘anchor’ the oil and gas production base in the region as well as develop a relatively new technology base in the area. It is because of the need to address such concerns now, whilst there is some development time to address them, that the concept of Energetica has been developed.

Interesting. It's clear from this assertion that ACSEF considers 'success' to be the same thing as 'amount of money', and is lobbying for the release of greenfield development land as a way of ensuring that increasingly large amounts of 'success' can be made. There's more - much, much more in the Energetica 'leaflet' (PDF).

We thouroughly recommend that readers download the leaflet, print it out and keep it for the dark winter nights when everyone needs cheering up from time to time. It is quite astonishing that public money has been invested in the production of this self-satirising work of pompous cut-and-paste managementspeak buzzword grandiloquence. Side-splitting pencilneck lingo-bingo highlights include:

"Lifestyle Corridor"
"Stimulate synergies"
"Dynamic organisations"
"Private sector vision"
"Boasting world-class clusters"
"Creating structures at the leading edge"
"Challenging the current design perspective"
"Premises that reflect... aspirations and facilitate... business"
"Innovative world class business and recreational destination"

Digging through the bullschist, we see that, in effect, this entire exercise is both a plea by vested interests for development land to be released to construction companies and a sales brocure which sickeningly flatters potential buyers:

"These homes will reflect the responsible and caring approach of their owners, incorporating innovative solutions... reflecting the warm humanity found in the area."

Other highlights include plans for a "Hydrogen Highway", just as motor manufacturers worldwide begin to abandon plans for hydrogen-combustion engines and move towards the large-scale manufacture and marketing of electric vehicles.

Another is the stated intention to create "iconic", "landmark" buildings which will "anchor" the "corridor" at both ends.

In the context of this latter point, we had always thought that buildings became iconic landmarks over time and as a result of their evolving function within the context of their use by the community. A building will not be 'much loved' just because it's developer says it will be, honest.

Similarly, we have a queasy feeling about the entire concept of such a grand scheme as a means of securing a prosperous future for our region. We had always thought that endogenous (that is self-creating) economic growth and prosperity were a function of a well-educated and motivated workforce working in concert with innovation and entrepreneurship backed by easily-deployed capital (which is more than just money). It is not clear to us how what is essentially real-estate and road development scheme can provide these things, and all the literature that ACSEF have published does not address this key point.

Indeed, it looks like the whole Energetica strategy seems to be founded upon the premise "if you build it, they will come".

Ah! Yes! Now we can identify the source of that queasy feeling we mentioned: Energetica is a Cargo Cult.

Tilting at Windmills. Or not.

The other day, we were off by train to Dundee for a day-trip. We were struck by the new view of massive onshore wind turbines to the east of Laurenckirk, visible for many miles rotating lazily in the breeze. The prospect to the west is an uniterrupted view of the high peaks and moors around the Cairn o' Mount, the view to the east was... different.

We weren't quite sure how we felt about this, and so had to take a little time to think. The contrast between the views to our left and right was pronounced. As the train journey progressed, though, we put our views, (literal and metaphorical) into context:

We realised that the landscape is covered by the cruft of successive layers of human networks: Field systems and animal ranges; drainage ditches, canals and altered river courses; successive generations of byway, causeway, turnpike, trunk road and motorway; railways and disused railways; telegraph/telephone poles and wires; our hiltops host radar stations, the microwave relay network and television masts; electricity transmission pylons are ubiquitous. And on and on. This has been going on since pre-history. Why do we automatically assume that this, today, is the limit of human intervention in the lanscape which we should allow? Why do we think that this is the inviolate untouchable Scotland which should be preserved for posterity? It is not.

Our perception of Scotland's "natural beauty" is a self-imposed illusion; every facet of the Scottish landscape (with the exception of the high moors and peaks) has been subject to human intervention and modification for centuries. When in history did any 'ideal' Scotland exist? What were the prevailing social conditions at that time?

So, when we examine our feelings when we saw these new windpower generators, we can see that any assertion that people might make that windfarms put Scotlands natural beauty at risk does not stand up to scrutiny.

We live in an energy-hungry society - that is not about to change - and there is no such thing as a 'pretty' power station. Some might see stark and austere utilitarian beauty in the Torness nuclear reactor, Boddam gas plant or the Longannet coal station, but we're quite sure that very few would want to be neighbour to new electricity generation if these were the source.

And there's the rub. At present our insatiable hunger for energy requires generation sources with a lot of, em, 'grunt'. All of the many many hydro stations accross the highlands, all of the capital sunk into their construction and operation, all of the human resources, all of the flooding of the glens (greatly lamented at the time) only adds up to an electricity generating capacity equal to just over two-thirds of the Longannet coal-fired station (one power station, on one site). Our entire hydro capacity adds up to a total generating capability round about the same as that of the Boddam gas station. Of which there is only one, on one site. The total combined hydro capacity is, similarly, about the same as that of one nuclear power station.

To help everyone have a good think about that, we'll write it again - all of the impressive hydro power we have (of which Scotland is rightly proud), pales into insignificance when compared directly with real, capital sources of electricity generation.

Now, as we all know, there are difficulties with the carbon-intensity, filth and pollution associated with coal generation (best, easiest, cheapest possible source of electricity though it is). No one would seriously suggest that we build additional coal capacity at this time. Moreover, we don't want to have to import our coal power source across the Atlantic from South America where it is dug by child-slave labour, and the profits from which prop up criminal gangs and repressive political regimes. Or do we? It might be our only choice, peak coal isn't due until about 2060.

The picture with gas is not much better. We still have some domestic gas supplies left in our sector of the North Sea, but not much. In 1999 we became a nett gas importer, dependent upon Norwegian and Russian gas. Russia has lots of gas (peak due 2030), but is a capricious and grasping supplier. We also import liquified natural gas from Quatar. We compete in auctions with other western countries to secure these supplies. Some suggest we pay a higher geopoltical price than is justified.

What about nuclear? While the UK has a virtual infinitude of uranium and plutonium, there are political difficulties associated with nuclear power stations, and the Scottish Govt. has ruled out building any new capacity. In any case, it takes about 10 years to build a new station from scratch.

In Aberdeen, we are said to be the 'Energy Hub' for new marine renewable technology. Here at Other Aberdeen we so dearly wish that that truly were the case. There is said to be 'great promise' for these new techologies. But 'promise' is all that it is, no-one really knows, because commercial scale wave and tidal plants offshore have not yet been demonstrated. They remain, at present 'unobtanium', that is - in the realm of wishful thinking. Optimistically, we might be able to develop a demonstration plant in the next 5 years or so, and move to commercial hookup within 15 years. But compared with the sheer grunt avaialbe from premier sources like coal, gas or nukes, it's very much a 'sunday league' contender. For instance, the Severn Barrage study concluded that the most capital-intense mega-engineered barrage possible between Cardiff and Weston would produce about the same amount of electricity as one coal fired or nuclear station. And that's the best possible location for a tidal barrage in the whole wide world.

Where does that leave us? It leaves us staring into a big hole and cursing the Scottish Government for ruling out nuclear power, that's where. We are in the bottleneck now, and we have painted ourselves into a corner (please excuse the mixed metaphor). But all this discussion is moot, it's already too late to build new nuclear stations, (worldwide, the heavy forging capacity needed to manufacture reactor pressure-vessels simply is not up to demand from even India and the Far East over the next 25 years) and renewables simply aren't up to the job of sustaining our lifestyles in their current state in the face of the onrushing generating gap and fossil-fuel bottleneck.

Wind power may soften the blow to our lifestyles to some small extent. Something is better than nothing. Regrettably, there's no alternative.

The emotionally charged invective we see so often from anti-windpower campaigners is simply the very first sign of the bridle beginning to chafe as it is placed around our collective neck. There's a lot more to come. The wind turbines are the visible harbinger of this stricture which we'll live under throughout all our tomorrows. That's the only reason why people hate them - they want to shoot the messenger.

First Minister aspirant tells us what he thinks we want to hear.

Scottish Labour leader Ian Gray, quoted in today's Press and Journal (we really must get out of the habit of reading it, we're convinced that it's bad for our state of mind), says that he will 'deliver' the Aberdeen bypass, and might probably maybe stop the destruction of Union Terrace Gardens. If that's what people want. If we agree to let him become First Minister.

Is he winking at us?

It will be uncontroversial if we point out that any given politician will say what he or she thinks will sell to whatever constituency he or she is trying to impress at any given time.

A politician seeking endorsement by the Aberdeen electorate will therefore trumpet their ability to 'deliver' a bypass simply because the residents of Aberdeen are assumed to be in favour of the new road. The citizens, long ago having been convinced by the roads/motoring lobby that the road will ease congestion in the city, are easy prey caught by this new-road-lure.

We so very much wish that it were true that congestion could be solved by the simple, seemingly common-sense expedient of building more roads. But, unfortunately, world-wide and decades-long experience of the building of relief-roads, bypasses and linkroads confirms without even a hint of doubt that it is not.

There is plenty reading available on the research, and it's not even in obscure journals, its on Wikipedia...

The Lewis-Mogridge Position
The Downs-Thompson Paradox
The Braess' Paradox
Induced Demand

We urge readers to research these often counter-intuitive effects of the building of roads on traffic congestion before giving their support to a road-building programme. More and more, in every part of the world from Australia through Asia to Europe and even including the USA where the car is King, it is realised that more roads means more congestion and that the only thing which will reduce congestion is fewer journeys undertaken by car.

It's a cliché and a truism to say that one of the definitions of madness is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. So why do we expect that building additional road capacity will have a different effect this time? It will not; it will merely impoverish us and our picturesque surroundings.

Moreover it will militate against any attempts to improve our already appalling air quality in Aberdeen, while offering only a brief respite, if any at all, from the congestion which will continue to erode the livability of the town we love.

Is this a satire on 4x4 drivers in Aberdeen's Press & Journal? Surely not!

Is this column in today's Press and Journal a carefully-encoded hidden-in-plain-view satire on Aberdeen motorists?

Now, it's (sort of) clear from the tone that the article is intended to be 'lighthearted' and we shouldn't fall into the trap of taking it too seriously, but it's certanly a spellbinding and hilarious insight into the lives of 'two-car' families and '4x4' (= 16? Yes?) owners and what these people find important in life. More telling is the fact that Aberdeen's journal of record has paid someone to write it. We remember some satirical spoof personal adverts making it through under the noses of the P&J subbies, it's amazing that their regular columnists are now pulling off the same trick.

The article contains all sorts of encoded satirical jibes, and some quite explicit ridicule. Satire is at its best when it is subtle, so we think that the author went over the top at times with his too-candid derision of motorists. For instance, the writer's assertion that some motorists are uneasy at the prospect of being personally physically exposed to the wind (ie - going outside) is clearly a nonsensical characterisation of drivers. It is not credible, and so fails as satire and falls into the category of hyperbole.

The entire premise of the article is built around the conclusion reached by the author and his wife that it was a good idea to take two cars on one journey for just two people with the same starting point and destination. There were, inevitably, hilarious consequences. Genius! It's like the Keystone Cops!



For us, highlight buzzphrases included:

"The driver['s]... essential contact with the car's energy".
"Reminiscing about... petrol pump attendants".
"Time to work out a modus operandi for filling up the tank"

And the marvellous oxymoronic:

"filling up the tank in an environmentally-friendly fashion" (!)

We also note that the writer implies a puffed-up indignance at being sniggered at by filling station kiosk attendants. This provokes a bit of cognitive dissonance; if we are not to take this lighthearted column too seriously, how are we to react to the author taking himself so seriously? It is obvious that we are being invited by the skill of the writing to join with the kiosk attendants in having a damned good laugh at this popinjay.

But the real clincher comes at the end where the author seeks and finds narrative closure by showing his hand and telling us that he found it necessary to puchase a branded air-freshener for his car - "Forest Walk!" At that point, we became certain beyond dissuasion that the column is definitely satire.

So, we can see that the intended message of the P&J's naughty satirical columnist is, obviously - "why don't these motorists just actually go for a Forest Walk? You know, in one of those forests". No need to purchase anything, and because of the great work done by Aberdeen Greenspace and the council, no need to use any petrol at all. The outdoors is, surprisingly enough, accessible by foot. Who'd have thought? Oh no, wait a minute, they can't possibly enjoy the outdoors, can they? Owing to their crippling fear of the wind.

This anti-petrolhead volte-face by our local paper, which has so often in the past been guilty of slavishly parroting the PR line of the motoring lobby, is welcomed by us here at Other Aberdeen. We look forward to reading more in the same vein from Roddy Phillips, P&J (Fifth-) Columnist and honorary psychogeographer of Other Aberdeen!

Townscape, trams and Gordon Cullen.

From a blog post on the now sadly defunct ScottishArchitecture.com

A tantalising glimpse of the Aberdeen we might have had...

Gordon Cullen was first and foremost a Scot, who worked all over the world as a designer and architectural writer, gaining a particular reputation for solving urban problems. By the time he returned to Scotland in the 1970’s to work in Aberdeen and Glasgow, he was an old man, afflicted with cataracts born of decades peering at his trademark pencil line drawings. Yet his plans were far-seeing, and he coined the term “townscape”. He originally came to Aberdeen in the early-1970’s to plan a new town outside Maryculter first for Salvesens, the whalers turned housebuilders; then for Stewart Milne, yet although years were spent developing the proposals and lobbying, neither scheme went ahead.

The post then discusses his return to Aberdeen in the mid-eighties when he worked on an earlier plan to cover the Denburn Valley railway and road. At the time, he also mooted re-flooding the Denburn Estuary (where motorists now 'enjoy' parking at Union Square) to create a marina-lagoon as the centerpiece to a housing development.

Of greatest fascination to us at Other Aberdeen is Cullen's interest in reversing the scrapping of the Aberdeen Trams...

His bravest proposal, however, was to create a tramway circuit in the city centre– and that struck a raw nerve. Gordon Cullen recognised that the considerable traffic congestion of the 1980’s could only increase– but he also saw that trams were a solution...

...We know that trams work efficiently in Aberdeen as people-movers – after all, they ran for almost a century, co-existing with people, horses, steam lorries and motor cars, then finally the bus. In fact, trams are unique, since they are a tested solution rather than an untried notion. The system carried up to 17 million people a year, but in 1958, the Corporation melted down the family silver by driving all the cars out to the Sea Beach and setting them alight in a giant pyre. Aberdeen still lives with the civic shame of having destroyed dozens of sophisticated modern tramcars– many less than ten years old– which were acknowledged as being the best in Britain. You can perhaps understand why the reversal which Cullen proposed, only a generation later, would be difficult to accept...

...Cullen’s proposal would have turned the Castlegate back from a windblown desert into the transport hub which it originally was, a great urban hinge on the Bridges route. Vehicles are of course part of that backdrop– but when you think of European cities, you invariably see trams. Aberdeen, on the other hand, now suffers daily gridlock at Haudagain, the Bridge of Don, and the mediaeval Brig o’ Dee. Building more roads will only move the gridlock somewhere else for a while, it cannot reduce or remove, since more and more cars and lorries are coming in to the city. We ignored Gordon Cullen’s prophetic report, but the tram may yet have its day – although that day might well dawn in Edinburgh …

Quoted text by Mark Chalmers.

Retro-futuristic

Aberdeen: Adamant.

Now that we're obliged to use national multiple B&Q, we lament the loss of the Color Box hardware store on Holburn St, which we perviously relied on for studio supplies. We had a love-hate relationship with the family Robb who were the proprietors. The chances were, if you wanted something hardware-ish they would have it. You just had to allow 45 minutes for any visit to the shop, no matter how simple or complex your needs.

The site of 'The Colour Box'.

Nothing will last forever.

We were particularly frustrated and charmed in equal measure by the Robb's sexist and ageist policy of advertising vacancies for and employing 'Saturday Girls'. They wouldn't let them use the till, answer the phone or write in the ledger. Nor would they tell them the location of stock items (Mr Robb's biggest secret). The result would be that the girls operated more like personal shoppers than as shop assistants. Quite advanced retailing, really.

Anyway, we have fallen into the trap of nostalgia, which has made us digress... Let's get on with it...

The site of the former Colour Box hardware store is at present being renovated and converted into a Tesco Metro mini-supermarket. Fair enough, we suppose. We had feared that the site was looking a bit exposed; being bullied from the side and behind by Talisman Energy's après-post-modernist HQ building which had necessitated the demolition of a neighbouring row of Victorian mansion-block tenements in the 1990's. So we're quite happy to see the building being retained and it remaining as commercial premises. It's encouraging that human-scale local-level pedestrian shopping is making a return to the city. Naturally we approve.

The pavement outside the building is in quite a poor state, but does play host to an interesting artifact. (Let's hope it survives.)

Aberdeen Adamant.

A quick scan of the internet shows that these branded paving stones are not uncommon throughout the UK:

Hove

Dundee

Haringey

The paving slabs consist of a coarse aggregate composite concrete and granite chip material made by the Adamant Stone and Paving Co. of Aberdeen at its Adamant Stone Paving Works; part of the Dancing Cairns Quarry works close to the Bucksburn Howe. The quarry had been working since the late 18th century, when it was opened by Messrs Snell, Rennie and May, but as far as we can see, the production of paving stones from quarry tailings began only with the advent and installation of the patent hydraulic 'Fielding Press' from Fielding and Platt of Gloucester.

Hydraulic Fielding Press

From:
Fielding & Platt - An innovative Gloucester engineering company.
The First 100 Years, 1866 - 1966
by Stephen Mills.

In 1897, the Adamant Stone & Paving Company of Aberdeenshire installed a Fielding press to produce concrete slabs. This was not the first press installed, as the first unit had been installed in December 1890, followed by a second three months later. This continued to work for a total of 73 years. Originally steam-powered, it was later driven by 168 hp Fielding twin-horizontal engine that worked for 37 years. Remarkably, the total maintenance costs over this period amounted to only £42. 8s. 1d.!

The word adamant comes from the Greek adamas, adamant - an adjective meaning 'untamable, invincible'. By extension, the word was used as a poetic synonym for the hardest metal or stone.

Today, having closed in the mid-1960's, the Dancing Cairns Quarry is almost entirely filled in, and forms a large part of the municipal Auchmill Golf Course. A few large outcrops are exposed alongside the fairways and greens, and the scarps of several of the spoil tips are visible along the north side, down the slope towards Auchmill Road. An extensive network of paths (PDF) exists for explorers on foot or mountain bike.

Fore!

The name Dancing Cairns was commemorated in that of a pub with a formidable reputation in Middlefield. It was demolished about 10 years ago.

The manufacture and export of paving slabs made possible by the employment of a relatively simple, yet innovative piece of technology is an example of how value can be added to a commodity which is otherwise a low- or negative-value waste product. In this case, worthless mine tailings are made into valuable paving and kerb stones by the Fielding Press and its operators. This is the very definition of capitalism - value addition through the judicious use of technology, innovation and specialised labour.

Too often today, self-styled entrepreneurs who should know better confuse the words 'free market' with the word 'capitalism'. They mistake price for value and so cannot tell the difference between affluence and wealth.

Here at Other Aberdeen, we are perfectly well aware that these things are quite distinct.

The Yellowing of Aberdeen

We've already commented upon the disgusting yellowing of some buildings in Aberdeen, and the possible mechanism which is causing it.

Unfortunately, the more you look, the more you see...

Yellowing window and door architraves in West End terrace

Albyn Grove - tenement flats yellow, commercial unit below (uncleaned) grey.

Bon Accord Street. The rough finishing on the blocks has taken on a mottled yellow appearance. It looks like lichen from a distance. But it isn't - the stone itself has changed colour.

Holburn St, shop units and 1st floor yellow. 2nd floor (uncleaned) grey.

By chance, we were looking at Aberdeen City Council's Local Plan, where we found in Chapter 3, Policies (PDF) that abrasive, chemical or high pressure water cleaning of listed buildings or buildings in conservation areas will require special permission under Policy 15 of the plan.

Is it the case that - this explicit policy referring only to abrasive, chemical and high pressure cleaning techniques while omitting laser-cleaning techniques - it has cleared the way for unrestrained laser-cleaning of these buildings? The yellowing effects of imperfectly-tuned laser cleaning systems are well known, and, indeed were studied in the 1990's by Aberdeen's own Robert Gordon University.

It is regrettable that the words 'laser-cleaning' were omitted from the Local Plan policy. The disastrous effects are clear for everyone to see.

Perhaps we are wrong, we're certainly not claiming any expertise on stone-cleaning techniques and their effects. But one thing is certain. Something has gone horribly wrong.

March Stones 16 to 20 ABD - Murtle Den and Westfield

Time to go off-road in search of more March Stones. Having skulked around Cults and Bieldside, becoming alienated with suburban ennui in search of stones 12 to 15, we were glad to get off the beaten track in search of those stones which are in undeveloped areas.

Here's the histobunk bit:

The March Stones mark the boundaries of the 'Freedom Lands of Aberdeen'. It is said that once Robert the Bruce had cleared the royal forests surrounding the city of all the interesting and valuable/tasty game, having no further use for the hunting grounds, he 'gifted' them to the Burghers of Aberdeen. For a yearly rent. The Leopard Magazine will tell you more about this. Read it here.

If you're going to go looking for these stones 16 to 20, you do so at your own risk. You will get wet and dirty, your feet will sink into bogs, you will tear your clothes (and possibly your skin) on barbed wire. You will find yourself clambering over consumption dykes and rubble cairns and you will become mentally and physically exhausted from the search. A moderate level of fitness (at least) is required.

Having said all that, you will gain a sense of achievement, and see some of the more ancient 'saucer-marked' stones. So bone up on the Scottish outdoor access code (PDF), get on some sturdy shoes and old clothes and off you go! We used XC hardtail mountain bikes to access some of the sites. Be warned, they are totally inaccessible by car. Do not try.

We were given a bum steer by the council's leaflet "Aberdeen's March Stones Trail" (PDF) with regard to the location for access to stone 16 ABD. So, ignore the leaflet and use an Ordnance Survey map (Explorer Sheet 406) instead, where the location is accurately plotted and best access to it is obvious. Contractors were digging a swimming pool(!) in the garden of the large house closest to the access to the boggy ground where the stone lies, so we had a word with them, just so they knew we weren't up to anything nefarious. The gaffer knew what we were on about, and was delighted to wish us good luck on our search.

We got lucky. We didn't have to search the boggy ground where the stone lies at all, we walked directly to it. Just luck.

The ABD marked stone sits adjacent to a 'saucer-marked' stone. These are 'first generation' boundary markers - natural features such burns, glacial erratic stones and outcrops were supplemented by cairns. The stone which survives next to the 16 ABD marker is one of these erratics, and has been marked with a 'saucer'. Some archaeologists speculate that the 'saucer' would have been filled with lead, and then the city's seal impressed into the lead.

The saucer is full of moss.

Stone 17 ABD is in an area full of granite rubble, at the confluence of two burns. Very boggy. Very difficult to access. Again, we were lucky to find the stone quickly.

Stone 18 ABD. Inside a field of barley, close to the den of the Murtle Burn. Sharp eyes required to spot the location.

It's close to the western end of this consumption dyke.

Having the saucer stone next to the ABD marked stone, the location is accurately marked on the Ordnance Survey map.

The site had been recently visited. The crop immediately around the stone had been tramped flat in an anti-clockwise direction all round the site. And the saucer-hole was filled with a buff-coloured chalk-like substance.

What's that all about, then?

Stones 19 ABD and 20 ABD are on the southern boundaries of fields immediately south of Westfield Lodge.

Westfield Lodge is weird.

Continuity Spans Three Centuries at The Music Hall

To the Music Hall on Friday, for the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, appearing as part of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival.

We were struck by the continuity of the event in its location. Qualitatively, the only difference between what we experienced and what an concert-goer of the 1860's would have experienced is that the performance we attended was lit by electric light rather than gas.

We wonder if, by any chance,

they might be related?

Only the content of the evening's programme differed - the EYO were playing music which post-dates the 19th Century. Bernstein and Gershwin were top of the bill, with pieces by Shostakovich and Richard Strauss in the first half.

So, a youth orchestra who's member's careers will reach their height in the mid-21st Century, performing music from the mid-20th Century in a hall build in the mid-19th Century.

Truly, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

The audience in the 19th century was better dressed, though.