Under

Growing up in Aberdeen, the young mind can't help but be fascinated by the under-ground (or rather, under-road) aspects of the town. Beneath large parts of Union Street, Bridge Street, The Castlegate, Market Street, Holburn Street, Bon-Accord Street and, of course, Rosemount Viaduct exist vaulted caverns which shoulder the carriageway above. The vaults beneath the Holburn and Bon Accord viaducts provide coal-cellars for the tenements which flank the structures; coal-chute covers sometimes still visible embedded in granite flagstones, anomalous amongst the concrete pavingstones. And I can especially remember being in a store-room/workshop beneath Union Street at some point during the mid-1970's. I can't remember for sure why I was there, something to do with a TV repair, but I do specifically remember the shop proprietor making great play of the fact that we were under the road. The shop premises was an electrical retailer (a local enterprise called "Alexanders") in the unit now occupied by that Anne Summers low-rent lingerie outlet. On Bridge Street, there was a sports goods shop (I can't remember the name) which had premises on both sides of the road, linked through the vault under the road. I remember a very narrow steep boxy staircase. One-at-a-time please.

A while ago, we touched on the subject a little:

http://otheraberdeen.blogspot.com/2011/08/up-stairs-to-understanding-of.html

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Viaducts like these exist all over Europe in formerly hilly town centres with which the Victorians had their vainglorious way. Notably Edinburgh has its many viaducts and bridges with vaulted caverns below, and those vaults are put to work as entertainment venues, pop-up pubs, knocking shops, ghost-tour backdrops, etc.  Similarly, London's Oxford street is, in part, raised above the former natural topography. In parts, entire pre-Victorian streetscapes are preserved below vaults, notably the Georgian shopping street which has been preserved almost in its entirety below the Selfridges department store. We understand that this living psychogeographical fossil (for what else can we call it?) has been from time to time used as a film-set. Back home, we have heard claims of secret access, of strange artifacts and of old cottages and the like existing below the vaulted stonework of Aberdeen's viaducts, but we treat these claims with scepticism. We know that, notwithstanding the odd restaurant and nightclub, the vaults of Aberdeen are most commonly used as underground carparks, and commercial storage. However, we would love to learn of more exotic uses, of secrets forgotten, of stories waiting to be told. We would so love be proven wrong. 

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I was passing the door to the vaults beneath Market Street one day last week. By being on foot and keeping eyes open, you can increase your chances of being in the right place at the right time. A new air extraction system was being installed in the vaults, I chatted a bit to the HVAC guys, and they let me in...

RESCUED

http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/parks/pos/pos_hazleheadpark.asp

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The park has

a significant collection of

sculpture by a range of artists

and heritage items

which have been rescued from

various places within the city

Before Fountainhall Corner became Queen's Cross

Plinth rescued... But no lamp on top? Why not? Where is it? 

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WHERE?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-25816315.html

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http://www.findaproperty.com/displayprop.aspx?edid=00&salerent=1&pid=5084984

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http://www.kaal-aberdeen.co.uk/projects/57-the-firs-dalmunzie-road-bieldside.html

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£3,500 pcm

OAK LODGE, DALMUNZIE ROAD, BIELDSIDE 

Superb modern family home in woodland surroundings on Dalmunzie Road. This house was purpose built in 2009 and has all the facilities of modern day living with solid oak flooring downstairs and all bedrooms have en−suite facilities. GCH, DG, Garden, Double Garage

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Location: Dalmunzie Road, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire

Type: 4 bedroom house to let:

Bedrooms: 4

£2100pcm

THE STABLES, BIELDSIDE. Charming 3/4 bedroom detached property (formerly stables) in quiet location, close to the International School. DG, GCH. UNFURNISHED 

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The Firs, Dalmunzie Road, Bieldside

The existing house was a nineteen sixties design with a mono-pitch roof which the client wanted to replace with a more traditional design that increased the floor space by creating a new first floor.

The new design involved replacing the mono-pitched roof with a pitched roof, complete with dormers to the front. The new first floor houses a new master bedroom, en-suite and dressing room running from front to back full width. Two further double bedrooms are housed to the front, with a family bathroom and study to the rear while a snooker and entertainment room run full width at the other end of the house.

On the ground floor we reworked the existing W.C and utility room area and added a new conservatory to the West gable. The front façade was overclad with granite facings and all the windows were replaced. The double garage was also extended and had a new pitched roof added below which is housed a workshop.

The house has recently been valued at over £900,000 giving the client excellent value on his investment.

20th Century Boundary Stones "ACB"

Once you've got your eye in, it's difficult to stop seeing stuff that you might otherwise miss. We've mentioned 'unknown stones' before - our tag for boundary stones that aren't mentioned on the Aberdeen City Council's splendid archeology pages, but perhaps are mentioned on the RCHAMS database. Or perhaps not mentioned anywhere at all, like this one:

Simply inscribed "ACB"

It's about 45cm in height. The stain 5/8ths of the way up suggests that it may once have been buried deeper than it is now. And that's all new turf around it, so this may not even be its exact original location.

It's on Lang Stracht (for those without Scots - a streetname which translates: "Long Straight"), at Sheddocksly, near the pedestrian/cyclist access to the new-ish housing association homes which occupy what had been the site of the garden centre chain before it moved farther west. From the crisp quality of the stonework and typeface used for the inscription, it appears to our eyes to be post-Victorian, and being different in its form factor (not having an inclined face for the inscription) is not one of the series of "ABD" or "CR" marked 'March Stones' which regular readers will know that we've been tracing over the weeks and months.

An educated guess might bring us to conclude that "ACB" stands for "Aberdeen City Boundary"; but that geographical point on the Lang Stracht is much closer in than today's far-flung city limits. So then we think of the time during the 20th Century when that city boundary was much closer in than today...

As a child, I remember road signs with words to the general effect: "Welcome to the City of Aberdeen"; specifically I remember them on the North Deeside Road at Pitfodels, on the Stonehaven Road just south of the Bridge of Dee and on Auchmill Road just about at Newton Terrace. We suppose that we should really get ourselves along to the local studies department at the Central Library and see if we can look at a mid-20th century map for clues to where we might find others of these 20th century boundary stones, but hey - this isn't a job! (Nevertheless - if anyone's got a copy of such a map that they can let us have we'd be really grateful.)

Anyhow, by far the easiest to get to of these half-remembered street-sign border signifiers from the early 1970's from Other Aberdeen's salubrious atelier in the upscale heart of downtown Pitmuxton is at Pitfodels. So, off we go for a look. And bingo! An ACB marked boundary stone at the bottom of Baird's Brae.

Just a hundred yards up the brae, at the junction with Airyhall Road/Rocklands Road there's another.

We've been past this location hundreds of times before and never
noticed it till today.

Interestingly, at the location of the ACB stone at the bottom of the brae, at it's junction with North Deeside Road, across the road a current roadside sign still marks the boundary of Cults village. A milestone still survives at this location too. Though it's seen better days...

If you weren't looking, you'd not see it.

The face seems damaged.

This would have been the 3-mile stone. Having spent time and effort looking for Aberdeen's boundary stones, and having become accustomed to people saying things like "oh yes, you mean those mile-stone thingies", it is ironic to actually come across one of these artifacts more or less by accident.  The item itself, pre-dating as it does the 1867 survey, seems almost impossibly remote and exotic (ish).

Farther along North Deeside Road, at Bieldside, the 4-mile stone has survived in a much better condition.

We've since seen other milestones in other locations around town which mark both different routes and different transport modes. But that probably enough trainspotting for one day. We'll get around to mentioning the other milestones in the usual course of psychogeography...

Ferryhill's Mystery Masonry; Enigmatic "S"

A little while ago, we posted about "unknown stones", and in the post, we included this picture of an "S" marked stone in Ferryhill.

At the acute angle meeting of Ferryhill Road and Ferryhill Place

We had assumed that, like so many marked stones we see around Aberdeen, this was a boundary stone, marking someone's commercial or political property. These stones are very often shown on the large scale Ordnance Survey maps, but there's no sign of this one on the 1869 25 inch-to-one-mile map. So, it's later than that...

The map shows a couple of 'stones' on the northernmost curve of Ferryhill Road. That'd be close to where the defunct public toilet is situated. We hear that the toilet is still in occasional use; No 17 bus drivers having a key! Brilliant!

Stop the bus!

Walking down (northward) Ferrhill Road from Ferryhill Place towards Crown Street, we see these:

This one's got an OS Cut-Mark and Rivet Bench Mark,
down at the bottom.

They're all the way down the road, each about 50m from the next. A neatly incised "S", surrounded by a perfect rectangular border, on a piece of flat-faced granite - ashlar at the top (southern) end of the road, rubble at the bottom (north). The bottom (north) end of the road is characterised by a large retaining wall which encloses the steep-sloped common green of Archie 'Pech' Simpson's Marine Terrace.

By the time we reached the bottom, our eyes were well-opened, and we also noticed this wall-bound artifact:

"Presented by
Andrew Lewis Lord Provost
1927"

So regularly spaced, so unlike the other boundary stones; these "S"-marked stones are perplexing. Often, boundary stones are marked with the initials of the landowner, like this one at on the top of the Broad Hill:

Marked "R" to the north, "ND" to the south. Grooved on top.

So these stones in Ferryhill aren't the usual Aberdeen boundary stones, they're quite different. We've got a few theories:

• We've often noticed the words "sundry proprietors" marked on older maps of our town, and we wondered whether the single "S" might refer to that. 
• My old dad thought that the "S" might stand for "Simpson": that's Archibald Simpson, who built Marine Terrace, up above the stones.
• Someone suggested an infrastructure connection, referring to Soil- or Sewer-pipes.
• Similarly infrastructure related - Aberdeen's first source of electricity - the "Corporation Electricity Works" is at the bottom of Ferry-Hill, and so at the bottom of Ferryhill Road. Might the "S" be something to do with that? Substations?
• Aberdeen's first electrified tram ran up Ferryhill Road to the south and Crown Street to the north, it's source of power being the "Corporation Electricity Works" at the bottom (south) end of Crown Street. Perhaps the "S" is related to the trams?
• Ferryhill Road connects with the bottom of Crown Street, and so is close to the Masonic Temple. Amongst many things, the Masons are/were know for "masons marks". Is it possible that the "S" is a latter-day and more literate version of these ancient esoteric signs?

I grew up and went to school in this specific area, and I played on Ferryhill Road and the Marine Terrace green countless times. Since my childhood I've walked up and down Ferryhill Road regularly. It's amazing to me that I'd never noticed these plain-as-your-face marked stones before the day that we walked down Ferryhill Road looking for anything out of the ordinary. 

Neither our local council's Sites and Monuments pages, nor RCHAMS "Scotland's Places" pages mention these "S" marked stones on Ferryhill Place. So, if anyone knows for sure what they are, or has any other theories, we'd be delighted to hear about it. 

Unknown Stones - Foreshore.

We spotted another couple of 'unknown' boundary stones down by the foreshore the other day when we went to gawp at stranded warship HMS Diamond, becalmed at Telford Dock.

Firstly, on the Queen's Links we noticed this concrete marker which is inscribed:

?(defaced) M
No 3

Being concrete, this stone intrigues us. It's not like the other boundary markers around town and we've not seen any others like it, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. It doesn't appear on Aberdeen City Council's Sites and Monuments Pages, but here's its RCAHMS entry.

Then, on Links Road we spotted this granite marker which is inscribed 'ABD', and also sports an Ordnance Survey benchmark rivet. Of which more later.

Oddly, its RCAHMS entry says that "Nothing is now visible of this boundary stone". We beg to differ. Here it is:

There are probably many other stones like this one, the 25 inch Ordnance Survey of 1869 certainly shows a good few. Over the coming weeks and months, we'll see if we can find some more of them.

Unknown Stones - Rosemount.

The city, having evolved to its current state over many centuries, contains many signs and signifiers, artifacts and arrangements which encode the events of the urban story and which can be understood by anyone who possesses the key to the code. Sometimes the key is apparent, often it is not. A good example of this type of artifact is Aberdeen's system of boundary stones - the March Stones - which we've been exploring over the weeks and months.

All of the March Stones are in plain view, but sometimes they are difficult to see. That's partially because our modern perception is simply not focussed upon estate boundaries; we've no need to know of rights of way along free byways and waterways or any other feudal concerns. During the psychogeographical process of exploring these boundary markers we had to learn where and how to look, where to direct our cognition so that we could locate the artifacts.

So, once we had those eyes switched on (as it were) - once we'd directed our consciousness towards ancient boundaries, where they might be and how they might be marked - we coincidentally found other stone marks and markers, signifiers of past property or infrastructure and not registered on the council's reference pages.

Back in November, we documented some of these 'Unknown Stones' which we'd seen around Ferryhill.

We've been wandering the Green Lanes of Rosemount this week, and we saw these:

Groove-marked stone - Watson Lane

Groove-marked stone - Watson Lane

M&C marked stone - Loanhead Walk Lane

These stones (and many others) appear on the first large scale OS map of Aberdeen, which was drawn in 1869.

Aberdeen Green Lanes

With the last fortnight's snow in Aberdeen still lying on pavements and roofs, the town -  while looking beautiful in this frosty cowl - isn't ideal for walking about much. Our lives are literally lacking color, and there's not many sunlight hours in the December day. We're feeling a bit stuck-in and pent-up, as it were.

As an antidote, I indulged in the following train of thought which was set in motion when writing the "Personalities" post, with the Aberdeen Adamant pavingstone. My wandering thoughts went here...

One place where the Aberdeen Adamant paving stones were notably used (pdf) is the borough of Haringey in London. A few years back, some friends of ours lived in Haringey and when we visited, we found that it's an exceedingly colourful place, a mix of diverse cultures, a place full of edges. We thought it fascinating.

The main drag through the borough is a street called "Green Lanes". We considered this name most evocative, bringing to mind as it does a time before the urban development of Greater London had subsumed the pre-existing villages which are now the hubs of its semi-suburban boroughs.

Today, there's a Green Lanes movement in England (eek! crappy code warning!) which lobbies to keep unsurfaced roads open for motor vehicles, while we in Scotland have a statutory right of responsible access which seems to work pretty well for all sensible users.

During our psychogeographical wanderings around Aberdeen, we've discovered that the town is full of our own surviving "Green Lanes" system, which extends from the suburbs to the very heart of the town centre, forming a network of urban refuges away from noise and pollution and everyday concern. These linear bucolic(ish) havens - penetrating the modern town like ancient unbypasses - form a web of wildlife corridors and allow a surprising level of relaxed access to many places in the town. These routes differ from the rest of the town, which they are at right angles to. Seek them out; let them take you over, under and through, Aberdeen.

Here are just a few:

Airyhall

Kingswells

Sunnybank 

Fernhill

Loanhead

Rosemount

Gilcomston

Hill of Rubislaw

Hill of Rubislaw (Denburn running to the right)

Westholm (Denburn to the left)

Pitfodels

Airyhall

Devanah Lane - Ferryhill

Devanah Lane

Dyers Hall Lane

Old Mill Road

Seafield Lane

Rubislaw Lane

Rubislaw Lane

Rubislaw Lane