Heritage Archives - Page 10 of 10

Run Down Aberdeen – A New Documentary

Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Events, Featured, Information, Opinion Comments Off

Mar 182011

By Fraser Denholm.

A new documentary, launched next week, takes a look beneath the layer of grime, which, in recent years, has coated the grand granite facades of Aberdeen’s unique city centre. Run Down Aberdeen seeks to highlight and investigate a number of issues which have, and continue to contribute to the current condition of the city, a number of issues which regular readers of Aberdeen Voice may be all too familiar.

In the short yet prolific life of Aberdeen Voice, the city’s premier online outlet for citizen journalism and campaign writing, there have been a number of contentious issues which have attracted most of the site’s column inches. Controversial developments, urban decline, council mismanagement and the seemingly perpetual struggle between the public and private sectors have been the order of the day at Aberdeen Voice since its inception.

Framed around the widespread and growing state of perceived neglect, Run Down Aberdeen looks a little further than the chipped cornices, tarnished street plaques, empty shop units and grubby pavements which face the residents and visitors of Aberdeen. With the help of local politicians, writers and citizens, the film discusses both the historical and contemporary developments, which continue to shape the future of the city.

The documentary was commissioned as an expansion of a Facebook group which has already been the subject of an AV article by Mike Shepherd, the group’s founder and the film’s executive producer. While the group’s ethos is to encourage members of the general public to highlight areas of concern by posting photos, it seemed counterproductive to either echo this or make the film about what the group was achieving (A few weeks after the group’s establishment a number of the areas highlighted in the early photographs were tackled by Councillor Martin Greig).

Therefore the film, while establishing the apparent neglect, looks into initiatives proposed or already under way and how these developments will effect or remedy the situation.

Big ticket projects have been proposed which aim to be a universal panacea to Aberdeen’s decline: The City Square Project claims to safeguard jobs and economic stability while delivering “transformational” change to a “third rate” city centre; “One Aberdeen” the Aberdeen city development company is aimed at:

“maximising the use of the city’s unused assets and to drive and promote the regeneration and economic development of the city as a whole.”

While the Green Townscape Heritage Initiative seems successful in its attempts to regenerate the Green area of the city and working with a range of heritage organisations to restore the historic buildings and streetscapes.

On the other hand there is widespread dissatisfaction amongst the people of Aberdeen – the establishment of Aberdeen Voice is a prime example of this. Every day there are more and more protest and pressure groups within the city struggling with the City Council’s decisions and projects, which will affect their everyday lives.

But how do we consolidate this? How can a city regain its population’s faith once it has been lost? And what can the everyday person do to influence the city around them? And most importantly where does the future of a city like Aberdeen lie?

For forty years the city has apparently prospered on the back of a finite resource, and with that resource now dwindling and the corporations based in Aberdeen, who have been drawn to the city to exploit it getting itchy feet, how should the city move forward, and who exactly should define where to go?

Run Down Aberdeen Trailer from Fraser Denholm on Vimeo.

Run Down Aberdeen will premiere at Peacock Visual Arts on Tuesday 22nd March at 7pm.

The Screening will be followed by an open discussion chaired by Joan Ingram featuring the filmmaker, Lewis MacDonald MSP, Councillor Kevin Stewart and Councillor Martin Greig.

Former Dons Dig Deep To Preserve Club Heritage

Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Featured, Information, Sport, Sport Comments Off

Mar 042011

Wary of getting too optimistic following too many recent kicks in the teeth, in spite of tangible improvements, Dons fans are still coming out of rehab from the barrel-scraping lows of 2010’s onfield results. Some are on to solids now in the form of a lightly-boiled egg, but many are still just capable of sitting upright and sooking a little clear soup through a straw. A few hard core stoics have gone back to full-strength half time pie consumption, the wee soldiers. David Innes sounds an uncharacteristically optimistic note.

Despite the trauma Dons fans have been through and the current murmurings of discontent over the almost rubber-stamped move to Loirston, there is still a lot of love out there for the Reds.

Despite what the detractors and backbiters say, and sometimes it seems that the Grey Toon has more than its fair share of those ready to glory in the club’s problems, AFC is still a massive part of the North East community and remains, in spite of all the gloom, a cultural and sporting focal point and beacon for thousands.

The AFC Heritage Trust exists to preserve the history of the club and its links with communities in the city and hinterland and we’ve publicised it before https://aberdeenvoice.com/2010/06/down-pittodrie-way/#more-122 .

A measure of the importance with which the Trust’s work is regarded is the impressive £740 collected from fans’ donations at extremely short notice at last week’s home fixture with Hearts. It was heartening to have Dons fans drop change into a bucket once they realised the common cause for which hard cash was being solicited. Many took the opportunity to take the publicity leaflets offered by collectors to find out more about the Trust, its work and its aspirations. You can do so here http://www.afcheritage.org

Of course, a large part of the club’s community are those fortunate enough to have pulled the sacred Red or, formerly, the blessed Black and Gold over their heads before going out to do battle on behalf of the North East in over a century of mostly proud history. The club’s Former Players Association is thriving. Many members who did not spend their entire careers at Pittodrie, or who are only tiny bit part players in Aberdeen’s history, retain huge affection for the club and describe their time at Pittodrie as being among the best times of their lives.

The FPs realise the importance of the work being done by the Heritage Trust and to help the Trust’s efforts, donated a thousand pounds to Trust funds at half time in last week’s game.

The Trust’s treasurer, Bob Bain, was delighted to accept the cheque from FP representatives and Dons stalwarts of yesteryear, Bobby Wishart, of the 1954-55 League-winning side and Jimmy Wilson from the mid-60s who was the first player I ever saw place a penalty kick into a corner of the net, having fooled the Motherwell goalkeeper into diving in the wrong direction.

That was on 3 December 1966, it happened at the King Street End, it was a day of typical Aberdeen driving sleet and we won 2-1. Instant recall, but yet I can forget where I left the car in the airport car park after two days away. That’s the impact the Dons have on many of us, and if you are also thus afflicted, the Trust would be glad to have you aboard.

Thanks to the FPs, the collectors and the fans who donated.

Aberdeen Football Club in the Scottish Qualifying Cup

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Aug 062010

By David Innes

Aberdeen Football Club in the Scottish Qualifying Cup by Chris Gavin. Published by AFC Heritage Trust. 76 pages. £5.99

Published under the auspices of Aberdeen FC Heritage Trust, this first historical book in a planned series is an excellent start and sheds light on the early days of the Dons and their struggle to attain status as a senior club.

Looks That Kill – A Semi-Fictional Tale

Creative Writing No Responses »

Jul 092010

by Alex Mitchell.

I first became aware of Carmina – I never learned her last name – when we were both students at the University of Aberdeen. She was a dark-haired, exotic beauty at the centre of a group of decadent, upper-class sophisticates who seldom bothered to turn up at lectures but would come lurching into tutorials, at which attendance was compulsory, still half-wrecked from the excesses of the previous night or weekend. Continue reading »

A Future for Granite in the Granite City?

Aberdeen City, Articles, Featured No Responses »

Jul 022010

By Mike Shepherd.

View from Skene Terrace of St Mark's Church, Rosemount Viaduct.

With the fate of Union Terrace Gardens much in debate at the moment, the preservation of Aberdeen’s heritage is a major issue within the city. In this light, the annual lecture of the Aberdeen City Heritage Trust given at the Town House on Tuesday 22d June was topical. The title: “A future for granite in the granite city?”

Dr. Ewan Hyslop of the British Geological Survey talked about the building stones of Scotland and granite in particular. Scottish geology varies so much, that there is a legacy of each Scottish town showing a distinctive architectural style according to its local building materials. For example, Glasgow is built from ‘blonde’ sandstone, Stonehaven from the old red sandstone and Aberdeen in grey granite.

These buildings give a very strong sense of place and identity to our towns and cities.

Down Pittodrie Way

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Jun 242010

It would appear things are not too happy down Pittodrie way at the moment.

On the back of a dreadful season, the Club has lost key players and there seems to be mounting apathy among fans with season ticket sales numbers not expected to break records. There is also a feeling of torpor as the Club finds itself caught in limbo with a large debt, the real chance of a significant drop in income and in the midst of all this, the need to find the finance to move to the proposed community stadium at Loirston.

Yes, there have been happier times, and the fledgling AFC Heritage Trust is doing its best to preserve those memories whilst at the same time keeping fingers crossed that the Dons can emerge from the current apparent gloom and begin challenging for honours again.

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