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Gallery: All change at Denburn

By Callum Main
21/11/2020, 11:14 am
© DCT Media 1952: The Denburn area in 1952 before it got demolished.
© DCT Media 1956: The Denburn area in 1956. To the right, the Upper Denburn is being demolished and all the other buildings in foreground and middleground are doomed. Gas lamps and granite setts are still in evidence. A bus station was planned for this site but the scheme was planned for this site but the scheme was abandoned and the bus station built instead in Guild Street.
© DCT Media 1959: Buses line up in Aberdeen's Denburn in 1959 after taking schoolchildren from outlying areas to a music festival in the city.
© DCT Media 1962: Buses use the Denburn as a temporary parking place before builders move in to create the health centre and underground car park. View looking towards Rosemount Viaduct.
© DCT Media 1970: The Well of Spa Bar which is due for demolishing to make room for the new Denburn project.
© DCT Media 1970: The Upper Denburn in 1970 before the massive redevelopment of the area. The Spa Bar, a popular old pub is in the centre of the picture.
© DCT Media 1971; Cranes tower over the Denburn as work gets under way on the foundations to a 22 storey block of flats that will be a feature of the £907,940 redevelopment project in the very heart of Aberdeen. Two-level covered car parking and a health centre are included in the overall project.
© DCT Media 1971: With the end of the trades holidays and the weather more congenial, work was resumed yesterday on most of Aberdeen's building sites. This was the scene at the Upper Denburn as workmen sealed off a public road that has for years linked Woolmanhill and the southmost section of Rosemount. Now the entire Denburn development site has been fenced off to facilitate work on the two level car park, on top of which will be the city's first area health centre.
© DCT Media 1971: Cranes tower over Aberdeen's Upper Denburn to service work on the eighth floor of a block of flats which will eventually rise to 22 storeys. Associated with the skyscraper is a children's play area, a 600 vehicle car park, and on top of that, the city's first area health centre.
© DCT Media 1972: The view from Denburn Road looking up at Denburn Viaduct.
© DCT Media 1972: It is just a year this month since work began on the £1,000,000 Denburn redevelopment plan which will transform the heart of Aberdeen. Our picture, taken from under the bridge that carries Rosemount Viaduct over Jack's Brae, shows the first stages of the new covered car park for 600 cars. This view of the old Royal Infirmary buildings will disappear for good when the car park - it is to have the town's first health centre built over it - is completed
© DCT Media 1973: A new tower block taking its place on Aberdeen's skyline in January 1973.
© DCT Media 1974: Aberdeen's Denburn Road looking towards Woolmanhill from Rosemount Viaduct in October 1974.
© DCT Media 1975: Pictured is a heavy build up of traffic at rush hour in the Denburn.
© DCT Media 1975: Denburn Road, already a valuable traffic distributor road for vehicles moving north from the harbour area, will become a dual carriageway. What will happen at the Schoolhill viaduct?
© DCT Media 1979: The play area at one of Aberdeen's biggest mulit-storey tenement blocks is a mudbath - and the Denburn Court Tenants' Association want Aberdeen District Council to do something about it. For the association is annoyed at the council's leisure and recreation department for allowing the play area to deteriorate to its present sad site.

This week’s Aberdonian takes a look at how the Denburn has changed over the decades.

Some of our readers will have no memory of the area before the dual carriageway was created to help traffic passing through the city.

These images from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, show the area as it used to be.

© DCT Media 1952: The Denburn area in 1952 before it got demolished.
© DCT Media 1956: The Denburn area in 1956. To the right, the Upper Denburn is being demolished and all the other buildings in foreground and middleground are doomed. Gas lamps and granite setts are still in evidence. A bus station was planned for this site but the scheme was planned for this site but the scheme was abandoned and the bus station built instead in Guild Street.
© DCT Media 1959: Buses line up in Aberdeen's Denburn in 1959 after taking schoolchildren from outlying areas to a music festival in the city.
© DCT Media 1962: Buses use the Denburn as a temporary parking place before builders move in to create the health centre and underground car park. View looking towards Rosemount Viaduct.
© DCT Media 1970: The Well of Spa Bar which is due for demolishing to make room for the new Denburn project.
© DCT Media 1970: The Upper Denburn in 1970 before the massive redevelopment of the area. The Spa Bar, a popular old pub is in the centre of the picture.
© DCT Media 1971; Cranes tower over the Denburn as work gets under way on the foundations to a 22 storey block of flats that will be a feature of the £907,940 redevelopment project in the very heart of Aberdeen. Two-level covered car parking and a health centre are included in the overall project.
© DCT Media 1971: With the end of the trades holidays and the weather more congenial, work was resumed yesterday on most of Aberdeen's building sites. This was the scene at the Upper Denburn as workmen sealed off a public road that has for years linked Woolmanhill and the southmost section of Rosemount. Now the entire Denburn development site has been fenced off to facilitate work on the two level car park, on top of which will be the city's first area health centre.
© DCT Media 1971: Cranes tower over Aberdeen's Upper Denburn to service work on the eighth floor of a block of flats which will eventually rise to 22 storeys. Associated with the skyscraper is a children's play area, a 600 vehicle car park, and on top of that, the city's first area health centre.
© DCT Media 1972: The view from Denburn Road looking up at Denburn Viaduct.
© DCT Media 1972: It is just a year this month since work began on the £1,000,000 Denburn redevelopment plan which will transform the heart of Aberdeen. Our picture, taken from under the bridge that carries Rosemount Viaduct over Jack's Brae, shows the first stages of the new covered car park for 600 cars. This view of the old Royal Infirmary buildings will disappear for good when the car park - it is to have the town's first health centre built over it - is completed
© DCT Media 1973: A new tower block taking its place on Aberdeen's skyline in January 1973.
© DCT Media 1974: Aberdeen's Denburn Road looking towards Woolmanhill from Rosemount Viaduct in October 1974.
© DCT Media 1975: Pictured is a heavy build up of traffic at rush hour in the Denburn.
© DCT Media 1975: Denburn Road, already a valuable traffic distributor road for vehicles moving north from the harbour area, will become a dual carriageway. What will happen at the Schoolhill viaduct?
© DCT Media 1979: The play area at one of Aberdeen's biggest mulit-storey tenement blocks is a mudbath - and the Denburn Court Tenants' Association want Aberdeen District Council to do something about it. For the association is annoyed at the council's leisure and recreation department for allowing the play area to deteriorate to its present sad site.