Diane Morgan

In Lost Aberdeen: The Outskirts, Diane Morgan embarks on a fascinating and highly readable journey into the environmental and architectural heritage of those familiar parts of Aberdeen that began life on the fringes of the city.Covering Gilcomston (originally a ''wretched and rather remote suburb'') Berryden (famous for its pleasure garden and the Northern Co-op), Kittybrewster (the marts and the railway), Torry (trawling) and Ferryhill (leafy and elegant), and illustrated with period photographs and maps, Lost Aberdeen: The Outskirts is a goldmine of information about one of Scotland''s most historic cities.

This, the final volume in Diane Morgan’s acclaimed Lost Aberdeen trilogy, is a fascinating, ground-breaking account of the west side of the city. The Stocket Lands and the adjoining Lands of Rubislaw, both Crown grants dating from the fourteenth century, form the greatest part of the urban section of the Freedom Lands, stretching in a vast semi-circle from the Low Stocket (Westburn Road) in the north to the South parks of Rubislaw (Great Western Road) in the south.We discover not only land improvement and great mansions, but the unexpected, from Turkish baths to aircraft manufacture, and a bevy of Scottish Enlightenment polymaths – Dr Hamilton, Professor Copland, and the Rev Skene Keith, the cultured Sheriff Dauney, his near neighbour, Francis Peacock, doyen of the performing arts, and that dilettante par excellence James Skene, who south to metamorphose his unpromising Lands of Rubislaw into an Edinburgh of the North and in so doing set in train the development of Aberdeen’s golden West end.Featuring period photographs, illustrations and maps, Lost Aberdeen: The Freedom Lands uncovers the forgotten hamlets and communities that make up this large area of the modern city.

In Lost Aberdeen, beautifully illustrated and rich in fact and lore, Diane Morgan introduces the history and fate of numerous city buildings which had enormous historic and architectural value, but which now, regrettably, are gone forever.Starting with an odyssey through the early town, from the Green to the Gallowgate, she charts the disappearance of the irreplaceable medieval townscape before moving on to more modern times, tracing the evolution and gradual erosion of the Granite City, whose stylish yet restrained architecture once brought visitors from all over the world. She introduces George Street, originally planned as ‘an elegant entrance to the city’ and Union Street, a marvel of early nineteenth-century engineering with stunning symmetry, elegant terracing and memorable shops.Featuring a large number of archive photographs, many of which are published for the first time, Lost Aberdeen paints a fascinating portrait of the changing face of one of Scotland’s greatest cities.