Aberdeen housing 1850-1930 2?'s

[speleobat2]

My Clerihew relatives lived at 51 Summer St. in Aberdeen from 1850 on and when I checked the census records to see who else lived on that street, I found five or six different families listed at the same address. Am I correct in thinking that they probably lived in an apartment house of some kind?

Also, my sister found a picture showing a woman standing in front of a row of connected houses on Willow St. with the notation "rear house". Were these built around a courtyard? How would you access the rear house?

[emanday]

Hi speleobat2,

Have a look at this selection of old photos on the Glasgow Story site.

http://www.theglasgowstory.com/searchq. ... &l=y&ft=42

I think you'll find it quite interesting.

[Susan]

Summer Street in Aberdeen did contain many tennament buildings. These were build from granite and would have had 2 or 3 dwellings on each of perhaps 3 or 4 floors. These were accessed usually from a main door on the ground floor with stairs leading up to each landing for access to each dwelling. However some did also have staircases outside which led up to an entrance on the first or second floor instead of entering on the ground floor. Although a lot of Summer Street has been demolished and rebuilt over time - there are still some tennaments which would have been built in the 1800s. (I have made the assumption that you mean Summer Street in the centre of Aberdeen - and not Summer Street, Woodside, Aberdeen)

I have not heard of a Willow Street in Aberdeen at any time - there is a Willowbank Road though. Many tennaments did have access to the rear of the buildings - this could have been via a lane running along the back of the gardens behind the buildings or through a passageway (close) running from the street between buildings. Many also had a back door out to the yards and gardens as well as the main front door on the street.

Hope this helps

Susan.

[speleobat2]

To emanday: I tried your link, but only got the home page of the website and a message saying that I searched for close and there were no results.

I have two cats. The calico has figured out that if she stands up and rattles the doorknob when she is ready to come in, her automatic door opener (me) will open the door for her.

To Susan: Yes, the Summer St. I was referring to is in the inner part of Aberdeen. This seems to be where all my relatives lived during this time period. They all rented and somehow squeezed quite large families into these homes. The only exception seems to be Malcolm Munro who was a jeweller and did well enough to acquire what looks like a massive three story stone house at 9 Brighton Place. He had eight children and his wife Mary there at one time. The house is detached on the left side, but we can't tell if it is on the right side too. I'll try to post pictures when the second one gets here to me.

We're not sure who live at 83 Willow St. only that it was a Clerihew and the picture has Aberdeen printed on the back of it.

Thank you both for your replies!

Carol

[Davie]

Hi Carol,
I had posted earlier, with a postcard put in the gallery.

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1167

Unfortunately, I had added a wee clenihew of my own, which must have offended admin and it was removed with no explanation.
I have no idea why.
I am a fan of E C Bentley, and have a few of his books.
One of them is on line and I have the film version from the 50s with Jack McNaughtan in a role.
I’ll see if this wee ditty survives.

Davie

Gallery url added by Marilyn

Admin. Note: The last paragraph has been edited, by Marilyn

[emanday]

Hi Carol,

Try http://www.theglasgowstory.com/index.php

Enter close in the search box and click on Search.

[Susan]

Hi Carol

You are right that large families squeezed into these tennament homes - I've been told that families of 10 or more lived in 2 rooms (3 rooms if they were really lucky and could afford it).

My grandparents lived in a tennament on King Street in Aberdeen on the top flooor and my great grandparents lived on the ground floor in the same building. There were no toilets in the flats themselves - they were out on the main staircase and shared by all the families in the building - and they were always freezing cold !!! There was a washhouse down in the back garden and I remember them doing their washing there in a big sink and putting it through a mangle before hanging it up to dry - and each family only got one day a week to do their washing. This was in the 60s and 70s mind - not that long ago lol. Also in the back garden was a block which had once been the toilets - my gran said it was only in the 50s that the inside toilets were built on the stairs. It was not until the 80s that my gran got her flat converted and her own toilet put in.

And yeah the houses in Brighton Place are rather grand - and by coincidence I used to babysit for a couple who lived at number 9. A pal at University babysat for this couple regulary but she came from Hong Kong and went home for the long summer break - as I stayed in Aberdeen she asked if I would cover for her over the summer to keep her job for when she came back for the next term. So every Friday night that summer (1979) I was there babysitting - and often stayed over if they were going to be out late as I had a Saturday job which started at 7.30am so I needed an early start and it saved staying up too late waiting for them to come home. It was a lovely old house and aye you'd need a good bit of money to afford one like that - it would be worth anything from £300K-£500K thesedays. I can't remember offhand if it was detached on both sides - but think it may have been semidetached. I live in Montrose now but still work in Aberdeen (but at Altens on the south side), so I don't often end up going right into town but my Dad lives on Union Grove now (in a tennament) and he is only a minute or so from Brighton Place so next time I'm there I'll have a look for you.

Susan.

[speleobat2]

Susan,

What a coincidence this is! I figured that the house was probably long gone. My sister is sending me a couple of pictures of it which I'll post when I get them next week so you can see how it looked back then.

83 Willow St. We were talking about this tonight. I found a city directory for Providence, Rhode Island which listed my grandfather as living at 83 Willow St. in 1913. We think that his father died in 1913 and his sister Isabella must have written the address on this picture so that it would get sent to the states for my grandfather. His mother is in the picture and she died in 1907 without ever having left Scotland.

Carol

[speleobat2]

emanday,

Thanks for the close pictures. They are truely depressing but make me thankful for my little house. We didn't have tenaments around Detroit because with so much land available people just moved out of the city. After WWII, acres and acres of small, identical houses were built surrounding the city. They weren't large, but families could own their own home for not very much money and home ownership is still the number one priority for most people over here.

Davie,

It must have been something you said! I'm afraid Bently's work is lost on me even if he is a Clerihew. I'm OK with prose, but poetry is something that I can not do. Thanks for the postcard though.

Carol

[speleobat2]

Susan,

I finally got the pictures of 9 Brighton Place from my sister. I just posted one to the gallery. Don't know how long it will take to get approval. I've never done this before. I also don't know how to add a picture to a post so hopefully you will be able to find it in the gallery. It should be under places and maps I think. I have two more pictures of the back garden, but I'll wait to see what happens with the first one before I try to post them!

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1175

Carol

Gallery URL added - AndrewP