Another in my historical series - and to celebrate the launch of two new Facebook groups focusing on the hidden history of city and shire! Hidden Aberdeen was my idea, inspired by the rash of 'Secret Cities' groups, and photographing genius, John Rutherford, aka Aberdeen's cheeriest postie, started Hidden Aberdeenshire as a companion. Please join these groups if you're on that famous social networking site.
Ok - the 'subway' I refer to runs from the junction of Stafford Street and Leslie Terrace, under the railway line out into what is now the Berryden Retail Park, behind Next.
This satellite image shows the locus.
So - what was the reason for it? The subway existed as early as 1900 and before, probably from the time of the railway - it appears on the OS Map for Old Aberdeen at that date. It was probably just a convenient shortcut, but became all the more useful when the employees of the Northern Cooperative Society (aka Norco aka the Co-opie) were able to duck under the railway to get to the dairy and bakery on Berryden Road! This war-time picture shows the lane from the Berryden side stretching away to the back of Norco's site where the retail park dominates today.
What's left? Just the covered in blue railings preventing people from accessing the tunnel which is bricked up anyway - courtesy of Rail Track (spoilsports!)- and the fact it's next to a hydro-electric substation box probably!
If you go behind the box (to the right of the picture) and peer into the undergrowth, you can see the entrance to the tunnel.
The subway is sneakily hidden on the railway side of Leslie Terrace at Stafford Street, but now you know where to look!! A friend who lived at 100 Leslie Terrace recalls being able to go through the subway even in the 1980s, and another older friend knows the man who has the little garage next door to the subby box there, and he had previously been able to use it with the railway folk's permission.
When I worked at PC World, which of course is the other side of this, people were constantly moaning about having to either walk all the way round from Belmont Road down Berryden Road, or up Hutcheon Street to get to work - all the time the subway was there! We should've petitioned to have it reopened - but here you go another example of how the council and railway company does nowt to make life easier for their clients! Duh, you wouldn't get aff with that in private business!
So, if you see the subway, give it a nod. And if you're ever inclined to sneak around Next's service yard, do take a picture of the opposite site for me!!
More Hidden Aberdeen soon - I'm going to create a website.
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