IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Fountainhall Road, ABERDEEN, AB15 4DX

On first coming across this building I took it to be a public convenience because of the style of the ground floor windows. It improves slightly when viewed from a bit further away.

A striking modern office block on Fountainhall Road. It stands where the garage premises of Campbell and Sellars once was, which in turn replaced older terraced housing.

The curiously finished corner tower is at least a slightly redeeming feature of this unappealing concrete block plonked among the terraces of traditional granite houses.

The east elevation of Image] has an interesting feature, which is that the small round windows above the lancet windows in the four small gables are all different. From left to right, they are respectively trefoil, quatrefoil, cinquefoil and multifoil - or to put it another way they have, from left to right, three, four, five and six lobes.

The modern blocks on the right are Dempsey Court.

The established church in Aberdeen took a battering at the 1843 Disruption, but by the 1870s, it was preparing to expand (and also to compete with the Free Kirk): this B-listed church dating from ca. 1874 (see: http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-19947-queen-s-cross-at-fountainhall-road-and-qu ) was established by the impressive sounding Aberdeen Church Extension and Territorial Home Mission Association and aided by "a number of gentlemen resident in the west-end (who) had seen the desirability of having an Established Church in the neighbourhood of Queen's Cross." The use of sandstone was highly unusual for Aberdeen.

Rubislaw Parish Church viewed from across the Queen's Cross Roundabout.

Built ca. 1875 in sandstone (because, apparently, granite was too expensive) and B-listed: http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-19947-queen-s-cross-at-fountainhall-road-and-qu . Note how the massive set-back buttresses (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttress ) on the tower each end in their own pinnacles. Note from Historic Scotland: Rubislaw Parish Church is particularly unusual in that it is constructed of sandstone not granite, like the majority of churches in Aberdeen. George Washington Wilson was supposedly willing to cover the cost of the granite, but his offer came too late, as the contract had already been let. The church was built as part of the extension scheme, carried out by the Church of Scotland from the 1870's. Its aim was to aid the development and progress of the Established Church, which had suffered badly in Aberdeen at the time of the Disruption. At this time three new parishes were established: Rosemount, Ferryhill and Queen's Cross (which Rubislaw Church serves). The tower and spire, galleries and church hall were added to Rubislaw Church in 1881, to help accommodate the rapidly expanding congregation. Lyall suggests that the spire was built to compete with Queen's Cross (Free) Church opposite, designed by J B Pirie, 1870-1881.

Grampian TV lost its transmission rights to STV and the premises were sold off for flats. Formerly the site housed the Queens Cross tram sheds.