Union Street is a major street and shopping thoroughfare in
AberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. It has an official population estimate of .Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands...
,
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
It was built, along with the adjoining King Street, in the beginning of the 19th Century under plans suggested by Charles Abercrombie to provide an impressive entrance way into the
cityCity status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarch to a select group of communities. The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city". Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, competitions...
, and nearly bankrupted the city when it was built. Union Street in particular was intended to provide an impressive approach into the city from the south (and west); previously the route had been somewhat circuitous.
The street is approximately one
mileA mile is a unit of length in a number of different systems. In contemporary English, mile most commonly refers to the statute mile of 1,609.344 meters or the nautical mile of 1,852 meters...
long (0.8 miles) and a feat of
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
skill involving the partial levelling of St.
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Union Street is a major street and shopping thoroughfare in
AberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. It has an official population estimate of .Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands...
,
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
It was built, along with the adjoining King Street, in the beginning of the 19th Century under plans suggested by Charles Abercrombie to provide an impressive entrance way into the
cityCity status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarch to a select group of communities. The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city". Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, competitions...
, and nearly bankrupted the city when it was built. Union Street in particular was intended to provide an impressive approach into the city from the south (and west); previously the route had been somewhat circuitous.
The street is approximately one
mileA mile is a unit of length in a number of different systems. In contemporary English, mile most commonly refers to the statute mile of 1,609.344 meters or the nautical mile of 1,852 meters...
long (0.8 miles) and a feat of
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
skill involving the partial levelling of St. Catherine's Hill and the building of
archAn arch is a structure that spans a space while supporting weight . Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-History:Arches...
es to carry the street over Putachieside.
The Denburn Valley was crossed by Union Street by
Union BridgeUnion Bridge is a bridge on Union Street, Aberdeen, Scotland. It is the largest single-span granite bridge in the world, at 130 feet...
(constructed 1801–05), which has a single span arch of 130 feet (40
metreThe metre or meter is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units . Historically, the metre was defined by the French Academy of Sciences as the length between two marks on a platinum-iridium bar, which was designed to represent one ten-millionth of the distance from the Equator...
s).
Shops and markets
Some of the large shops on, or accessed directly from Union Street include Marks and Spencer,
H&MH & M Hennes & Mauritz AB , is a Swedish clothing company, known for its fast fashion clothing offerings for women, men, teenagers and children...
,
TopshopTopshop is a British chain of clothing stores that operates in more than 20 countries. It is part of the Arcadia Group, which also owns a number of other well-known retail outlets including Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge and Wallis....
,
HMVHis Master's Voice is a famous trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
, Waterstones and
DebenhamsDebenhams plc is a Britishretailer operating under a department store format in the UK and franchise stores in other countries. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.- History :...
. Shopping centres include the St Nicholas & Bon Accord and The Mall Aberdeen. In addition there are bars and a number of night-clubs on the street, plus a former cinema building, and a grand façade fronting the churchyard of the
Kirk of St. NicholasThe Kirk of St Nicholas is a historic church located in the city centre of Aberdeen, Scotland. It is now officially known as the "Kirk of St Nicholas " as it is membership of both of the Church of Scotland and the United Reformed Church...
.
The street is sometimes closed for the Saturday International Market, and on Sundays in December (in the run up to Christmas) when it holds a fair. At this time elaborate
Christmas lightsThe use of decorative, festive lighting during the Christmas holiday season is a long standing tradition in many Christian cultures, and has been adopted as a secular practice in a number of other non-Christian, or non-predominantly Christian, cultures .While the use of celebratory lighting during...
are displayed on gantries above and across the street.
Pedestrianisation
There are plans to pedestrianise Union Street from
Union TerraceUnion Terrace is a single carriageway street in the city centre of Aberdeen. At the south end, it has a junction with Union Street, at Union Bridge and Bridge Street and at the north end, it has a junction with Rosemount Viaduct, with the Central Library and His Majesty's Theatre on that street.The...
to the Castlegate.