Yesterday afternoon I glimpsed a programme called Grand Tours of Scotland. I wouldn’t normally have watched this (mainly because the good lady thinks the presenter, Paul Murton, has an unappealing voice) but we were in someone else’s house at the time.

It was episode 6 of the series, the only one I’ve seen and Murton was “following the sun” up through the East of Scotland’s sea-side resorts. On the way he visited Stonehaven Swimming pool which has featured in my Scotland’s Art Deco Heritage posts (see link above.)

He ended up at the Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen, which is in my Aberdeen Art Deco Heritage posts. Murton undertook some dancing inside the Ballroom. The interior still retains Art Deco features.

Anyway the programme is available on the BBC iPlayer, but only until Wednesday 21/12/11, so if you tune in you can catch some glimpses yourself.

Also on the iPlayer (till tomorrow 20/12/11) is a piece, about 25 minutes in, from The One Show on the Midland Hotel, my post on which you can see via the link.

While looking up Eddie Turnbull’s career for my post on his death I noticed something remarkable.

Hibs won the league three times during Turnbull’s playing career; in 1948, 1951 and 1952. Not only that: in the seventeen years spanning their first win till Kilmarnock’s sole league title in 1965 no less than five different non-Old Firm sides won the league. Apart from Hibs and Kilmarnock, Hearts (1958, 1960,) Aberdeen (1955) and Dundee (1962) are on the roll of honour. That beats even the early years of the Scottish League when in its first 14 years Dumbarton – 1891 (shared with Rangers) and 1892 (outright) – Hearts (1895, 1897,) Hibs (1903) and Third Lanark (1904) all were champions of Scotland.

Can anyone imagine that sort of thing happening now?

The Old Firm duopoly is so entrenched that the mere thought is instantly dismissable.

The only team to upset the Old Firm domination of the league between the two World Wars of the last century was Motherwell, in 1932. (See here for the full list of winners.) The 28 year run from Third Lanark’s title in 1904 till Motherwell’s is the longest such period of unbroken Old Firm hegemony. So far.

At present it is 26 years since anyone but Rangers or Celtic won the league. (Aberdeen 1980, 1984 and 1985) and Dundee United (1983) are the only provincial sides to win a championship since the 1960s. Neither look likely to repeat the feat soon. Barring extraordinary circumstances, circumstances that are unforeseeable, to me at any rate, that 28 year record will be broken in 2014.

The Scottish Cup has always been a more likely prize for a “smaller” club to win but even so that 1950s and 60s period saw no fewer than seven non-Old Firm clubs lift the trophy. Aberdeen in 1947 (and 1970,) Motherwell (1952,) Clyde (1955 and 1958,) Hearts (1956,) Falkirk (1957,) St Mirren (1959) and Dunfermline Athletic (1961 and 1968.)

Of course, in those days the playing field was a bit more even as each club shared its gate money with the away team. Since the introduction of the system whereby each club keeps its own home gates the imbalance between the Old Firm and the rest has grown bigger. This is merely exacerbated by the Champions League money available to Celtic and Rangers nearly every season. (Though none of that stopped Rangers getting into substantial debt recently.)

The other clubs are simply not in a position to compete. It’s a sad and unhealthy situation.

I was saddened today to hear of the death of Eddie Turnbull.

Since his heyday as part of the great Hibernian forward line known as the “Famous Five” was in the 1940s and 50s I never saw him play. During that time he won no less than three league championships in five seasons. Imagine a Hibs player – a Hibs team! – doing that now. Turnbull was also the first Scottish player to score in European competition (Hibs were pioneers in the European Champions’ Cup.)

I most remember him as a manager of Aberdeen and Hibs in the 60s and 70s when he guided those teams to the Scottish Cup and the League Cup respectively. He had previously managed Queen’s Park. The Hibs team of that time may not have achieved quite the heights the Famous Five did but were a formidable presence in Scottish football.

As I recall Turnbull was of the old school and something of a disciplinarian – you’d probably not get away with that as a manager now.

Edward Hunter Turnbull: 12/4/1923 – 30/4/2011. So it goes.

For those of you who care about these things I decided a while ago that the numbering system I was using for my Scotland’s Art Deco Heritage posts had become too unwieldy.

For really signature buildings (or those geographically remote) I have retained the Scotland’s Art Deco Heritage title but otherwise I now list buildings under a narrower geographical heading, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee etc.

As a result I thought it better to re-number some earlier posts retrospectively and edit the posts accordingly.

For the record the changes are:-

Scotland’s Art Deco Heritage 6. Bon Accord Baths: now Aberdeen’s Art Deco Heritage 1

SADH 7. Carron Restaurant: now SADH 6

SADH 8 (and update.) Nardini’s: now 7 (and update)

SADH 9. Northern Hotel: now Aberdeen 2

SADH 10. Tarlair Swimming Pool: now 8

SADH 11. Ascot Cinema: now 9

SADH 12. Kelvin Court: now 10

SADH 13. Victoria Cinema: now Edinburgh’s Art Deco Heritage 1

SADH 14. Green’s Playhouse: now Dundee’s Art Deco Heritage 1

SADH 15. Murraygate (I): now Dundee 2

SADH 16. Murraygate (II and III): now Dundee 3

SADH 17. now Dundee 4

SADH 18. Causewayside Garage: now Edinburgh 2

SADH 19. Dumbarton: now 11

SADH 20. Tobermory: now 12

SADH 21. Perth: now 13

SADH 17 (ii). Lilybank Mews: now Dundee 5

SADH 9 (ii). Beach Ballroom: now Aberdeen 3

SADH 22. Stonehaven Swimming pool: now 14

End of public information announcement.

I found this article after a search for Aberdeen Art Deco reached this blog and I followed the link. The list of buildings begins on page 6 of the document.

As well as some cinemas it gives my first Aberdeen Art Deco feature the Bon Accord Baths,

Jackson’s Garage,

Amicable House (see below from flickr.)

For Foresterhill Medical School, King’s College Sports Pavilion and Tullos Primary School I could find no photos.

The Northern Hotel, of course, I have featured before but here’s another picture.

(More of this hotel can be seen on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/8333696/3203661261/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/8333696/3204511190/.)

No mention in the article of The Beach Ballroom, though.

In my other searchings I came across a Modernist House in Garthdee Road Aberdeen, Architect Roy Meldrum, near Gray’s Art School (see http://flickr.com/photos/74784995@N00/1356336304/ and http://flickr.com/photos/74784995@N00/1356336300/.)

Then there is The Lemon Tree/St Katherine’s Centre, Architects Jenkins and Marr 1937 (see at http://flickr.com/photos/74784995@N00/1368315644/.)

There is this too from Bon Accord Street.

There is also a striking relief on the side of a tenement.

Here’s yet more proof that Aberdeen does have Art Deco influenced buildings.

Among its claims to fame are a floor sprung on steel springs and that the Beatles played the final gig of their 1963 Scotland tour there.

This link shows a close up of the nice detailing above the doorway.

There’s a more general view here and a nice panorama plus some interior views at Scottish Cinemas.

This one is from a distance inland.

I got the following months ago from Aberdeen City Council website. I haven’t corrected the grammar in its second sentence:-

‘The building presents a low elevation to the promenade but, on entering, the visitor descends the main staircase from which the full height and space of the domed octagonal ballroom can be appreciated. The interior reflect the glamour and Art Deco style of the 1930s whilst the sprung floor of Canadian pine, enjoyed by generations of Aberdeen dancers is still intact. The extension on the seaside of the building was designed by the City Architects Department in the early 1960s.’

Their site has been updated but there’s still an orthographic error on the new page about the ballroom.

I was meaning to put up some more examples of Art Deco from Glasgow but haven’t been able to find blog friendly photographs of them on the net so they’ll need to wait till I get across to the West to take pictures of them myself.

In the meantime I recently read someone saying that Aberdeen didn’t have any Art Deco buildings.
Obviously they had never been inside the Bon Accord Baths.
And this hotel looks pretty Deco to me. Reminiscent of Rothesay Pavilion in its circular sweep.

Also something like an ocean liner which all good Art Deco buildings should be.

I was browsing the www last night and I discovered that Aberdeen City Council has recently closed these baths apparently not long after refurbishing them.

To see how sad a loss this could be just feast your eyes on these pictures. This is such a wonderful Art Deco interior. This is simply how a baths ought to be. When I first saw the photographs I was stunned.

It is a pity that the facilities are no longer cost effective. It seems each visitor to the baths was effectively subsidised to the tune of £11 a visit!

In these cash straitened times I suppose Aberdeen council has to make cuts somewhere but surely this interior deserves preserving and cherishing.

There is a link – which I can’t seem to follow – to a petition against the closure and also a statement that these baths had the only diving boards in Aberdeen!

I realise the upkeep is a severe strain on the public purse and people want more modern facilities, flumes etc, but I don’t think beautiful is too strong a word to describe what can be seen here. Magnificent even.

Is there not a way the Bon Accord Baths can be taken over by some preservation trust?