AIberdeen FAe the coast
A(i)berdeen. A coastal city in the North East of Scotland shaped first by the fishing community and granite production before being taken by storm by the Oil & Gas industry. Sandwiched between the River Don and River Dee , the Granite City - or Silver City, depending on who you’re chatting to - thrived off of the discovery of resource rich fields in the North Sea, but the oil down turn of the mid 2010’s left its mark on house prices, local businesses and attractive economic opportunities. Nowadays it doesn’t always have the best rap amongst many onlookers, often cited in tabloid rankings as one of the ‘most miserable’ places in the UK. But, it’s home to my family and friends and certainly left a more than positive mark on my life, inspiring a sense of chippy parochialism.
A lot of my time growing up in Aberdeen was spent playing football, skating and passing cold nights walking around town with pals, having nothing much better to do. Maybe we’d end up in Tom’s basement or Bill’s garage but we definitely passed a lot of time getting to know all the nooks and crannies of the city. Friends eventually got access to parents’ cars and we’d go for drives out West with no real aim or source some booze and go to Aaron’s, Sophie’s or really whoever had a free gaff. But we rarely headed to the coast—unless it was to watch Aberdeen from the South Stand or to annoy golf heeds at the driving range just across the road from Pittodrie.
I find it funny, looking back on this now because the coastline along Aberdeen is stellar. Balmedie and Donmouth beach, the prom and Fittie are defining landmarks of the city. I went to these places with family, and some of these photos were actually taken on a photo walk with my dad from Torry Battery round to Fittie, but I hardly ever found myself kicking about with pals down there. I didn’t set out to take these photos in a faux self aware attempt to document the ‘lost places of my childhood’. I’m happy with how they came out and had a brilliant afternoon with my dad. But as I started to build this website, I thought it might be fun to include text. That’s what led me to reflect on the places where I spent my childhood, as well as the ones I didn’t.
I think as we get older, our satisfaction with the places where we spend a lot of our time wears out more quickly. When growing up, particularly with friends, you spend the majority of your time going to the same places without much variety, whether it was the same friend’s house, the same abandoned lot, or the same 24-hour shop. I feel now that I need to be somewhere new everyweekend to avoid feeling stagant. That’s the beauty of those formative years though. There is so much madness going on in a young persons head that it really doesn’t matter where you are, as long as your with pals, even if that does mean it’s the 5th weekend in a row that you are sat in KFC on Union Street on a Friday night before closing. Aberdeen might not have much to someone looking from the outside in, but its got everything I need, not to mention an affa fine coastline.
