Aberdeen's Union Bridge underwent a major widening scheme in 1908, which was drawn up by William Diack– with Benjamin Baker of Forth Rail Bridge fame as a consultant. The steel side spans which carry today's pavements were introduced at that time, along with Kelly's cats, the wee leopards which decorate the balustrade. These leopards have an interesting tale attached to them: the painter Joseph Farquharson, famous for his Deeside snowscenes featuring sheep and sunsets, liked to base his work on careful observation, but since sheep will not stand still, he had life-size models made for him. The model sheep could be arranged as the painter wished, marking the place for life models, and were created by William Wilson of Monymusk, who also cast the iron leopards on Union Bridge.
The leopards were designed by the architect and antiquarian William Kelly, and according to his biographer, they generated a great deal of debate and controversy. Why the need for ornament– and why represent the city's coat of arms here? Well, Kelly rightly recognised that the leopard is emblematic of Aberdeen, and where better to show it off than on the the great bridge carrying the city's main thoroughfare? This bridge was created as part of an early exercise in town planning and traffic management. Charles Abercrombie, engineer of the turnpike roads in Aberdeenshire, produced a report in 1794 which recommended the construction of King Street and Union Street, in order to make access into the city centre easier. An Act of Parliament in 1800 enabled these long, wide, straight boulevardes to replace the narrow, winding mediaeval gaits.
In the same year that Union Street was named, the Union Bridge foundation stone was laid– 1801. The Bridge was intended as a three-arched structure, but greatly influenced by Thomas Telford's proposal for a single span bridge, with one mighty 150-foot arch. His scheme was worked up by Thomas Fletcher into a granite arch with a 130-foot central span, and a built-up arch at each abutment with a span of 50 feet. The keystone was slotted into place in August 1803, although work carried on until 1805. The half-mile stretch of Union Street from the Adelphi to Diamond Street, which takes in Union Bridge, rests on a series of massive blind arches, forming an artificial causeway which varies from two storeys to over five storeys above the natural level of the ground.
Called the Viaduct Approaches, they were designed by Charles Abercrombie and David Hamilton: until buildings were erected on its south side, the arched walls of Union Street towered above The Green. The costs of building this half-mile megastructure literally bankrupted Aberdeen: the munincipality became insolvent in 1817, and it took eight years for the City Fathers to recover the situation. The leopards appeared much later in the day, when the horse lorries, trams and prototypical cars of Aberdeen created the first traffic congestion, then the bridge had to be widened. As a result, the old balustrades were taken down, and rather than re-use them, smart new iron panels were commissioned. In a "roundabout" way, we have traffic jams to thank for these insouciant leopards...
Words and pictures by Mark Chalmers
