A long-vacant Union Street shop has undergone a traditional makeover as its owners sought to undo “detrimental” changes that “obliterated” the frontage 40-odd years ago.
The old Hydro Electric (latterly SSE) shop at number 156 has been empty since 2016.
It fell victim to a nationwide spree of cuts which spelled the end of an era for white goods stores across the north and north-east.
The unit has been unused ever since, making it one of the street’s longest to be sitting vacant.
But over the last few months, workers have been carrying out a refurbishment of the shopfront.
Now, planning documents reveal why the owners have spent a whopping £110,000 doing up the Granite Mile premises…
They see it as righting a past wrong.
What has been happening with the old Union Street shop?
The C-listed building dates back to the creation of Union Street about 200 years ago.
It is owned by the Challenge Fishing Company, which is also working on plans for Holburn House elsewhere on the street.
Following the closure of the Hydro Electric store, plans to turn the upper floors into seven flats emerged.
Those £585,000 proposals were approved in 2020, but it’s only now that progress seems to be on the way.
The Fraserburgh-based owners were given the go-ahead for the extra work on the shop last October, only recently completing the project.
‘It was lost in one fell swoop’
And architect Graham Mitchell has penned a report informing Aberdeen City Council of the need for the work.
He said the facade was “heavily altered to the detriment of the property and streetscape at the commencement of Scottish Hydro Electric’s tenure”.
The expert continues: “Not many examples of original shopfronts survive on Union Street.
“Whatever the previous frontage to 156 Union Street, the ground floor portion was lost in one fell swoop with the 1980s aesthetic of maximizing the amount of plate glass.
“The complete replacement of the shop frontage obliterated what, judging by the rest of the building, would likely have been a quite attractive but simple frontage.”
Mr Mitchell says the modern makeover had a “negative impact” on the property – as well as its “grand neighbour”, the Lakeland shop at 158 Union Street.
What would you like to see open in the revamped unit? Let us know in our comments section below
What next for the old Hydro shop on Aberdeen’s Union Street?
Mr Mitchell says the recent changes have created a “comfortable and inviting shopfront”.
The revamp comes amid high hopes for the regeneration of the stagnating Granite Mile, with ongoing efforts to breathe new life into it and fill empty shops.
Letting agents are currently trying to find a new taker for the unit.
And the Our Union Street taskforce is listing the 2,788sq ft space as boasting a “suite of incentives”, including possible grant funding and rates relief.
They say it would “suit a variety of retail uses”.
You can see the plans on the Aberdeen City Council website.
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