The highlight of graduating from Aberdeen University in 1990 was that the ceremony was held in Marischal College.
Up until that point, we English Literature peeps had not been granted access to the building because it was only for medical students.
I had never seen this fine example of perpendicular gothic architecture from the inside because I had no business to be there.
College was just for the medics
Only future doctors got to swan about its fancy halls and pretend they were in Brideshead Revisited.
Plus they were learning to do something Extremely Important while I was trying to work out what the message was in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
I’m still not 100% sure what Muriel Spark was on about and yet I can spot a febrile seizure at 50 yards. Go figure.
Marischal College versus the St Machar Bar
Suffice to say, I was jealous of the medics and while I admired King’s College in Old Aberdeen, it was no match for the spectacular Marischal College.
The towering, A-listed confection of pinnacles, finials and knobbly bits was where it was at and to show off I sent out postcards of it saying: “Look where I’ve ended up!”
I wouldn’t mention that I spent most of my time in Old Aberdeen in general and the St Machar Bar in particular.
The fun of graduation day
Finally, after four years of honing my darts-throwing technique, my big day arrived and I was off to Esslemont and MacIntosh to pick up my graduation cap and gown.
Next stop was a photo shoot with my friends at the entrance to Marischal College with a camera I had to take into Boots later to be developed.
Can you believe any of us could ever be bothered to do that?
Now every week I find myself just yards from that same spot because the Press and Journal offices are opposite the college at Marischal Square.
I often see wedding parties doing their own photo shoots there; the bride and groom dwarfed by the granite splendour of the backdrop.
Mitchell Hall window is beautiful
I knew the building was pretty fabulous from the outside but on that summer’s day in 1990 when I was allowed inside, it took my breath away.
I stood gaping at the vast stained glass window in Mitchell Hall and I remember thinking, how can I have been a student here all this time and I’m just seeing this now?
When I returned to Aberdeen for work decades later, I was disappointed to hear that Marischal College was no longer the university and instead was Aberdeen City Council HQ.
I’m not entirely sure why this bothered me but it has something to do with it being an inspiring setting for learning.
To use it for the more prosaic functioning of local government and all the humdrum tasks that involves seemed like a waste.
Old office made me shudder
I was wrong to look at it this way because I know full well what it’s like to work somewhere that makes your heart sink.
When I moved from a neo-classical building in Glasgow to the dimly-lit oversized car garage that was the P&J offices in Lang Stracht, my first instinct was to run for the Gramps.
Nicknamed Ice Station Mastrick, we reckoned it had its own weather system and I’d swear that on my first day I had to dig my car out of the snow. It was June.
Thankfully we later moved to Marischal Square but like many people I’d been concerned about building in this important space between Marischal College and Provost Skene’s House.
Then I saw how the architects had mirrored the proportion and form of the college, using modern materials in keeping with the pale grey granite.
I was reminded that living cities are not museums and continually evolve.
They are full of buildings and while I like the countryside, that’s not what cities are.
Marischal College is ‘half empty’
Now I think the balance between structure, open areas and green space around Marischal Square is just right.
This week the council said it may lease out Marischal College as it’s “half empty” and it needs the money.
That sounds like a practical, if not all that poetic, plan for this most lovely of buildings.
I just hope its future occupants appreciate what a privilege that will be.
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