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Step back in time: Aberdeen’s Timmer Market

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Aberdeen’s Timmer Market was an annual treat not to be missed by families who flocked in their droves to the colourful and busy stalls.

Dating back to the 13th century,  it originally boasted toys and goods made from wood – hence the name “timmer”, from timber. However, in its modern days it was offering everything from cuddly toys to pea shooters, as well as unique wares, food and family entertainment.

It was traditionally held in the city’s historic Castlegate, but with the arrivals of trams and traffic it was shifted to wasteland behind Justice Street in about 1913. It thrived there for decades – with an occasional return to the Castlegate – and was still pulling in crowds in the 1950s, but eventually petered out by the 1990s.

Join us now, as we step back in time at the Timmer Market.

A view of the Timmer Market in the Castlegate in August 1931, with eager shoppers crowding around the stalls.


Traditionally, wooden goods of every type were available from peashooters and mouse traps to washtubs and tattie choppers at the Timmer Market… as can be seen in this photo from 1945.


Three-year-old Robert Henderson tries a wooden barrow for size at the August 1956 Timmer Market.


Crowds flocking to the ever popular Timmer Market back in 1961, when it was held on wasteland that became the Justice Street car park and is today the Timmermarket Clinic.


Not even a pair of tooteroos can rouse two year old Gordon Slessor from his slumber at the Timmer Market in 1967. But Kenneth, 4, and Michele Smith, 2, clearly think the market is a blast.


While the Timmer Market was traditionally a wooden affair, by 1989 the big demand was for soft toys…and five-year-old Louise Cooper found it difficult to choose from the huge selection.