Fons Stewartis

Spoilt for blips yesterday! Circumstances unexpectedly found me in Aberdeen's Stewart Park, which is around the Woodside/Hilton area. I knew that there were meant to be whale bones there and a fountain, so I found both!!

This fountain is dressed granite on the front and the untouched bare rock on the back. It is dedicated to John Taylor, whose widow left money for the city to buy land for the park, specifically a children's playground. Taylor was a merchant in Woodside, yet the park is named after former Provost David Stewart. Technically it should be Taylor Park!!

The whale jaw bones - though looking suspiciously like wooden replicas - are from a poor whale caught by the Aberdonian captain of the whaling ship Benbow and were donated in 1903.

Stewart Park was heavily bombed in Aberdeen's worst air raid on 21 April 1943, as the bowling clubhouse was destroyed. The changing rooms left there now are sadly mouldering into nothing - why all this waste?

I'm sure John and Mrs Taylor would have been delighted to see two teams of boys playing football and being tutored enthusiastically by their coach, but where did they get changed? The clubhouse is locked! Yet again the council need to get their act together and stop wasting money. At least our great men of the Victorian era cared about the city and pledged their money for good purposes to include everyone, not white elephants that no-one wants!! Perhaps I should start a campaign to have the park renamed? The Mrs John Taylor Playground? That's what she envisaged anyway!!