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St Paul Street Chamber

Aberdeen City Centre, St Paul Street, Aberdeen City.

Subterranean chamber and passage (18th Century) beside a former extension of St Paul Street, now buried (infilled?) beneath the Bon Accord Centre complex.

There are two contradictory descriptions:

"A void of almost 8ft (2.4m) led further underground into a brick-lined chamber about 10-and-a-half feet (3.2m) in height.

Investigators found the floor was paved in bricks, with little channels that drained towards a well in the centre. A set of steps lead to an even larger chamber, about 15ft wide and 9ft 4in high (4.6m by 2.8m)... the large space had drainage channels leading to a deep hole in the centre. An even bigger channel passed under the bricks from the hole to a flue, and was found to be sooty inside. Upon greater investigation, it was discovered the passage extended to about 85ft (26m) underground, the ends closed off by buildings erected after the tunnel was abandoned."

or

"On Saturday morning, the water had been pumped out of the curious underground beehive-like chamber discovered in St Paul Street, and the workmen employed were enable to enter what proved to be a spacious circular room about fifteen feet high, and with a similar diameter." ... "Operations had recently started to convert an old house in St Paul Street into a motor garage, where excavations for repair had uncovered a stone stab. On removal of the stone slab, which was 2 feet by 2 feet, a large vaulted passage was revealed." [AberdeenLive: P&J April 1912]

"By May, a follow up article was published which states: "The slab was about 20 inches below the floor of the house. The floor of the passage is 7 ½ feet below the slab, and it is evident that a ladder must have been used as a means of getting from the house to the passage." ... "The vaulted passage was found to lead through to a brick-lined chamber, which sits at 8 feet wide and 10 feet tall. Water had clearly made its way through the brick, with archeologists assuming it flowed down into unknown depths." [AberdeenLive: P&J May 1912]

It was noted that the workmanship was very well, producing the chambers which once held barley - which could have been dampened at intervals with water which flowed down. The larger chamber which followed on from the vaulted passage was assumed to have been a steeping place for barley, to make it into malt. To produce malt, barley needs two or three days to swell and sprout. The process is most successful in weather that is neither too warm or too cold, therefore in winter months having a method of heating the barley is necessary. Further investigations of the barley chamber showed the ends of the passage were closed by buildings which had been built after the tunnels were abandoned, exits which would have once conducted smoke from the fire used to dry the produced malt. The article continues: "Documents in the possession of the proprietor of the house show that before 1744 it was in the possession of a mason, who may have made the underground works. It was afterwards owned by a merchant, and in 1822, when the duty on whisky was very high, by an officer of Excise." [AberdeenLive]

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: It is widely believed that the chamber was used as an illicit still, although others have considered the possibility that it was an underground brewery, icehouse, or even cesspool (for nearby historic mansions or boys' hospital).

"... the distilling process could take place secretly underground with no visible clues such as smoke above ground... "The processes go on best when the weather is neither too warm nor too cold, and in the winter it is desirable to have the means of warming the barley in the germinating stage.

"This seems to have been accomplished in the big chamber by putting into the mouth of a central hole a vessel filled with red-hot malt cinders, which burn without giving off smoke. "A stone quern, useful for grinding malt, was found above the ground in the neighbourhood of the underground chambers." " [Press & Journal]

Location approx. based on street layout shown on 1869 OS map.

Design similar to other known icehouses, defintely suggests the storage of something in the upper chamber requiring drainage to below. Size suggests a commercial operation but does not exclude association with a large house, monastery or hospital.

The image accompanying the AberdeenLive article [possibl a bricked over stream culvert] does not match either description although the canmore image does show a circular chamber of the correct dimensions.