Union Street, Aberdeen
Union Street is Aberdeen's grand Georgian-era main thoroughfare, cut through the city in the early 1800s and lined for over a mile with the granite facades that give Aberdeen its nickname, the "Granite City." It's the spine the rest of the centre hangs off — shops, banks turned into bars, the Music Hall, and views down side streets to the harbour and the sea — and walking it end to end gives a genuine sense of Aberdeen's Victorian-era wealth, built largely on granite quarrying, fishing, and shipping.
Like many British high streets, parts of Union Street have struggled economically in recent decades, and there's ongoing work to reinvent stretches of it, so it's not a polished tourist promenade — but the architecture above street level remains consistently impressive, and it's the natural spine for exploring everything else in central Aberdeen, from Marischal College to Provost Skene's House to Aberdeen Art Gallery, all a short walk off it.
Union Street, Aberdeen FAQs
Parts of it have restricted traffic access, but it's generally a functioning street with vehicles rather than a fully pedestrian zone — check current arrangements.
A walk end to end, looking up at the granite facades rather than just the shopfronts, gives the best sense of its Georgian-era architecture.
It has a mix of chain shops and some independent businesses, though like many UK high streets it has seen closures in recent years.
Most of central Aberdeen's key sights — the art gallery, Marischal College, Provost Skene's House — are a short walk off Union Street.
Because so much of its Victorian and Georgian architecture, including Union Street's facades, is built from local grey granite.
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