Marischal College

Marischal College front viewed from Upper Kirkgate

Marischal College is a building and former university in the centre of the city of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland. The building is owned by the University of Aberdeen and used for ceremonial events. A significant portion of the College building is leased on a long-term basis to Aberdeen City Council, providing the council with corporate office space adjacent to the city's Town house, the historic seat of local government.

Formerly the seat of the ancient Marischal College and University of Aberdeen founded in 1593, the building was retained by the unified University of Aberdeen following its creation in 1860 by the merger of Marischal College and King's College, a university founded in 1495 in Old Aberdeen to the north of the modern Aberdeen city centre. The buildings of Marischal College continued to be used for general university purposes until recent times and were significantly rebuilt and expanded upon throughout this period. The construction of the modern college building began in 1835 and took its present form in the early part of the 20th century, following the demolition of previous buildings on the site. It is the second largest granite building in the world.^[1]

In recent times, teaching at the university gravitated towards King's College or Foresterhill for medicine students and a new purpose for Marischal College was considered and consequently leased to the City Council. The extensive renovation was completed on schedule and significantly under budget and the building opened to the public in June 2011.^[2] The university has retained the Mitchell Hall and a number of other significant parts of the building, in addition to the Marischal Museum for its own use.

History

Marischal College from the rear, showing Mitchell Tower and Mitchell Hall

Marischal College and University of Aberdeen was the formal name of the former university which occupied the present Marischal College site. The College was founded in 1593 by George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal of Scotland. The original charter of the university was lost by the early 18th century, but two near-contemporary copies exist - one of which was accepted by the courts in 1756 as being authentic.^[3][4] In this charter, Marischal College is described variously as a gymnasium, collegium (college), academia (academy) and universitas (university).^[3]

Marischal was the second of Scotland's post-mediaeval 'civic universities', following the University of Edinburgh, created without Papal bull and with a more modern structure and a greater resemblance to the Protestant arts colleges of continental Europe.^[5] As such, both Edinburgh and Marischal came to be known as the 'Town Colleges' of their respective cities. The university was founded with the expressed aim of training clergy for the post-Reformation Kirk.^[3] It is believed that Keith desired a protestant institution alongside the pre-Reformation King's College, although King's had been Protestant since 1569. It is possible that the founding of another college in nearby Fraserburgh in 1592 was the true cause; its founder Sir Alexander Fraser was a business rival of Marischal.^{[citation needed]}

The College was constructed on the site of a medieval Franciscan Friary, disused after the Reformation. This building was later replaced by a William Adam designed building in the mid-18th century, however this, together with the Friary remains, were demolished entirely for the construction of the present building between 1835 and 1906. The college's Greek motto translates as "virtue is self-sufficient".

The Mitchell Hall, where University of Aberdeen graduations historically take place, was built in the early 20th century. It is named for Dr Charles Mitchell, an alumnus of the university and a Tyneside shipbuilder. A large stained-glass window dominates the hall, executed by TR Spence of London and representing the university's history.^[6]

The building was commended by John Betjeman following a visit to Aberdeen

"No-one can dismiss Marischal College, Aberdeen, when looking at the work of the present century. Wedged behind a huge town hall in an expensive and attractive mid-Victorian baronial style, I saw a cluster of silver-white pinnacles. I turned down a lane towards them, the front broadened out. Oh! Bigger than any cathedral, tower on tower, forests of pinnacles, a group of palatial buildings rivalled only by the Houses of Parliament at Westminster.

“This was the famous Marischal College. Imagine the Victorian tower with a spire on top, and all that well-grouped architecture below of lesser towers, and lines of pinnacles executed in the hardest white Kemnay granite and looking out over the grey-green North Sea and you have some idea of the first impression this gigantic building creates.

“It rises on top of a simple Gothic one designed by Simpson in 1840. But all these spires and towers and pinnacles are the work of this century and were designed by Sir Alexander Marshall Mackenzie. You have to see them to believe them.” ^[7]

There is an urban legend that Marischal College was Adolf Hitler's favourite building in the United Kingdom and that he would have liked to have used it as a residence if the outcome of the Second World War had been different.^[8] This was a fabrication by students at the University of Aberdeen.

University of Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen was created after the merger of Marischal College and King's College, Aberdeen in 1860 under the terms of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858.

The following extract refers to this merger:^[9]

"Universities of Kings College and Marischal College, Aberdeen. First Report of the Commissioners, 1838. 1837-38. Vol. XXXIII, 75p. [123] Chairman: Lord John Cunninghame.

The commissioners were in favour of a merger of the two colleges despite opposition from Kings College. They considered the unification as essential for the educational system of Northern Scotland although they disagreed with the proposed method of merger laid down by the last commission. The buildings of Marischal College were in very bad repair but new ones were under construction. Additions had been made in 1827 to Kings College buildings which were in a tolerable state of repair."

Marischal College with the new front under construction; circa 1900

The building standing today, which replaced a number of older structures, was constructed between 1837 and 1844 by Aberdeen architect Archibald Simpson. This 1837 building formed a U-shaped quadrangle, with a small entrance via an archway amidst unrelated housing on the west side. The building was substantially extended between 1893 and 1905 by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, and with its new "granite cage" front, enclosing the quadrangle, it became the second-largest granite building in the world (exceeded only by the Escorial Palace near Madrid).^[10]

Present use

The only parts of the college building used chiefly by the university are the Mitchell Hall, the Marischal Museum, and the Anatomy department, which was used for 1st year medicine students until March 2009. The Museum was re-established in 1907, but is not currently open to the public. It is also home to the University's Debating chamber.

The University leased the Marischal College site to Aberdeen City Council for 175 years in exchange for £4.7 million.^[11]

In 2007 plans were announced detailing the refurbishment of the college as new headquarters for the Council. The subsequent scheme, by architects Holmes Partnership, involved the demolition of the Marischal College interior and its replacement by a 21st century office building, providing 17,000 square metres of modern office space on four floors for up to 1,300 city council staff. The granite facade was retained.^[12]

Greyfriars Church

Amongst the buildings demolished to make way for the new frontage of Marischal College at the turn of the 20th century, was the Greyfriars collegiate church, built in 1532 and incorporated as part of the College in 1593. Following a dispute regarding the conservation of this church, a new church building was constructed within the Marischal College complex. It is incorporated into the College frontage, which includes the southern tower, notable for being surmounted with a spire.^[13]

The southern tower of the Marischal College frontage - the spire of Greyfriars Church, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, 1903

Following a merger, this church was later to become known, ironically, as Greyfriars John Knox Church.^[14] The building is currently unused and is being offered for sale by the Church of Scotland for commercial or residential use.^[15]

Alumni

Notable alumni of Marischal College include:

• Alexander Bain (1818–1903), Philosopher, Educationalist and Professor of Logic and Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen
• James Blair (Virginia), (1656–1743), clergyman, founder of College of William and Mary
• James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714–99), jurist, philosopher, linguist; thinker on evolution
• Robert Brown (1773–1858), botanist; discoverer of Brownian Motion
• Nathaniel Lardner (1684–1768), English theologian
• Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet, General, hero of the Indian Mutiny, buried in Westminster Abbey^[16]
• Rev. John Skinner (1721–1807), poet, historian and ecclesiastic.
• Alexander Keith, D.D. Church of Scotland theologian
• Sir Alexander Ogston, Scottish surgeon; discoverer of Staphylococcus aureus.

See also

• List of early modern universities in Europe

References

1. ^ How we built Britain by David Dimbleby
2. ^ BBC News: Council moves into Marischal College
3. ^ ^{a b c} . JSTOR 530957. 
4. ^ Skene v. Duff
5. ^ http://www.eupjournals.com/doi/abs/10.3366/E0020157X07000054
6. ^ http://vcs.abdn.ac.uk/grads/documents/brochure.pdf
7. ^ http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ACCI/web/site/CouncilDepartments/CI/cdp_marischal_college_heritage.asp
8. ^ http://www.ausa.org.uk/downloads/handbook_web_small.pdf
9. ^ Haythornthwaite, J.A.: Scotland in the 19th Century; hosted by Strathclyde University, pub. 1993
10. ^ "University of Aberdeen website: About Marischal College". http://www.abdn.ac.uk/central/vcampus/marischal/marischal.shtml. 
11. ^ "University of Aberdeen media release". http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mediareleases/release.php?id=492. 
12. ^ "Aberdeen City Council media release". http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/acci/web/site/CouncilNews/pr/pr_ACCmarisch_180707.asp. 
13. ^ http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/properties/documents/propgreyfriarschurchrev.pdf
14. ^ http://www.presbaberdeen.org.uk/greyfriars%20centenary.htm
15. ^ http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/properties/index.htm
16. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition

External links

• Marischal College Redevelopment proposals for Aberdeen City Council’s new headquarters
• The Marischal Museum
• The Marischal Virtual Museum
• The now abandoned project to make Marischal a hotel
• The University of Aberdeen
• Aberdeen City Council
• Flickr Marischal College Group
• History of Greyfriars Church

Coordinates: 57°08′58″N 2°05′47″W / 57.1495°N 2.0964°W / 57.1495; -2.0964