Chamber on the move - October 2011
 Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce is moving to new premises at the gateway to the Energetica corridor to improve the service we offer our members.
The purpose built space within The Hub, a low carbon building in the Aberdeen Energy Park, will reduce costs while improving our training and events capability.
The Hub is adjacent to the Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre, 1km from our existing premises, and the move will take place in summer 2012.
Bob Collier, Chief Executive of the Chamber said: “This will provide the Chamber with a more efficient building and significantly reduced utility bills. It will also improve our training and events capabilities with new multi-functional meeting rooms designed specifically to meet our needs, enabling us to offer excellent service and support to members. The ability to hold a larger number of events in-house, not possible at our current site, will significantly reduce outsourcing venue costs.
“By slightly reducing our office floor space in comparison to our current premises, we will achieve all these benefits at a marginal increase in operating costs. The new building will also improve the current location and access issues for members and training delegates.”
History on the move
The Chamber’s move to its new custom-designed premises next year is the latest of several moves which the organisation has made since some of the most prominent business people in Aberdeen in 1853 first met with a view to discussing “the best mode of accomplishing the objects of a proposed Society for the Protection of Trade”.
That first meeting took place within the cosy confines of The Lemon Tree Tavern in Huxter Row, a much-loved favourite of the traders and businessmen of mid-19th century Aberdeen as a howff where the excellence of the food was matched only by the hospitality of Mrs Ronald the hostess.
The group, known at that time as the Aberdeen and North of Scotland Trade Protection Society, was the forerunner of today’s Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce and its intentions then, more than 160 years ago - to form a group of individuals who would work together to promote common business interests and support – were pretty much the same as they are today.
No doubt with much regret, within a few years the gathering of gentlemen bade farewell to the Lemon Tree Tavern and to the memory of “such creamy Finnan haddocks, such magnificent partan claws as Mrs Ronald was wont to place upon the table” to reconvene at a new meeting place at the Royal Hotel. The Lemon Tree alas had a less rosy future ahead. It, along with some other local taverns, were demolished when work began on the construction of the Town House in 1867 and an irreplaceable serving of local history was lost to progress and development.
In the years since then the Chamber has moved home several times to various offices in Union Street and Union Terrace until, thanks to the generosity of James Glegg, President from 1916-1918, it finally found a home of its own at 15 Union Terrace in 1918. The building is still there today marked by an engraved granite lintel above the doorway.
It was to remain there for almost 70 years before the prestigious property was sold and the Chamber moved briefly to Hadden Street, then to Albyn Place and later to George Street before moving to its current location at Greenhole Place in the Bridge of Don in 2005.
• A Brief History of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce can be accessed online at www.agcc.co.uk
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