BILL McALLISTER: Cautionary texts are a focus of interest on Inverness High Street wall.
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
THE writing’s on the wall, as the saying goes, and that’s certainly the case on Inverness High Street.
Though often overlooked by locals going about their business, these Biblical inscriptions are at least 150 years old on a prominent building erected only 10 years after the Battle of Trafalgar.
The back story of 1-7 High Street is a weird mix of ancient holy warriors, an urge for learning – and a warning to erring councillors!
Those of us of a certain vintage recall the Claude Alexander tailor shop being on the building’s ground floor in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, with a chemist on one side and an optician on the other.
It had originally been called Geddes’ Building, presumably after its initial owner, and the land on which it stands is reputed to have been in the ownership of the Knights Templar.
The Knights, a religious and military order which escorted pilgrims to Jerusalem, had lands in Nairn, Ardersier, Inverness and Dingwall, which they rented out to swell their order’s wealth.
In Nairn, they acquired arable land from local burgess John Rose and his relative Hugh. The ‘Temple Lands’ in Ardersier were held by Davidsons and Mackays before becoming part of Cawdor Estates in 1626.
The central Inverness location was a prime site but once the Templars were suppressed by Edward II it passed to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem and through a series of hands before eventually Geddes’ Building rose on the burgh skyline.
The classically styled ashlar four-storey building has a five-bay frontage and, notably, an attractive rounded corner into Church Street.
When completed in 1815, its first occupants were members of The Athenaeum. There was a time when there were many such in Britain, the name being for a library or an institute for literary or scientific study.
The Athenaeum’s brief existence in Inverness ended in 1823, although the burgh did not have a public library for another 60 years, with some shops offering a lending service.
The premises, however, continued to be referred to by their former name, with the 1867 Town Plan describing it as ‘Athenaeum Buildings’.
Across the road from it stood the ‘old’ Town House, built in 1708, but the present one was built in 1818, only three years after Geddes’ Building opened.
So when did the religious texts first appear?
One theory is that they were inscribed when the building was completed. But it is also maintained that they were added at the suggestion of then-Provost John Mackenzie, who held office from 1867 to 1873.
Mackenzie’s intention, allegedly, was that the inscriptions could be read from the Town Hall, as reminders to the bailies and councillors who were occasionally asked to recite the texts, and as a test of sobriety.
One of the texts states: “Woe unto him that givest his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him and makest him drunken also.”
This enduring reminder to our elected representatives may have caused specific embarrassment down the decades!
Ironically, the next-door neighbour is now The Caledonian public house.
Some in the Town House may have further squirmed at the text: “Be not deceived, neither fornicators nor adulterers nor thieves nor drunkards shall inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Inevitably, the inscriptions began to fade but Inverness Civic Trust began a campaign to have them painted. This succeeded 25 years ago with funding from Inverness and Nairn Enterprise. The texts are still fairly clear and readable.
Inverness City Suites visitor accommodation now takes up upstairs space in the B-Listed building.
Long may the writing on its wall continue to be a magnet for tourists’ cameras.
n Sponsored by Ness Castle Lodges.
