Aberdeen's Music Hall stands on Union Street, a thoroughfare so pleased with itself when built around 1800 that locals dubbed it 'The Finest Street in the Empire'. The hall does its best to live up to that boast. Raised as the Assembly Rooms to designs by Archibald Simpson, then a young architect with a reputation still to make, it cost £11,500 in Dancing Cairns granite and reportedly made his name overnight.

Its Neoclassical facade remains the finest on Union Street, no small claim on a street thick with granite grandeur. Inside, the original design let the county's great and good meet, mingle and dine under one roof. The building's fortunes have been patchy since, but a 2017 refurbishment kept it central to city life.

VoiceMap's 'Explore Union Street' audio tour passes the Music Hall while tracing why Aberdeen earned its nickname, the Granite City, one polished facade at a time.