| Administrative History | St Katherine's Club (also known as St K’s or St Kay's) was founded in October 1917 as a girls' club, by a small group of women. The object of the club was "to provide a social centre for working girls in Aberdeen."
The Club opened in two small rented rooms in a Shiprow tenement, the St Katherine's Halls, in January 1918. Initially catering for girls between 14 and 18, the Club ran a range of classes, mainly in domestic subjects, and social activities as well as having a religious focus (the Club had a chapel). Activities included home-craft, art and crafts, drama and literature and physical education. The Club moved to larger premises in Broad Street in 1919, and then to a purpose-built site in West North Street in 1937 (now, in 2017, the Lemon Tree music venue).
From 1937 the Club offered services and activities to both sexes and the wider community, and the organisation's name was changed to reflect this new role post WW2, becoming St Katherine's Community Centre. In the later decades of the 20th century the Centre's focus moved to social work, working with disadvantaged groups such as the homeless, drug abusers and those associated with antisocial behaviour. The Centre closed in 1985. In 1990, with the money from the sale of the Centre's building, the St Katherine's Trust was established and has met twice yearly to make financial donations to local organisations and groups.
Initially run by a committee of representatives from the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) (an association that continued with the Club becoming a YWCA centre post formation), the Scottish Girls' Friendly Society and the Girl Guides, the Club was later run as a Trust, with trustees included representatives from Aberdeen Corporation and, post 1975, the Grampian Regional Council. The Club was financed by system of donations and fund raising. |