To mark our fiftieth anniversary, Dundee Civic Trust’s popular annual journal ‘City Scene’ has been renamed ‘Civic Dundee’. This 2023 issue contains a rundown of our Awards past and present, as well as a host of other fascinating material about the city.
Members can look forward to their free copies soon. Get a taste of the diverse contents here.
2023 issue (available soon)
Contents
The forthcoming relocation of British Telecom’s Dundee operations to new premises at West Marketgait will mean complete abandonment of the ‘new’ Telephone House, lying between Ward Road and West Bell Street. A planning application for conversion of this building to student accommodation has, however, been submitted (23/00684/FULL).
The office block was erected in the mid-1970s for what was then still known as Post Office Telephones. Built as an extension to the earlier Telephone House at the junction of Ward Road and Courthouse Square, it was one of the city’s biggest office developments. It was designed by the architectural practice of Ian Burke Associates. Visually it is very much of its time, although not necessarily unappealing. The site is a historic one, formerly occupied by the central fire station and (much earlier) the Dundee and Newtyle railway station.
The new proposal is to completely refurbish this outworn building inside and out to make it fit for modern student accommodation, providing over 400 bedspaces and support facilities. This is one of several applications for purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) in the city; and whilst a few projects are underway, significant demand for more quality accommodation remains.
While awaiting further details, the Trust is minded to be supportive of this project in principle.
Dundee Civic Trust, working with the Dundee Institute of Architects (DIA), organised successful housing design workshops that took place in June 2023 in the University of Dundee Department of Architecture and Urban Planning. The workshops’ aims were to achieve better design of housing in the city and to develop a template for developers, taking into account the need for compliance with the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4). Numerous other organisations and professions contributed to the workshops: architects; planners; private and social housing developers; community groups; Scottish Water and others.
The outcome was a report with recommendations for housing design standards that the Trust and DIA would wish to see included in the new Dundee Local Development Plan 3, the preparation of which is now underway with a view to adoption in 2028.
29 recommendations have been refined from the workshops and will in due course be submitted to the city planners as part of the consultation for the above Plan. We expect the call for such contributions to be made in the spring of 2024.
The first three recommendations are fundamental to all proposed housing developments and their wider context. The remaining 26 relate to the basic principles of NPF4, which must be adopted by all Local Development Plans and applied in consideration of planning applications: transition to net zero emissions; conserving and recycling assets; local liveability; compact urban growth; and rebalancing development to create opportunities in areas of past decline whilst managing development in areas of high demand.
These recommendations challenge “the business as usual” approach we have seen in many of the housing developments in Dundee. Preliminary discussions have been held by the Trust and DIA with the City planners and we expect a lively debate to follow with stakeholders in the development and retrofit of housing.
We must insist that new housing developments are worthy of the City’s status as the only UK UNESCO City of Design.
Read our recommendations here.
Further celebrations of the Civic Trust’s 50th anniversary took place at a Civic Reception at the City Chambers on 12 October, at which awards were made under three categories:
Full details will appear soon on the Awards page.
Thursday 18 April 2024, 7.30 pm
Talk by Bruce Keith
Author Bruce Keith will return to speak to the Trust about Scottish Milestones based on his book ‘Are We Nearly There Yet?’ – but this is not just a story of distance markers. This talk will also provide an insight into early methods of measurement and mapping in Scotland, as well as the travellers of the 18th and 19th century whose journals laid the foundation of the Scottish tourist industry.
The book was, the author claims, ‘inspired by the Road and the Miles to Dundee’—the familial reason for this will be explained to us during the talk.
The talk will take place at our usual venue, Dundee Art Society’s Roseangle Gallery. It comes after the business of our Annual General Meeting, which begins at 7.00pm (19:00) and runs for half an hour. Guests are welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine before the talk.
Thursday 21 March 2024, 7.00 pm
Joint meeting with Friends of Dundee Heritage Trust
Details to follow.
Thursday 15 February 2024, 7.00 pm
Talk by Roderick Stewart
“The Hecklie”, as Wm R Stewart & Sons (Hacklemakers) Ltd was known, was an unorthodox Dundee company founded in 1874 which expanded from making hackles for jute machinery to become the world leader in supplying pinned products to a wide range of industries with its own subsidiary, Stewarts of America Inc., in the USA. The story covers the company’s transition from traditional wooden staves to high-tech aluminium pinned tubes and also includes the stories of the ‘Nutshell’ folding caravan, ‘HMS Hackleworks’ and the company’s role in the saving of HMS Unicorn and the return of RRS Discovery to Dundee.
The talk will take place as usual in Dundee Art Society’s Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00pm (19:00). Guests are welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.
Thursday 18 January 2024, 7.00 pm
Details to follow.
Thursday 7 December 2023, 7.00 pm
Talk by Ken Peebles
When the Ballachulish bridge opened in 1975, replacing the old ferry across the Narrows, the travel geography of the west coast was altered for ever. The ‘new’ bridge is now approaching its 50th anniversary and Trust member Dr Ken Peebles will give us a layman’s guide to the theory which underpins the structural design of the bridge, followed by an insider’s description of a physical inspection carried out by the speaker.
The talk will take place as usual in Dundee Art Society’s Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00pm (19:00). Guests are welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.