Joint event with Dundee Historic Environment Trust (details TBC)
Category: DCT-Events
The Port of Dundee – Contributions and Challenges, by Andrew Blake, Harbourmaster
The Port of Dundee – Its Contributions and Challenges, by Andrew Blake, Harbourmaster
Thursday 21 January 2027 will also be our annual joint event with Dundee Heritage Trust and will be introduced by DHT Chairman, David Henry.
Dundee has grown up around its harbour which has always played a central part in the city’s development. Andrew Blake, employed by Forth Ports as Marine Manager Dundee, but better known as the ‘Harbour Master’, will give a fascinating and wide-ranging talk about the port of Dundee, covering on its history, its current footprint and planned activities.
Andrew was born into a maritime family in Hampshire and has always had salt-water in his veins. He completed his schooling in South Africa, ha emigrated there with his family. After school, he joined the South African Navy (SAN), spending a considerable portion of his career at sea and rising to command three ships of three different classes. In his final five years he was responsible for the acquisition of a core mine-warfare capability for the SAN. During this period he also undertook the duties of standby naval harbourmaster and pilot.
In his quest to get closer to ships and the sea, Andrew chose to look to his country of birth with its strong maritime heritage in order to best utilise his skill set. His love for island living immediately attracted him to the position of port marine safety and counter pollution manager in 2015 in the Orkney Islands. In August 2017, Andrew was appointed Ferry Services Manager overseeing the day to day operations of the internal ferry services. After four years in this role, especially with the stresses of the Covid 19 pandemic, Andrew sought to return to the ports environment and accepted a position with Forth Ports as the Marine Manager Dundee. This role sees him responsible for the marine team, pilotage service and all marine safety aspects of the port.
Over and above this role and following on from his training and tonnage in Simon’s Town, Andrew became a licensed marine pilot in the port of Dundee in 2024, the first employed pilot in Forth Ports. His tonnage continues to mount with the diverse and regular shipping traffic in the port.
The talk will take place as usual in Dundee Arts Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm. Visitors are always welcome and there is our usual invitation to chat afterwards over a glass of wine.
“Obstacles, Opportunities, Observations” by Graeme Hutton RSA
Graeme Hutton RSA is an Architecture Professor and photographer. He was formerly Professor of Architecture and Deputy Dean at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, where he worked for 26 years. Considered a ‘Pracademic’ by his colleagues, he has always married his work in education with a commitment to creative practice. As an educator he has used The City of Dundee and comparator European cities as contexts for speculative design projects. His close association working with the city led to him being central to the procurement of the V&A building and the new Dundee House city headquarters.
As a practicing architect, his rural houses with LJRH Chartered architects have been recognised by various awards, including RIBA & RIAS, Scottish Design Awards, Dundee Institute of Architects, Angus Building of the Decade as well as being shortlisted for Grand Designs House of the Year. As a photographer his work has been showcased by Leica UK and exhibited at The Royal Scottish Academy and V&A Dundee.
Graeme has lived with multiple sclerosis for over 30 years and has been a wheelchair user for more than 10 years. He says:
“As a wheelchair user with a progressive illness, I use photography to explore the whole of my physical self in various contexts. I am now completely reliant on the chair, such that it is an extension of me, and I try to capture this situation in different contexts and in inventive, even beautiful ways. My sense of being at one with my disability is enabled through my creative practice. It is something over which I have complete control, now in a future that is less certain.”
Graeme’s illustrated talk, ‘Obstacles, Opportunities, Observation’ will explore the interconnections between these thematic topics as they pertain to our public realm, and their importance in helping shape rewarding creative work.
This will be our joint event with Dundee Institute of Architects and talk will take place as usual in Dundee Arts Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm. Visitors are always welcome and there is the usual opportunity to chat afterwards over a glass of wine.
“The Origins of Dundee’s War Memorial” by Matthew Jarron
We restart our Winter Evening Talks on Thursday 15 October 2026 when Matthew Jarron will tell us about “The Origins of Dundee’s War Memorial”
The war memorial beacon on the top of Dundee Law recently celebrated its centenary. For over a hundred years it has been one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, yet its location and its distinctive design were the subjects of considerable debate and controversy in the years immediately following the end of the Great War. In this talk, Matthew Jarron relates the complex saga of the memorial’s design and creation.
Matthew Jarron is Curator of the University of Dundee Museums, comprising over 35,000 artefacts, artworks and specimens displayed in a variety of venues including the Tower Foyer & Lamb Galleries, the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum and the Tayside Medical History Museum. Matthew is also Secretary of the Abertay Historical Society, co-ordinator of the Public Art Dundee project, a former chair of the Scottish Society for Art History and the author and/or editor of several books including Independent & Individualist: Art in Dundee 1867-1924.
Annual General Meeting, followed by ‘It’s Dundee: they are Cassies!’
Thursday 16 April 2026, 7.00 pm
Our Annual General Meeting will be followed by its customary public talk, this year delivered by board member Roderick Stewart.
THE CASSIES covering our Dundee streets are rapidly becoming an endangered species as they are relentlessly replaced by ‘safe’ tarmac, or, more deceitfully, replaced by modern machine-cut imitations. Even their very identity as ‘cassies’ is under threat as the invasive English ‘cobble’ encroaches, entirely incorrectly, into our vocabulary.
Roderick Stewart has been an observer and photographer of cassies and their kin, kerbs and flags, for many decades and this illustrated roam around our streets aims to highlight the extraordinary skills and the sheer scale of labour required to create our gloriously-textured streetscapes. It is also a passionate plea in favour of what we should be preserving. History can never be re-wound.
Roderick has been a ‘petrophile’ and cassie collector for many years; his collection includes tank-polished basalt from Moscow’s Red Square and some extraordinary ‘muckle setts’ from Vienna. These will also be on display.
The talk will take place, as usual, in the Dundee Art Society Roseangle Gallery following Dundee Civic Trust’s characteristically brisk AGM. The AGM will start at 7.00pm (19:00) and the talk will start at 7.30 (19:30). As always, visitors will be very welcome and there will be the opportunity for informal talk over a glass of wine afterwards.
How Dundee changed and developed between 1870s and 1970s
Thursday 19 March 2026, 7.00 pm
Talk by Kenneth Baxter (joint event with Friends of Dundee Heritage Trust)
Dundee has an unenviable reputation for demolishing much of its historic built environment. Between the 1870s and the 1970s many iconic buildings, streets and landmarks were lost as central Dundee underwent various redevelopments that greatly altered the character of the city. While this has come to be seen as civic vandalism on an epic scale, hindsight has clouded the fact that many Dundonians welcomed these changes when they happened and that the reasons behind them were often complex.
Starting with the massive alterations to the town centre that followed in the wake of the Dundee Improvement Act of 1871, this talk by Dr Kenneth Baxter, a well-known local historian based in Dundee University Archive Services, will explore how and why the core of Dundee’s centre was reshaped over a century, noting the economic, social and political factors that shaped these changes. It will also explore how Dundonians’ view of the city’s built heritage and its importance evolved over this time.
This talk will take place in the Dundee Art Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm. Guests are always welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.
Helen & Hard Architects: ‘Can we live together differently?’
Friday 6 March 2026, 6.00 pm
Joint event with Dundee Institute of Architects, to be held at V&A Dundee
This event sold out quickly, but we hope those fortunate to have secured a place will enjoy the evening.
The Dundee Institute of Architects, in partnership with Dundee Civic Trust, is pleased to announce a public lecture by internationally recognised Norwegian architects Helen & Hard, taking place at 6pm on Friday 6 March 2026 at V&A Dundee.
The event brings one of Europe’s most thoughtful and socially engaged architecture practices to the city, continuing the partners’ shared commitment to promoting high‑quality design and civic dialogue in Dundee. Presented under the working theme “Can We Live Together Differently?”, the lecture reflects current discussions around new forms of living, community participation and sustainable design.
Helen & Hard, founded by Siv Helene Stangeland and Reinhard Kropf, explore how architecture can support collaboration, community and ecological responsibility. Their work combines research, experimentation and craft, with a particular focus on innovative timber construction and resource‑conscious design. Through participatory processes and close engagement with users, they develop projects that strengthen social relationships and respond creatively to environmental challenges. Their portfolio spans cultural buildings, public projects, housing and co‑living developments, and has earned international recognition for its social insight and environmental ambition.
The lecture will introduce audiences to the practice’s design ethos and explore how architecture can support more connected, resilient and sustainable ways of living. The event forms part of V&A Dundee’s wider programme surrounding the opening of the new Maggie’s Dundee and is supported by the Norwegian Consulate.
Design for re-assembly: lessons from conservation for new buildings
Thursday 19 February 2026, 7.00 pm
Talk by Professor Fionn Stevenson
Dundee has a good record of re-using its heritage buildings, when it isn’t pulling them down. Jute mills have been repurposed into housing and churches converted for business. Most recently, Hillcrest Housing successfully transferred beautiful pitch pine timber beams from an old mill for re-use in the repair of RRS Discovery. Old buildings are also relatively easy to take apart for the re-use of materials. But what about our new buildings? How easy is it to take these apart? Which components can be re-used, which can’t, and why do it anyway?
Best practice in conservation ensures that any modern intervention in a heritage building is fully reversible, in order to preserve the original building features. There are lessons to be learned here to help ensure that modern buildings can also be easily deconstructed, such that their components can be re-used rather than recycled. This saves precious energy and resources.
Professor Fionn Stevenson, current Convenor of Dundee Civic Trust Planning Group, will share her passion for the re-use of fine building materials as well her work on promoting design for re-assembly through guidance cited by the Scottish Government.
This talk will take place in the Dundee Art Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm. Guests are always welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.
Dundee’s lost coastline: the story of Will’s Braes
Thursday 15 January 2026, 7.00 pm
Talk by Professor Rob Duck
The opening of the Dundee and Perth Railway in 1847 brought great economic benefits. However, in the west end of Dundee it initiated unprecedented environmental devastation, severing the connection between the land and the Tay. The coastal ‘paradise’ known as Will’s Braes between Invergowrie and Magdalen Green, much treasured by the town’s inhabitants, was almost completely destroyed with loss of botanical, geological and recreational amenity, together with the creation of pollutant-filled lagoons. This talk explores the changes that have taken place along this once natural ‘Riverside’ to the present day.
Rob Duck is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Geoscience at the University of Dundee and Chair of the Tay Estuary Forum.
This talk will take place in the Dundee Art Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm. Guests are always welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.
Dundee’s Victorian legacy – the Improvement Act of 1871
Thursday 20 November 2025, 7.00 pm
Talk by Iain Flett
Dundee citizens had two layers of government between 1975 and 1996: a top tier of Tayside Regional Council, which dealt with police, fire, roads and civil engineering; and the City of Dundee District Council, which was left with burials, licensing, museums and libraries. For a longer period from 1824 until 1894 (when Dundee became a unitary County of a City), it was much the same: Dundee Police Commissioners dealt with fire, police and civil engineering; and Dundee Town Council dealt with licensing, burials and eventually libraries.
‘Police’ in Scotland did not just mean bobbies on the beat; it meant good management of police, fire, public safety and sanitation. So the Police Improvement Act of 1871 dealt with lands for public markets and for public parks (i.e. Balgay); to make new streets (Commercial Street) and widen existing streets (Seagate); and, most importantly for post-cholera Dundee, to make an outfall sewer. The Police Commissioners were also meticulous in proudly recording their astounding achievements in a photograph album appropriately called Dundee Old and New.
Popular Dundee historian and archivist Iain Flett will take you through this—and you can weep at the déjà vu of mediaeval buildings being swept aside in the name of progress.
This talk will be a joint event with Dundee Historic Environment Trust and will take place in the Dundee Art Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm. Guests are always welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.