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.