Designed in Dundee
Watching the re-run of the BBC crime drama ‘Traces’, set in Dundee, sparked an urgent desire in Team Terroir to visit this remarkable city. We had heard about the Dundonian three Js, of course - Jute, Jam and Journalism - but ‘Traces’ also resurrected half-forgotten conversations with English friends who had studied various aspects of design at Dundee University. Dundee and design seemed to have a synergy which warranted exploration.
We were not disappointed. A five day stay in the heart of Dundee left us enthralled, surprised, enlightened, shocked, amused and warmed. A history of fishing, whaling, ship building, linen and jute weaving, marmalade making, polar exploration and journalism seems to have created a community which was tough, adaptable, robust, diverse and responsive both to need and opportunity. We found a city with wide streets, little traffic, busy buses, a tolerant attitude, two universities and a spectacular approach to heritage conservation. Not a bad set of lists for just 120 hours. Every city has its problems of course and we saw some evidence of social issues and, of course, the legacy of making money off the back of the British Empire. But none of that is specific to Dundee.
What follows is a very personal tour of the city, with particular reference to design and quirkiness. Five days is not enough to be objective, thorough or searching, but it is enough to know an enjoyable city break when you see one.
We started at the Dundee V&A. Following an international competition, the building was designed by the Japanese architects Kengo Kuma & Associates. I’m sure Mr Kuma will be delighted to know that Terroir thinks his design works well for its context and location - right on the water front next to Scott’s Antarctic exploration vessel, the Discovery. The ensemble creates a number of open spaces, one infested with penguins, which are perfect for a sunny Covid afternoon, if rather too close to one of Dundee’s few busy roads.
Inside, the ground floor is light and airy but so uncluttered by exhibits that you feel a bit cheated. Upstairs, the design gallery is wide ranging in materials, eras and purposes, and though it’s great eye candy, there just isn’t enough of it. One of the main reasons we came to Dundee leaves us disappointed and hungry for more.
The McManus, ‘Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum’ is a completely different kettle of marmelade. Housed in its Gothic Revival building, with a statue of Burns outside, clutching the now obligatory traffic cone, you can be forgiven for thinking the 154 year old gallery will be as fusty and Victorian as the V&A is minimalist and 21st century. But this museum is dedicated to Dundee as a whole and encased (literally) in its old-fashioned dark wood cabinets is a fascinating and varied picture of Dundee which brilliantly reflects the complexity of the city itself. Every industry, every era, every entertainment and every local character, is held up for inspection, instruction and enjoyment. You can search Dundee shops in vain for a pot of its ‘ane’ marmelade but you can be sure The McManus has both the story and the requisite artefact. It even gives house room to a small portrait of Dundee’s Victorian ‘bard’, William McGonagall (below right), notorious for his ‘extremely bad’ poetry, and for his (in)famous poem entitled ‘The Tay Bridge Disaster’.
Other indoor adventures consisted of trips to the Verdant Works (a former jute mill), and to the Discovery Centre to explore the Antarctic through the eyes of Captain Scott and his companions. Both are managed with imagination and professionalism by the Dundee Heritage Trust. The RRS Discovery was built in the city and the ship’s design was heavily influenced by the experience of the Dundee whaling industry. We were particularly struck by the enthusiasm and knowledge of the staff. How else would we know that Shackleton’s early departure from Scott’s 1901 expedition may not have been just for health reasons, but also because the pair didn’t always see eye to eye.
Thanks to the Verdant Works, we now know what jute looks like, where it grows and how to spin it into a fibre to make sacks, sails and gardening twine. And we also have a feel for how jute changed both Dundee, the Indian subcontinent, and the whaling industry. The Empire allowed Dundee to flourish - for a while and after a fashion, at any rate. Jute was grown in south Asia and exported to Europe for processing and selling on as a finished project. The factory owners (the ‘Jute Barons’) became very wealthy while the business lasted. In comparison, the Dundee mill workers’ wages were pretty meagre, but the wages of a jute farmer in India were absolutely pathetic. Finally, of course, the balance changed and increasigly jute was retained in Asia to supply the local mills and factories. Jute in Dundee was given a shot in the arm by two world wars - you need a lot of canvas to fight a war - but the heart had gone out of the European business by the latter part of the 20th century and even the Jute Barons had to look to other businesses to maintain their life styles.
Talking of pay, the Dundee mill wage for women and boys under 18 was lower than that for the men. Textile work was often undertaken by women (after all, linen weaving had started out as a home-based industry for women), and it became the norm to lay off the boys as soon as they became 18. During the jute era, therefore, Dundee became a city of working women and it was not unusual for men to become house husbands, raising the bairns at home. Unless you were working in the whaling industry, of course. The discovery that whale oil made processing jute a whole lot easier, meant expansion for the city’s whaling fleet and did no harm to the ship building industry either. The same can’t be said for the whales.
The jute mills were often beautifully constructed. Cox’s stack (above, top left) is the last, spectacular remant of the massive Camperdown Works. The Verdant Works (top right) was constructed with particularly elegant iron work. Dundee has lost much of it's industrial architectural heritage but increasingly these buildings are being converted to other uses, including residential. The main Verdant mill building currently houses mill technology including a steam engine, and an exhibition space. We were lucky to see the last day of a display of embroidered textiles illustrating the Scottish diaspora (above, lower row).
So now to explore Dundee’s cityscape. Many of the buildings are grand and Scottish…
… with beautiful detailed decoration …
… or are quirky and modern.
Walk up Dundee Law for views…
… or turn around to see the war memorial sitting slightly uncomfortably alongside some modern infrastructure, thankfully humanised with some typical Dundee murals.
But what of Dundee’s third ‘J’ - Journalism?
D C Thompson’s was a relatively late comer to the Dundee scene, setting up shop in 1905, but the Thompson family were not new to the city, and started converting their business interests from fishing to publishing in the late 19th century, finally purchasing the Dundee Courier in 1886. In 1905 they merged with the city’s other publishing house, (yes two in one city) and became one of the leading British publishers of the 20th century. Today, they are a significant employer in Dundee, with a stable of publications which includes a number of regional dailies plus many UK wide publications including, of course, the Beano, the Dandy, and the Commando comics. The company’s impact on the city’s design heritage is tangible, and we don’t just mean the courses on offer at the local Universities.
Dundee has a lot going for it. Although many Dundonians must have left for pastures new, surely it is significant that it never made it into the Proclaimers song ‘Letter From America’, itself harking back to the memorable line (‘Lochaber no more’) from an 18th century Jacobite air entitled simply ‘Lochaber’.
The Proclaimers sang:
Lochaber no more, Sutherland no more
Lewis no more, Skye no more …
Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Irvine no more
So glad that they agreed with us, that Dundee didn’t fit the message.
Because, Dundee is easy to leave. The habour doesn’t feature so much these days, but it has an excellent train service, good road network and even its own airport. Which brings us to two of Dundee’s icons which don’t begin with ‘J’.
These are the Tay Road Bridge (right) and the Tay Rail Bridge, below.
This last image is probably my favourite from the whole trip. You can even see the bases of the original bridge piers (the bridge which failed so catastrophically in 1879) lined up as a memorial, below the girders of the 1887 replacement.
