Sunday 5 April 2009

The Good the Bad and the Ugly



Don't get me wrong, I love Dundee. I'm a Dundonian and proud of it. Trouble is, no other Scottish city has such a history of totally disastrous town planning. Something of a paradox,  given that the Father of Town Planning, Patrick Geddes, was a professor at Dundee University. 
Here's a couple of examples of what I mean. In the top pic, the new building on the right is Dundee Contemporary Arts. Nothing wrong with a Contemporary Arts building being built along contemporary style. But why the hell stick it next to a beautiful old church like that?
The bottom pic is even more criminal, slap bang in the city centre we have another fine old church and look what they put up beside it...... a Mecca bingo hall!.....someone should really have been made to suffer for these atrocities!
Other cities put statues up to famous sons, adventurers, poets and heroes....... what do we have in the city square?....... Desperate Dan!.........doh!
Odd thing is, we can criticise our city with impugnity...... but let any outsider start and that's when the trouble begins. 

9 comments:

  1. "...... but let any outsider start and that's when the trouble begins."

    I was gonna say something about that Orwellian CCTV camera perched up on that pole in front of the church (top pic) but I don't want to start any trouble.

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  2. Funny you should say that. Thats not actually a CCTV camera, it's a 'contemporary' thingy. However, I was in Broughty Ferry this afternoon taking some pics and as I was focussing on a building, a CCTV zoomed round on me. Talk about Big Brother! So I pointed the camera at the CCTV camera and stared it out....... one up to the people!!! ha ha. I'll post the pic soon.

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  3. I think ms burner is correct, and moreover there are cameras on poles in front of both of the churches - amazing. I'm not sure what to think of it. However, some things never change. When I lived in Dundee in the early 90's (actually I only worked in Dundee and we stayed across the bridge in Newport-on-Tay), everyone maligned those who in the 1950's had torn down the historic buildings around the nethergate to replace them with austere square ugly "modern" buildings with no aesthetic appeal whatsoever.

    Thanks for doing this blog - it reconnects me with many wonderful memories, and reminds me that I need to plan a holiday visit somehow.

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  4. My apologies, you're both correct. Never noticed that. Perhaps it's because we're just so damned used to the bloody things now. They're everywhere. Newport eh?.... you must be posh!....lol.

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  5. My husband's a Dundonian, so I feel I can say that I'd have recognised that wonderful juxtaposition anywhere!

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  6. Ah! And I didn't see the other CCTV camera... if it's not god watchin' ya, it's someone else.

    It zoomed in on you? How creepy is that!

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  7. Oh and I lived in Wivenhoe (in 'almost Suffolk,' they say)... to answer your earlier question (I'm not sure if you read your older posts/comments - so I echo myself here). I loved it there.

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