Dundee's Lost Architectural Heritage. Edinburgh

156 Review REVIEW Charles McKean and Patricia Whatley, Lost Dundee: Dundee’s Lost Architectural Heritage. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2008. Pp. 224. 150 illus. ISBN 978-1-84158-562-8. CAD$30.00. McKean and Whatley’s book, Lost Dundee, is a fasci- nating and at times saddening look at Dundee’s lost architectural heritage. It is both a time-line of urban development in one of Scotland’s most important burghs, and a case study in the repercussions of urban renewal. As part of a wider series of books which survey the loss and replacement of architecture in British cities, such as Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Plymouth and Bristol, the authors of the Dundee study have not only recorded lost buildings, but also delineated the processes and influences in the decision making behind the renewal programmes. It is as much a critique of the socio-economic and political structures involved in tearing down the medieval and early modern fabric as a catalogue of lost architecture in both the urban core and its surrounding suburbs and satellite settlements. An eclectic assortment of examples from the twelfth to the twenty-first centuries illustrates what has been lost in the sacred name of “progress.” Lost Dundee consists of three parts divided up into six chapters, with each part having a general introduction and a more detailed chapter on architectural heritage. Together, the three parts form a chronology of Dundee’s transition from medieval sea port (1320 to 1820), to industrial “Juteopolis” (1820 to 1900), and finally through the post-industrial decline to its rebirth as an important university city (1900 to 2008). Added to these sections are a formal introduction, a list for further reading, and a IRSS 35 (2010) 157 wonderfully rich array of drawings, paintings, early photographs, and documents; in part a visual display of the changing architecture and in part a memorial. The first two chapters detail the royal burgh’s role as a sea port, a point emphasised in the name of one of the four principal streets of the town, the Seagate. The authors suggest that despite the lack of many of the traditional elements of urban patronage, such as the king, court, archbishops, a university, or a great magnate, Renaissance Dundee thrived due to its port facilities and the resourcefulness of its merchant community. Despite setbacks in the seventeenth century, trade continued to grow. In tandem, textile production also grew in and around Dundee, and would eventually outstrip the importance of the town’s role as a port. Continuing on the general theme of Dundee’s seaport phase, the second chapter explores the built environment that helped to define this era of the burgh’s story. From the Guildry’s 1650 Harbour Sundial, to Provost Pierson’s Warehouse on the “New Shore,” both the sea and trade had critical influences on the fabric of early modern Dundee. Public spaces, such as the market place and main thoroughfares, as well as the private spaces, such as the courtyard houses of the merchant elite, are discussed, giving an intimate picture of Renaissance Scotland’s second town. While the port aspect of Dundee remains important throughout the second part of the book, the focus shifts in the third and fourth chapters to the rise of industry in the town, with special attention being paid to the importance of jute in the town economy by the 1850s. Complementing this discussion, is commentary on a range of factors which shaped nineteenth century Dundee, such as earlier linen production, harbour improvements, the introduction of railways, and the erection of mill complexes. In the Juteopolis architectural chapter, the topics range from the building of “jute palaces” to the famous 158 Review mill chimney, the Dens’ Obelisk; from the triumphal Royal Arch at the harbour, built to welcome Victoria and Albert, to the coming of the railway, which was built on reclaimed shoreline, and effectively severed the city from the Firth of Tay. Of particular importance is the discussion of the 1871 Dundee City Improvement Act, which started off a process that from 1873 to 1963 “system - atically removed” the fabric of the medieval port-town (p. 145). The last of the three parts of the book focuses on the slow decline of industry and the rebirth of Dundee as a university city. The demolition of the “Vault,” with its courtyard-collection of historic municipal buildings and a seventeenth-century mansion, and the much-resisted razing of the 1730s William Adam Townhouse in the early-twentieth century, led to Caird Hall and new municipal buildings. Hotels and shopping centres replaced entire streets of early-modern and Georgian buildings. The replacement of the Victorian Royal Arch with the Tay Road Bridge, as well as the cutting-edge city bypass emphasised the city’s desire for modernity, a theme taken up in discussion of twentieth-century architecture, such as cinemas, shopping malls, dance halls, housing schemes, converted mills, and declining docks. Symbolic of this modernity was the replacement of several Georgian houses owned by the new university with a tower block. While much of the industry was declining, the university was thriving, and has become a renowned centre for learning, literally built on the ruins of the Juteopolis. One of the strengths of the book is the pictorial evidence for the Dundee which was not considered worth keeping, an incredibly rich archive of photographs, maps, plans, paintings and drawings of the town’s lost architectural and historical heritage. Photography had developed, and was therefore able to capture many examples of the medieval and early modern town which would be removed by the renewal programme started IRSS 35 (2010) 159 in 1871. Many of the photographs were taken as the buildings were in the process of being taken down; buildings which were carelessly traded for the contemporary ideals of modernity. Several maps are included, ranging from the 1500s Pont depiction to more accurate repre - sentations produced from the 1700s onwards, as are many paintings and etchings of the burgh. Of particular importance are previously-unpublished drawings from the sketchbooks of Charles S. Lawson, a mid-nineteenth century artist who recorded 664 views of closes, buildings, interiors and architectural detail prior to their destruction after the 1871 Act. McKean and Whatley’s book carries a clear message about the wanton waste of historical buildings, a calamity due in part in Dundee’s case to the town’s “lack of a coherent urban strategy” (p. 82). Yet the urban renewal which is observed in this book is as important a part of Dundee’s history as the medieval past. While the authors make it clear that certain aspects of modernisa- tion have been beneficial for Dundee, it is the manner in which it was pursued which is called into question, and the irreversibility of this is highlighted. Overall this book has much to offer, both as an introduction to Dundee’s rich history and as a reference guide for those who want to know more about specific buildings, streets or districts. The wealth of illustrations, maps and pictures alone are a valuable resource, and when combined with the authors’ analysis of the specific context, the book sets a high standard to be aspired to in similar studies of other towns in Scotland and beyond. A. M. Allen University of Edinburgh.

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