Last year I posted an image of William Lane looking up the steps to Victoria Road.Well here's the opposite view, this time from the steps looking down towards King Street.
Everything in the picture has disappeared, with the exception of the building with the roof ladder across the other side of King Street.
The photo was taken by my brother around 1973ish.
The previous item on William Lane is in the November 2010 archive, if you want to have a dip and compare scenes.
Where and when were the last gas street lights in Dundee? I remember them in Crescent Street about 1975, and in the Hawkhill maybe as late as 1979.
ReplyDeleteBroughty Ferry had one well into the 1980s (the frame was still there when I last saw it a year or so ago visiting my parents in the Ferry) in the pend beside Bowmans the Stationers old shop leading down to Long Lane from Brook Street
ReplyDeleteThe wee shortcut from Dens Metals to Hillbank still had a working one very late 70's , nae leerie tho :)
ReplyDeleteyer right boab The Alexander Street Steps had gas lamps till the early 70s the corpoation lighting dept being over the wall on the south, where all the lampies went to die and I used to cut through to get my bus to school
ReplyDeleteI used to wonder how they lit the lamps after all the lighters were retired. This inspired me to search (past all the sites flogging gas lamps - on the Internet!) until I found a BBC Wales page titled "Lamplighters" that explained it.
ReplyDeleteThe old "manual" lamps had pull chains to turn the gas on/off. Later ones had a pilot light and taps controlled by mechanical timer that still had to be wound once a week, and adjusted according to season. I guess the ones in the picture were of the latter type.
I used to play snooker in the Premier snooker club with an old guy who was nicknamed `Wullie the Leary` as his job used to be light the gas street lamps.
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