This would have been taken around the late 60's then.
I can't name all the premises but going up from Boots on the right is - next door, Whyte's pub on the corner of the entrance to Bain Square. Massey's grocer and Hunter's household goods were in the next section up as far as the Kirk entry area, then up from that is British Relay and Watt's music shop. Can't really see much beyond that.
So crossing the road coming back down - I'm fairly sure that's a pub sign above where the 2 guys are - if so then that would be the Forester Arms Bar on the corner of Baltic Street. Can't make out the shops in the section down from it but that takes you onto Meadow Street with another couple of unknowns before it reaches LS Chalmers drapers and Malone Shoe Repairs. Coupar's Alley has Nelson Confectioner on the other corner and finally the bloke standing on the chair is outside the Wellgate Snack Bar.
If ever the phrase "A Trip Down Memory Lane" can be taken literally, then the old Wellgate is the place that does it best for me!
Click onto the image to enlarge and have a look around.
Photo from Gordon C.
Great photo - brings it all back. Wish they'd left it like this....
ReplyDeleteA couple of weeks ago, I posted a comment about having parked on the bomb sight that was the Wellgate after it was knocked down and before the building of the Wellgate Centre started. I said that in the sea of mud etc. the only thing that remained was the mosaic which was the doorstep of Boots and blow me down there it is in the bottom right of the picture. Well done Retro.
ReplyDeletehttp://i.imgur.com/abHG9ld.jpg
DeleteI can remember a shop up near the steps where me mum used to take me in and there was dodgems on the top floor anyone remember this, there was a fruit shop up that end as well because me brother got a "I'll draw me hand across yir face" for eating a grape he did not purchase i.e "knocked"..!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad waste, tarted up a wee bit could have still been serving the city well beyond the current centre is pulled down (it has got to be next)
ReplyDeleteI'm maybe suffering from some kind of false memory...but I've a recollection of a wee sweetie shop (or at least a shop that sold sweeties), near the top of the Wellgate, that was still trading when demolition was underway. I remember being in there one day, while outside it was just the noise of bulldozers and the swirl of dust clouds.
ReplyDeleteFor a short time in the late 60's my dad and a couple of his mates had a sheet metal works in Meadow Street.
ReplyDeleteSometimes on Saturday mornings and during holidays he would take me to work.
He'd set me loose after a few minutes and I'd spent all day going around the shops from the Wellgate up Victoria Road to Brian Sherrif's. Loved all these shops.
I remember the mini-dodgems very well. Had many a go on them as a kid. I remember being a bit freaked out by the big plastic policeman in the middle of the ride the first time I went.
ReplyDeleteExcellent picture, this should have been modernised and cleaned up not demolished to be replaced by the concrete monstrosity that we have now.
ReplyDeleteI remember the dodgems well, and the big policeman in the middle, great times and memories. I remember the sweet shop , we used to get a twisted barley sugar cane from there after being on the dodgems. I also remember looking into a shop window that sold 'moothies' ah the good old days.
guys! don't forget the Dalek !!!!! Exterminate :)
ReplyDeleteTHE DESTRUCTION OF OLD DUNDEE WAS A SCANDAL NOTHING LESS, WE ALL LOST OUT.
ReplyDeleteI remember sitting in a Dalek in the Wellgate.
ReplyDeleteThe place was ...facing up towards the Hulltoon... about half way up on the left hand side on a corner site.
The walls were painted a sky blue and the place was a bit steamy and unventillated as I remember!
I also think I was in Hunter's. Again about half way down. There was a lot of black marble or granite and inside there were haberdashery drawers selling gloves and knickers and socks and all that sort of stuff.
Turns out that when I did a bit of digging into the history of the house I was living in about 10 years ago, it was originally owned by the Hunter family from the shop in the Wellgate in the early 1900s
I remember the dalek- I always hurried past it 'cos they scared me when I was a kid. Actually, they still do
ReplyDeletespot on Bridie, but werent you too young to know about air con ??? :)
ReplyDeleteForget the barbers name that had his shop in Charles Street of the Wellgate but he cut the coolest haircuts in the early 70s. Think he lived in Hilltown Tce.
ReplyDeleteit was raymond somebody who went on to be sweeney todd.
ReplyDeleteThe pub on the left is the Forester's Arms. 'Wish they'd left it like this....' - yes, exactly.
ReplyDeleteOops - just read your original comment properly and noticed that you mentioned the Forester's....now I feel like a wally.
ReplyDeleteThink fruit shop at top of steps was Drydens.Stayed in Charles St early 50s for about 4 year.Great childhood running about wellgate as a six year old,photo brings back happy memories,thank you.
ReplyDeletenext door to british relay was menzies and sons. gents outfitters
ReplyDeleteI remember around 1969 a furniture van that was parked at the top of the wellgate beside the furniture shop, rolled down the wellgate( the driver left the handbrake off) and crashed into the buildings after running over a baby in a pram sitting outside the butchers shop ! Everyone was screaming that there was a baby in the pram, the man from the butcher's shop went underneath the lorry and cut the baby out of the harness in the pram with his butcher's knife. When he came out from under the van everyone was clapping and cheering as he had the baby in his arms and it was not hurt thank goodness ! The baby's mum was in a state of shock, she had parked the pram at the window of the butchers shop while she went in to get her shopping.That baby was a very lucky that day.
ReplyDelete