MOOVING ON DOWN TO THE COWGATE

If you backtrack to 24th October 2011 when I posted 3 pictures from around the Cowgate, you'll be able to see many of the buildings that were in these settings in 1970, just before demolition commenced.

The top photo here, taken in the early/mid 70's after demolition, has the area around King Street visible and as you can see, it was turned into a temporary car park before the new construction started.

The picture taken in the Cowgate, if you compare to the October set, you will notice that a huge chunk of the original buildings have disappeared from this location too, and again, a part of it turned into a makeshift car park - you can just make out Wishart Arch poking through in the distance. This image above was captured in September 1984.

Top photo from Gordon C.

Bottom photo by Neale Elder.

3 COWGATE VIEWS - 1970

3 views of the Cowgate area captured before all the demolition began - so 1970ish.

Top one is from near St Andrew's Street junction looking over towards the Wellgate side, with Walsall Conduits sign on show.

Middle image is a familiar view of the Cowgate featuring Wishart Arch.

The wooden business sign top-left of the photo is for Holland House Electrical Co, and the white building next door to it is Mitchell Car Hire.

The bottom picture would have been snapped outside Millett's probably, that's the Gaumont canopy to the right of the image, with the continuation of the Cowgate beyond and King Street curving off next to it.

The Wellgate side of the Cowgate has the Dundee Savings Bank on the corner, and you can just catch a glimpse of the Cowgate Carpets shop sign beside it.

No hint of any boarding going up yet, all premises seem intact and still doing biz!

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Photos from Gordon C.

ALONG THE OLD COWGATE - EARLY 70'S

Here's a nice shot along the length of the old Cowgate when the Wishart Arch was still connected to it.
The arch was where plague victims were brought to in the middle of the 16th century, but nowadays the arch itself looks as if it has the plague, cast aside in isolation like a bubonic casualty.
There's evidence too in the photo that this is where nicotine victims came to in the early 1970's, with a discarded packet of Embassy Tipped lying alongside it in the gutter!
"Bring out your dead...bring out your dead..."

DUNDEE SHOPPERS #1 - 1984

You may be able to have a bit of fun playing "Where's Wally" over the next few days, trying to spot someone you recognise in the crowd, in the next batch of photos coming up from the 80's.

Starting with the top one of the Cowgate, taken on 4th Feb 1984.

All that congestion at the Wellgate doorway is just how I remember it. Sometimes it seemed to take forever making your way in & out the entrance, with the less patient always attempting to barge their way past!

Must have been a bit chilly when the picture was taken mind you, judging by the attire on show.

Not so on the photo of the Murraygate underneath where everyone is in their summer togs. Not surprising, as this image was captured on 30th July 1984.

A couple of wee observations - the blue shop front at the top end near the Amusement arcade, is the fashion boutique called "Jean Jeanie".

Down the opposite end, the shop with the green & yellow sign is Richard Shops. Above it however, top right of the same building, there is a large chunk of concrete missing. Did this not come crashing down onto the pavement one night in a storm? I have a hazy memory of something like that happening back then.

Anyway, if you fancy having a go at identifying any of the faces in the crowd, click the images to enlarge, zoom in and have fun!

Photos by Neale Elder.

COWGATE TO MEADOWSIDE

This black & white photo of the Cowgate corner area was taken in early/mid 70's. The same junction crops up in colour in a piece of film from 1980, below. As well as the Cowgate, there are views along Panmure Street and Meadowside. Still in their place in 1980 were The Odeon, the original Wellgate Centre facade and the pub, Foreigners. The footage only lasts 25 seconds so you'll probably need to view it a couple of times if you want to go sightseeing!

THE ORIENTAL GARDEN - COWGATE

Next door to Millet's in the Cowgate was The Oriental Garden, a Chinese restaurant that sprang up on the scene in the mid 70's.
I remember me and a couple of mates went through a wee phase for a few weeks that had us popping into this place every Saturday lunchtime. This was when we just left school and had a couple of months spare in summer before we got work. So not having much dosh, we'd sit down at the table, look through the menu, skip the main course and just go straight to the dessert.!! We always got pineapple fritters or banana fritters covered in syrup. It only cost around 50p which is about all we could afford, and the routine also appealed to our sense of humour - going to a restaurant only for dessert!!
A precursor to the Scottish fad of deep-frying sweet products, many years later.
The photo was taken in 1978.

STAR WARS QUEUE - 1978

Bet most of you remember this...queuing to see Star Wars. This photo was taken in February 1978 on the day it burst onto screen at the Odeon for the first time. It was on a Sunday that it made it's debut in Dundee, and the queue having began at 9:00am, ended up along the length of Cowgate and all the way down to the bottom of St Andrew's Street, as in the photo. Not only that but the doors didn't open until 4:00pm and because of the size of the crowd the Odeon had to bring in an extra cashier to help out.
I remember going to see it a few days later, and although I enjoyed it I'll never forget my mates comment as we were leaving the building with everyone raving about it. Looking rather bemused, he quipped "It was a bit far fetched!".
If you think you may be in with a shout of spotting yourself in the picture - click on the image to view the large version.
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

THE ODEON - COWGATE





This spot in Cowgate is where the Gaumont used to be, prior to it becoming the Odeon in the mid 70's.

Not much of a change to the interior of the cinema I recall but there was a bit of superficial tweaking to the outside with the addition of tiles to the entrance area.

The above photos were taken in September 1978 and the film was "Revenge of the Pink Panther", a movie I remember seeing at the time.

It looks as if the policeman is giving directions to Inspector Clouseau!

The Odeon closed down in 1981 then the building re-opened in 1983 as a bingo hall.

Photos by DC Thomson.

THE GAUMONT - COWGATE

One of the things I liked about going to the Gaumont was the bus stopped right outside the foyer. You can see the bus stop in the picture...dead handy when it rained.
I'm sure this was the cinema we used to go to in the 1960's on Saturday mornings for the kids club. They would show movies made by the Childrens Film Foundation, run weekly episodes of Flash Gordon, chuck in some cartoons and so on. It did get a bit rowdy at times, probably because there were no parents around, so there would be a lot of booing at the baddies, cheering at the goodies and singing along to the tunes....oh yeah, not forgetting the peanut fights!
Typical 60's films I saw there were The Beatles movies, James Bond, Disney and such like, then in the 70's it was blockbusters such as Star Wars.
The Gaumont then became the Odeon in 1974.
Photo by DC Thomson. Tints by GG