MID 70'S AIR SHOT - MENZIESHILL

Flying over Menzieshill and coming into land after another journey back in time.

The only change in scenery I can spot is the grassy area to the left of the multis along Dickson Avenue where a few additional buildings have since been built.

And so that concludes the second wee aerial trip around 70's Dundee.

I do hope you all had a very pleasant flight!

MID 70'S AIR SHOT - ARDLER

Built on a section of the Downfield Golf Course, this photo of Ardler doesn't bear much resemblance to how it looks nowadays. The main streets are still there, but that's about it.
Bottom left has the prefabs running along the length of Harrison Avenue. All appear to be lived in judging by the washing hanging out!
The school in between the white blocks of flats cutting diagonally across the photo, is Blackshade Primary School. The other school in front of the multis is St Fergus.
The image does remind me of how stark the place looked back then, this being how I remember it when visiting relatives who lived in the flats off Turnberry Avenue. In fact, one of the relatives I visited then still lives in Ardler. My Auntie Bette, who this year received Dundee's "Citizen of the Year" award for her work helping transform the area into becoming the award winning Ardler Village as it is now known. A more visually appealing place to live these days, in comparison.

MID 70'S AIR SHOT - CLAVERHOUSE

The roundabout here is where Forfar Road meets Claverhouse Road and Fountainbleau Drive. Claverhouse / Mill O' Mains to the left and the edge of Fintry on the right. The Dichty burn cuts across the front of both schemes.
From what I can make out on the present day Google Earth view, these 4 hi-rise flats near to the circle don't appear to be there anymore. The most obvious observation though is that there have been more new buildings gone up in the area than have been knocked down. So it'll be a bit busier around this neck of the woods these days.

MID 70'S AIR SHOT - SWANNY PONDS

Taken a bit higher up this time, you can see quite a spread of detail on this shot, with the main feature of course being the Swanny Ponds. Pitkerro Road running along the left and the Cleppie branching off to the right.

A couple of blocks beyond the Swanny Ponds is Maryfield Hospital. The buildings of the hospital were demolished in 1979/80.

You can also make out the pre-fire Morgan school, and tucked away top right you can just catch glimpse of Tannadice.

MID 70'S AIR SHOT - HILLTOWN TO BLACKSCROFT

This view takes in an area of the Hilltown, and goes down to as far as Blackscroft.
Some of the main streets to be seen are - Alexander St (with Jamaica Towers & Wellington Towers) - Ann St (with primary school?) - Wellington St - William St - Dens Rd - Lyon St - Victoria St - Victoria Rd - Princes St - Constable St - Blackscroft, plus a few others in between.
The photo shows the demolition clearance that was taking place at the time, and although many (probably most) of the buildings have since disappeared, one or two of the old buildings did survive, for example the jute mill building down Princes Street was converted into flats in the 80's.
To have a look around the area, click onto the image to enlarge.

MID 70'S AIR SHOT - SEABRAES

Ready for take-off....and on with another mid 70's flight over Dundee.
This is the view looking across town just as the plane leaves the runway. Still too low down to make out any particular street detail other than the Seabraes area, where Perth Road meets the Nethergate.
Seabraes has since been tarted up a bit, but this is how it looked when we were on our Perth Road pub crawls in the 70's & 80's. We used to stop off at Seabraes for a couple of joints when going from McGonagall's to Chequers..!!
Also recall occasionally doing a spot of sunbathing there on those hot summer Sundays!

MID 70'S AIR SHOT - DOCK ST / PRINCE'S ST AREA

Continuing the mid 70's flight over Dundee, here we are at the area around Dock Street, Arbroath Road & Prince's Street (all the way up Albert Street).
The green patch, bottom left, is Corporation buses parked in the depot.
Quite a lot of demolition being done around here too as you can see by all the voids where there were once buildings. One such building that I used to go to that is not in this image was located in Robertson Street, just off Arbroath Road nearest to Prince's Street crossroad. This was the late 60's period. There was a large works called Taybridge Products and in this building they had the "Dundee Alsatian & Training Club". Well the room the club used also doubled as a 5-a-side football venue. I used to go there once a week in the evenings, which was organised by the BB, and had some brilliant games of football there. The photo just has it as wasteland but it is now the site of Taybank Medical Centre.
You can also make out the red & cream Tay Spinners mill in Arbroath Road which is now flats.

MID 70'S AIR SHOT - CITY CENTRE

In the mid 70's, my brother went on a flight around Dundee. Luckily for us he had his camera with him and managed to capture quite a lot of the city, some of which looks much different to how it is now. I must have around 40 aerial shots from the session but I'll just put up 6 over the coming days to give you a reminder of how the toon looked back in the day.
So settle down in your seats and get ready for take off...
Starting off bang in the centre of town, where you can see by all the workers huts around it that they were still putting the finishing touches to the new Tayside House at the bottom right of the picture. The most obvious observation though is the giant gap where they demolished the old Wellgate and South side of Victoria Road.
The fact that the photos were taken out of the plane's window means they are not going to be high definition clarity but they are still good enough to make out where you are and what's what, so I recommend for those who would like to do a kind of Retro Google Earth on them, to click on the image to get the large version, then right click to "save picture as" and save it onto you pc, and then you can use your zoom & pan to have a wee nosey around.