ARNCHORY IN THE UK

A couple of publications I'd have been lost without during the course of doing Retro, were the old Dundee Directories and old street maps.
The directories have been particularly useful because they list all the shops, pubs, schools, businesses and so on - a very handy aid for fuzzy memories!
I have 3 in my collection, 1966, 1970 and the 1974 one in the photo above, which was the final year of their print run.
Having said that, despite the fact that many of us depend on such official publications for research and fact finding, I've discovered you can't always totally rely 100% on what they print.
Take for example, the street map in the photo dating back to the beginning of the 60's. When I was having a wee look around my old stomping ground - Craigie - I couldn't help notice what appears to be a spelling mistake. The road connecting Aboyne Avenue to Balerno Street, I've always known as BANCHORY Road - but they have it down as ARNCHORY Road, as you can see by my red arrow. They also have it listed in the map index as Arnchory as well.
Forward wind 2 decades to their 1983 map and by heck they still haven't sorted it out properly - now they've printed it out as BARNCHORY Road..!!
Looks like the Geographia Cartography office would have benefited by employing a Dundee taxi driver to help them out!

Since writing the above caption, the entire map has been scanned in and pieced back together again.
So if you want to download the 1960 map for your own research, here is the link... 1960 Dundee Map
It weighs in at 20MB and is good enough quality to zoom in and view all the detail up close.

DOWNFIELD GOLF COURSE - EARLY 60'S

Both the photo and the map are from the early 60's period and show the section of Downfield Golf Course that was given over for the Ardler multis to be built on.

VIEW FROM MONTGOMERIE SQUARE - 70'S

The map is to help you out with the area mentioned in this item.

Montgomerie Square was located on the Kingsway in a patch of ground between Milton Of Craigie Road and Longtown Road.
There used to be a huddle of old prefabs there in the 60's that were still lived in, but by the time they reached the early 70's, they had all disappeared.
The photo above was taken in the mid 70's and you can just make out the remains of one of the corners of Montgomerie Square in amongst the wild growth (bottom left).
The main focus of attention is the Kingsway East Fire Station which was built in 1972.
Sandwiched in the middle of the shot is the car park used by Timex employees - but later in the 70's, Timex extended the car park further up and in doing so, covered up the grassy area above with tarmac.
So now Montgomerie Square has been lost forever in the mists of time(x)!

END OF THE LINE

As I bring the recent railway theme to a halt, I'm going to end it with the same topic I started it off with - the Lochee line.

The map section I scanned in shows Lochee West Station & Lochee Station, with the line then continuing up towards Downfield.

Before it reaches the Kingsway, another line branches off East to Fair Muir and Maryfield goods stations.

The aerial photo is from around the mid 60's and it too has the Lochee line visible on it.

The easiest way to spot it is - you see that small dark square clump of trees near the bottom right of the picture, well the thin grey track brushing passed it is the Lochee line, and in fact that is where Lochee West Station was located.

You can follow the line on the photo all the way along it's swooping curve through Lochee and up beside the Kingsway Ice Rink.

You'd probably be best to save the large versions onto your own computer and go back & forward between the 2 to match them up.

And just in case the obvious escapes you - the left side of the map corresponds to the bottom of the photo, so you'll need to twist the images around in your mind!

VICTORIA ROAD - FRONT & BACK - EARLY 70'S

This stretch of property was on Victoria Road between the Wellgate and Idvies Street (now Ladywell Ave).

The rear of the buildings would normally be hidden away from view because they were surrounded by tenements on all sides, so the shot of the backies is quite a rare sight.

To help you with your bearings, the building to the right with the large extensions on the back, is Forbes.

Also in the backies image is the church on the far right which was across the street at Eadies Road, and is now where a block of flats is.

The picture of the back of the tenements is a great one to zoom into on the large version. Lots of ancient nooks & crannies connecting the jumble of buildings to nose around. Not too sure what's what mind you - outside toilets, sheds, dovecotes, stock rooms, who knows, probably a mix of all of these. Just looks like a huge inviting adventure playground for a 7 year old kid!

By the mid 70's it was all gone and has since been replaced by free lodgings for birds - trees!

I've included a map of the area to give you a reminder of the layout back then.

If you'd like to recall what this same stretch of road was like when it was bustling with business, there's a good photo from the 60's in the Retro Archives - 7th November 2008.

Click onto the images to view or download the large versions.