City centre gets a bit of a makeover

SHOPPERS returning to Dundee city centre as coronavirus lockdown rules relax have been told to expect some changes.

Dundee City Council has set out improvements that are under way to the area ahead of the reopening of non-essential retail.

Current rules limiting which shops can open are due to change on April 26.

New street furniture including bespoke poster towers and benches and planters, fresh floor coverings, wall tiles and lighting, will be complemented by advanced plans for further public art and pedestrian and public transport priority measures.

Mark Flynn, convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee, said: “While much of our focus over the past year has rightly been on dealing with the implications of the pandemic, we have also been able to make some positive changes to the look and feel of the city centre.

“New seating, planters, public art poster towers, pedestrianised areas, outdoor eating and drinking spaces, changed priorities for some types of traffic and even plans for more public art are all changing the face of our main shopping and entertainment streets.”

City Square has been improved with the installation of 20 new benches and rearranged planters, while the access from Castle Street has been refurbished with new stone flooring, wall tiles, signs and lighting.

Signage has also been applied to the Crichton Street stairway access. New bespoke seating with planters has also been installed in Reform Street.

In addition, four poster towers have been installed at the railway station plaza, Dock Street, Panmure Street and Nethergate.

The council says they are for local use to publicise cultural events, venues, gigs, public notices and health messages.

Similarly, digital screens will be installed in the coming weeks at the McManus art gallery and Caird Hall to promote their future events.

A public art project Lost And Found has recently been completed in the heart of the city.

Artist Jeremy Cunningham has produced a series of small sculptures based on ordinary items and the alphabet, to be found in the city centre’s main streets.

Each item is accompanied by a letter and as the fun is in finding them, no trail map is being produced.

Plans are well advanced for the next significant public art installation in High Street, where a polar bear, Bruin, will be chasing a man with a roll of material up an iceberg plinth on to its overhanging edge.

The statue commemorates the 1881 escape and subsequent safe recapture of a polar bear, one of two brought from Davis’ Straits by a local whaling ship and bought for exhibition in Commercial Street by a Mr Woods.

Sculptor David Annand created the work to be cast in bronze.