Duffus’s garage

“Some of your readers will remember the garage on the circle at Kingsway/ Strathmartine Road (see picture below),” says Innes Duffus.

“It was built by my father and opened by Sir Herbert Ogilvie of Baldovan House in 1932. I believe I was there in my pushchair.

“Dad, who had gone to work in South Africa after the First World War, returned to marry in 1926 and became the Downfield carrier.

“Later he took a mortgage and built the garage depicted.

“He ran the local taxi service, had two lorries, among other things delivering the Evening Telegraph, Sporting Post and Sunday Post to local shops.

“Every December we would be hired by the Post Office to deliver Christmas parcels.

“The forecourt shop not only sold petrol and oil but newspapers and sweets, and many youngsters will remember the ‘penny tray’. When they were sent to collect Dad’s cigarettes costing 11d for 20, the penny left over was popular. He only stopped this when asked by a gentleman who built a sweet shop on the opposite corner in order to help his new business.

“It was originally named as Baldovan Service Station but I changed the name to Alfred Duffus as the locals always called it ‘Duffus’s garage’.”

“In the 50s and 60s, after Dad retired, it was radically altered and eventually became the Volkswagen dealership.

“The picture above is of the staff in 1964.”