The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Britain’s largest chocolate factory reduced to ashes by ‘wonky’ fridge
It was the Dundee confectionery works fire which crushed the dreams of a generation of sweet-toothed children. Gayle Ritchie revisits the Keiller factory blaze of 1900
Sweet dreams turned to dust and a sticky smell of burning chocolate filled the air on the day Dundee’s famous confectionery factory burned to the ground 120 years ago.
An almighty inferno – ignited by an exploding fridge – ripped through candy king Keiller’s premises on Albert Square, causing the equivalent of £10 million worth of damage in today’s money, and throwing 600 people out of work.
A report in The Courier at the time described the spectacle as “awe-inspiring”, with “tongues of fire belching forth to the height of 100 feet”.
Panic-stricken workers escaped through the windows while some had to be rescued by firefighters.
“Looking down on the ruins of what was once Keiller’s great confectionery works, the scene was most deplorable,” the report stated.
“The building in the centre had completely collapsed, and nothing but the walls stood with gaping windows, looking gaunt and smoke-begrimed.”
The Keiller factory on Albert Square was one of the largest in Scotland, employing around 600 people.
It opened in 1870 but the firm – wholesale confectioners, fruit preservers, and cocoa and chocolate makers – had recently revamped the premises, kitting it out with modern machinery for the production of the famous Keiller’s cocoa and chocolate.
The fire broke out at 3.10pm on May 10 1900 in the chocolate department of the three-storey building.
The Courier report stated: “About 50 girls were employed in the department and they were suddenly alarmed by the refrigerator, used in the manufacture of the confection, bursting.
“The place immediately filled with smoke and the females were panicstricken.
“To add to their dismay, some chemicals lying nearby caught fire, and ‘ere the girls were well aware of the fact the flames were shooting hither and thither amongst them.
“Soon the powdery material which goes to make up the seductive confection was destroyed and the building itself was in flames.”
Explosion after explosion was heard, intermingling with the crashing of falling walls and debris.
Soon, despite the herculean efforts of the Central and Harbour fire brigades, the inferno raged out of control and the buildings collapsed.
So intense was the heat that a thermometer in Commercial Street registered 136 degrees.
“Great streams of water were coming pouring down seeking their way to the common sewer,” it was reported.
William Boyd, the managing director of Keiller’s, put the cost of the damage at £50,000 – around £10m in today’s money – and estimated a further £5,000 of material had been lost in the chocolate department.
Dundee-based historian Dr Norman Watson said the blaze sent a message that buildings for the “new” century had to be different.
Mindful that the Keiller’s factory had burned down, great pains were taken to fireproof the new DC Thomson headquarters then under construction in Albert Square.
“More than 200 tons of concretecovered steel framing was fitted and wood was not used in any part of the main structure, including the roof,” he said.
Keiller was at one time the largest confectionery firm in Britain, as well as boasting eight bakery shops in Dundee. It continued to flourish after the blaze and was believed to be the first, in 1929, to produce Dundee Cake commercially and give it the distinctive name.
It also gained a licence to produce Swiss favourite Toblerone in the UK from 1932.
Operations closed at the Albert Square factory in 1947 and the site was demolished in 1972 to make way for the Keiller Centre in the heart of Dundee.
However, in 1928, Keiller moved part, and later all, of its production to a wedge of land on Mains Loan, where it produced Keiller’s famous marmalade and confectionery including boiled sweets and butterscotch.
The firm was favoured by the royal family who frequently visited the Dundee operations.
King George V and Queen Mary visited the Albert Square factory in 1914 and were gifted bags of caramels.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited the Mains Loan site in June 1955 and Princess Diana went along in September 1983.
Despite employing nearly 900 people during the 1950s, the factory’s final owners – Alma Holdings – went bust in March 1992 before the plant was sold off.
It was demolished in 2018 following a spate of vandal attacks and fires and earlier this year, Barratt North Scotland applied to build 230 properties at the site.
The “jam” for which Dundee is known, alongside jute and journalism – refers to marmalade, which was purportedly invented in the city by Janet Keiller in 1797.
In that year, she set up in business with her son, James, trading initially as James Keiller and changing to James Keiller & Son in 1804.
When the menfolk died, Janet and her daughter-in-law Margaret successfully ran the business.
In 1850, Margaret organised a move to the shop at the corner of Castle Street, where you can find a plaque dedicated to Janet.
One of Janet Keiller’s great-greatgreat grandsons was Alexander Keiller, the noted archaeologist, and one of her great-great-great-great grandsons is the British television presenter Monty Don.
James and Janet Keiller are buried in the Howff Cemetery in central Dundee.
“Panic-stricken workers escaped through the windows while some had to be rescued by firefighters