Built by mill owners

“Regarding the correspondence about Dundee’s first multi storey building,” writes Stewart Cunningham, “it was known as Robertson’s Land and was built by the mill owners of that name.

“My mother lived in the building and at that time attended Balfour Street School before leaving to work in the mill. Up to the fifth floor was lived in although there was evidence that part of the sixth floor had been occupied.

“I inspected this building prior to its demolition by the council’s City Engineers Department and supervised its demise. It was never referred to as the Blue Mountains as that was the area at the junction of Blackness Road and Brook Street and now houses the university car park east of Hunter Street and was a play area of ours in the 1930s.

“The area had an entrance next to Micky Coyle’s pub on the Hawkhill and the Brook Street entrance was just down from Mrs Dunsmore’s pub adjacent to which was a public toilet. It never had an entrance from Hunter Street and my mates and I had many a kick about on the lower section and swung on the monkey bars on the higher level.

“The area from Kincardine Street, Daniel Street, Dempster Street, Burnett Street and the streets better known as ‘the Backers’ were well known to me.

“One of your correspondents mentioned lifting horse droppings in this area and it was a regular chore for me – more so at the start of the war when my father obtained an allotment on City Road. It also meant I had to scrub my barrow as it earned me a few pennies picking up the washing baskets from the Burn Washhouse.”