The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
More than a thousand years of shopping brought to life in book
DUNDEE: Journey through time takes in first markets and beloved department stores
A Dundee author has penned a history of shopping in the City of Discovery.
Jack Searle has previously written about Dundee’s love affair with cinema and has now written a comprehensive history of the city’s relationship with shopping.
From tales of the first market places to an insight into Dundee’s beloved department stores, Counter Revolutionaries, reflects a history of shopping in Dundee, beginning in the year 1000.
Jack explained: “When we launched the last book, a lot of people who had worked in Dundee’s cinemas came along.
“They were actually quite emotional. “They felt they worked somewhere which made a lot of people very happy.
“I wondered what other groups made the town a social place and made people happy, so I started looking into shopping.”
While Jack’s book takes readers through more than 1,000 years of shopping and growth in Dundee, he believes the city enjoyed its golden period in the early 1950s.
With a wealth of department stores and with the Tay Road Bridge and Forth Road Bridge not yet created, Dundee enjoyed a reputation as the district capital of shopping.
Jack said: “In my view, the time Dundee was at its best was in the ’50s.
“The reason for that is that there was no Tay Road Bridge or Forth Road Bridge, so all the people in the surrounding areas shopped in Dundee.
“The Second World War had ended, rationing was over, and there was a feeling of optimism.
“There was also more money in the city, with the likes of Timex and NCR.”
Jack’s book, Counter Revolutionaries, went on sale last night at Waterstones in Dundee.
In my view, the time Dundee was at its best was in the ’50s. JACK SEARLE