Mapping out a past and future

Alumni of Dundee’s flagship higher education establishment – along with anyone familiar with the area immediately west of the city centre – are sure to be interested in the sketch on the right today.

Drafted almost 74 years ago, the vintage journal illustration was kindly supplied by archives expert Kenneth Baxter, who explains: “It shows the front and back covers of the winter 1950 edition of The College, the magazine produced by the students of University College, Dundee.

“Together they form a map of the college campus as it existed at the time. The arms of University College are also shown under the title on the right, next to those of its parent the University of St Andrews on the left.

“It can be seen that the campus was much smaller at this point than it is today. In fact it had not significantly expanded since the early years of the 20th Century.

“However this was about to change; 1950 saw work start on the Ewing Building on the corner of Small’s Wynd and Small’s Lane. It opened in 1954, the same year that University College became Queen’s College.”

The Dundee University academic continues: “The next two decades would see the campus spread out and the construction of several new buildings as the college evolved into the University of Dundee.

“Arguably the most significant of these new structures was the Tower Building, built between 1958 and 1961 and extended a few years later. This replaced the original main buildings on the Nethergate – marked here as the ‘main block’ – and remains the core of the university and a well-known local landmark.

“Other buildings erected during this period included the Fulton Building, the Medical Sciences Institute, the chaplaincy centre and the new students’ association building, which replaced the old union shown on the bottom left of the map.

“The construction of the new students’ association building resulted in the demolition of Airlie Terrace, which can be seen on this diagram as the square on the left at the top of Airlie Place.”

Looking at how the site depicted on the cover of the student magazine evolved later in the last century, Dr Baxter adds: “The training college, later Dundee College of Education, can be seen on the right side of Park Place. It was not a part of University College, Dundee, but historically there were close links between the two institutions.

“The training college building was eventually taken over by the university when the College of Education relocated to Gardyne Road in the 1970s. In 1978 the law faculty moved into the building, which was renamed the Scrymgeour Building as a tribute to the 16th Century Dundee-born lawyer and scholar Henry Scrymgeour.”

He concludes: “The College of Education later became the Dundee campus of the

Northern College, before being merged into the University of Dundee in 2001.”