City printworks pressed into new service
Empty landmark set to become one of the UK’S biggest cultural hubs
An empty printworks where millions of The Broons, Oor Wullie, Beano and Dandy annuals were once made is set to be turned into one the UK’S biggest hubs for culture and creativity.
An £18 million blueprint has been drawn up for the former West Ward Works building in Dundee – where more than five million books used to be published every year.
The 200,000 sq ft site is expected to be converted over the space of some seven years under a proposed Tay Cities Deal programme which envisages the creation of 15,000 jobs over the next ten years.
It will become home to regular live performances, festivals and exhibitions, as well as a permanent base for designers, artists and other creative workers and companies.
The old printworks has been lying largely empty since it was closed down in 2010 by DC Thomson after more than 60 years of book and magazine production. But the site’s industrial history dates back to 1806 when it became home to the city’s first fireproof mill.
The Guthrie Street works was brought back into use last year to host the inaugural Dundee Design Festival, which attracted more than 7000 visitors and will return in expanded form in May. Now DC Thomson is to launch a new charitable trust to spearhead its transformation. It will be chaired by David Cook, who spent 23 years building the Wasps Artists Studios into one of the UK’S biggest social enterprises, providing space for around 1000 creatives around Scotland.
Mr Cook, who led the transformation of the Briggait fishmarket in Glasgow into an arts centre, said: “West Ward has huge potential and, at 200,000 sq ft, could become one of the largest permanent creative spaces in the UK.
“The next phase of its development will begin a process of redeveloping the site to realise its potential economic, social and cultural impacts for the city and beyond.”
The new-look building is expected to be the focal point of efforts to build on Dundee’s Unesco City of Design status, which was awarded in December 2014. It will have key roles as a business incubator, a centre for design-led regeneration and a skills development base.
Its first occupants are expected to move into West Ward ahead of the opening of Dundee’s long-awaited V&A Museum of Design in the summer of 2018.
More than 200 people once worked at the site, where the printing and binding of the famous annuals were carried out, after the plant relocated from Bank Street in 1949.
David Thomson, chief operating officer at the publisher, said: “We are fully supportive of Dundee’s cultural development, including the V&A Dundee project, and we’re keen to contribute to further arts facilities for the city. Other former industrial spaces and jute mills have been successfully redeveloped for the creative communities.”
Stewart Murdoch, director of leisure at Dundee City Council, said: “Over the last 18 months we have worked with DC Thomson and partners in the city to bring West Ward back to life. It played a key role when it was used to host Dundee’s first design festival.
“It’s been a challenging and hugely rewarding experience, and we look forward to supporting this next phase of the development and remaining a part of its story.”