Tay ferries and Royal Arch star as amateur photographer's photos of 60s Dundee unearthed

Old photographs which capture the changing character of Dundee have been digitised to bring the past back to life.
They chart moments of city history and lost landmarks in the 1960s.
The photos were taken by Dundonian Ron Wilson, whose lifelong passion for photography started from a young age, inspired by his mother.
Ron was a Clydesdale Bank manager and well-known in Dundee.
He died aged 69 in 2000.
The slides had lain untouched for decades before his family decided to preserve them for future generations, including the grandchildren he never met.
They were digitised by Grant Millar from Broughty Ferry, who runs a business converting cine films, videos, slides and negatives from the analogue era.
His daughter Fiona Robb, from Kinross, said the collection goes back to 1959.
She said: 'We have great memories of family evenings, setting up the projector and screen to look at the slides.
'Dad was interested in capturing events on his camera.
'Because he lived in Dundee for so long, he had a lot of photos of Dundee scenes.
'We wanted to get them digitised to preserve the images and prevent any further deterioration.
'Another reason was that my parents sadly did not get to meet their grandchildren.
'Preserving the photos lets the grandchildren have an idea of what their grandparents were like, as well as seeing their parents' generation growing up.
'It will give them a visual family history.'
Ron was born in March 1931 in Dundee.
He grew up in Glenprosen Terrace and attended Rockwell School and Harris Academy.
After a period of National Service in the RAF, he started working as a bank clerk for the Clydesdale Bank in Dundee High Street and sat his bank exams.
He lived in Glenprosen Terrace until he married Marjorie MacKenzie.
And it was a double wedding at St David's North Church in August 1959.
Marjorie's sister, Elizabeth MacKenzie, also tied the knot with Stanley Watson Millar.
Ron and Marjorie moved to Downie Park in Dundee.
Fiona was born in 1962 and Murray followed in 1966.
The couple were both dedicated members of the High Kirk in Kinghorne Road.
In addition, Ron was a keen photographer – both of family and Scottish scenery.
Ron's photographs chronicle the transformation of Dundee in the Swinging Sixties.
Street scenes include the old Overgate.
And the Angus Hotel is shown welcoming visitors.
The Grill and Griddle is pictured serving coffee and breakfast.
The Tay Ferries are also still sailing in the photographs taken by Ron.
The La Scala cinema was still showing movies.
The Murraygate cinema had a narrow facade consisting of a large, square tower clad in white tiles and topped by a huge golden globe.
It was recognised as the grandest cinema in Dundee.
However, the spectacular building disappeared in October 1968.
The Royal Arch and Dundee West Station are still standing in Ron's photographs.
Dundee West was one of the city's gothic architectural masterpieces.
It closed in May 1965 and was then demolished in April 1966.
The Royal Arch stood at the junction of Dock Street and Shore Terrace from 1850.
However, it was allowed to fall into disrepair and neglect.
Slow but steady work started to dismantle the arch in February 1964.
It was blown up with dynamite on March 16 1964.
But some saw it as a deliberate act of cultural vandalism.
The start of construction of the Tay Road Bridge is also recorded by Ron.
The Tay Ferries were still in daily use up until the crossing took over.
Rubble from the Royal Arch was used as foundations for the approach ramp.
Fiona has spent hours admiring Ron's photographs.
She said the family is incredibly proud of his collection.
They also show private moments which were all the more precious.
'Dad's main camera was a Pentax Spotmatic SP II,' said Fiona.
'He always took it with him on trips.
'I think our grandmother sparked his lifelong passion for photography.
'We can fondly remember our gran using a Ricohflex box camera with the viewfinder on top and trying not to cut people's heads off!
'We remember that, as children, he would get us to stand still for him to photograph family portraits.
'On Christmas Day he got us to arrange our Christmas presents for a photo.
'This was partly so we could remember who to thank.
'My brother Murray and I can remember being a tad impatient with this process, as we were not allowed to play with our presents until the photo was taken.
'Parties and family occasions were also always photographed by my dad.'
After stints as a bank accountant in St Andrews and Ayr, he moved with the family to Lochgilphead, in Mid-Argyll, after he was promoted to bank manager.
But he never stopped taking pictures.
Ron and Marjorie continued to live there after he retired from the bank in 1988.
In 1992 they moved to Forfar.
Ron always wore a shirt, tie and waistcoat – even after retiring.
Fiona described her dad as quiet and reserved 'with a great sense of humour'.
'He was a very good provider to our family and worked extremely hard and conscientiously, doing his best to be helpful to his many customers,' she said.
'He was a devoted husband, father, son, nephew and family man.
'As well as his interest in photography, Dad was also an avid stamp, coin and toy car collector and proudly displayed his car collection in the hall of the family home.'
He was also a fan of classic films and musicals.
Westerns with John Wayne, Glenn Ford and Alan Ladd were always a favourite.
Fiona said: 'He was a church elder and member of the Iona Community.
'He was also a Rotarian.'
His idyllic retirement was shattered when Marjorie died in 1994.
She was just 58.
Ron was heartbroken.
'Dad regained some zest for life but never really recovered,' said Fiona.
'In the last five years of his life, he suffered a series of mini-strokes.
'He died in 2000, aged only 69.
'We are now so very grateful that he took all these photographs, as it gives us a wonderful collection of photos of family occasions, events in the Dundee area and shots of beautiful Scottish scenery.
'Unfortunately, our parents did not live long enough to meet their grandchildren.
'We want to keep our parents' memory alive, via Dad's photos, so that Joel and Lucas will have some idea of what their grandparents were like.
'When asked, people usually described our dad as a lovely man – unless you were one of the very few who he denied a loan to…'

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

The Guardian

4 hours ago

• The Guardian

Nick Hedges obituary

The work of the photographer Nick Hedges, who has died aged 81, revealed the reality of the atrocious living conditions of the UK's urban poor in the 1960s and 70s. His compassionate work transformed perceptions, and helped galvanise social change. In 1966, a new charity was launched: Shelter, the National Campaign for the Homeless. That same year, Ken Loach's revelatory drama documentary Cathy Come Home highlighted the problem of homelessness in a country that complacently believed in the rose-tinted idea of the swinging 60s. 'I always maintain I was fortunate to be born when I was, because in the 60s we believed a revolution was possible,' Hedges told the British Journal of Photography in 2023. 'I was working with people who thought it was possible to change the situation the country was in. It was invigorating and exciting.' Those people worked for Shelter. In 1968, they commissioned Hedges to document the brutal environment in which poor people lived, some in slums that had been due for demolition before the second world war. The charity wanted to use the images in their campaigns, reports and literature that was designed to educate the public about the inequality on their doorstep: to use documentary photography as political activism – demanding more social housing. Hedges photographed families in many neglected inner cities, including in Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and London. Sometimes he would be introduced to his subjects by social workers or housing association workers, and sometimes he would just knock on doors in run-down areas. He always explained himself, and what Shelter was trying to do. He had no intention of disrespecting the inhabitants by trying to take 'candid' photographs. The responsibility weighed heavily on him: 'Part of my duty as a photographer is to honour the trust placed in me by people with no voice.' He said it was 'essential to develop a relationship of trust: nothing was ever forced, nothing was ever staged. Your own presence had to be reduced to the minimum. I used a 35mm Leica camera and available light and, in the small rooms, I often found myself crouching down in a corner listening and watching, just allowing things to develop and occur in front of the camera.' Shot in grainy, dark monochrome; the results were raw, poignant and powerful. Those few men who were present 'often demonstrated an uneasy guilt', Hedges said. They 'were more reluctant to be photographed, as if the image itself would become a signature of failure'. Many of the women also turn away from the camera as if somehow responsible for their own straitened circumstances, resigned to their powerlessness. It is left to the children to issue a challenge to society – staring into the lens, straight at the viewer, with an accusatory gaze. Nonetheless, what pours forth from Hedges' sensitive images is dignity, resilience and the unbreakable bonds between parents and their children, and between siblings – the depiction of unconditional love in unspeakable conditions. Family, wrote Hedges, 'provides meaning to our lives and rewards us with comfort in an uncertain world'. Nick was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, to Norman, a timber merchant manager, and Dorothy (nee Chapman), an arts and crafts teacher. He attended Stourbridge Road junior school, followed by King's school, Worcester. As a teenager, his political conscience, sense of purpose and love of jazz music were awakened. In 1965 he joined the photography course at Birmingham School of Art, where he embraced sixties radicalism. He was inspired by the work of the American Farm Security Administration photographers, such as Dorothea Lange and, most profoundly, Walker Evans, whose book with James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, documented the lives of impoverished tenant farmers during the Great Depression in the 30s. For his final year project, Hedges worked with Birmingham Housing Trust on an exhibition about the city's poorly housed low-income households. He was in the trust's offices, having just signed on as unemployed, 'pasting large 6ft by 4ft photographs I had taken for them on to panels that were to be displayed outside in Birmingham city centre', Hedges recalled in an interview. 'Someone popped their head around the door, looked at the images and said: 'Nice photographs.' About two weeks later, I had a phone call from Shelter asking me whether I'd like to join them to document bad housing across the country. Accident and chance play such a large part in our lives – we often don't admit to it.' Having completed his four-year assignment, Hedges left Shelter in 1972. He then worked as a freelance photographer for Mencap, the BBC, Penguin Books and many other organisations; a commission from one, the Royal Town Planning Institute, resulted in an exhibition, Problem in the City, at the ICA, London, in 1976. He was awarded an Arts Council fellowship to make a three-year study of working lives in the factories and steelworks of the West Midlands. Those images were exhibited in London and Paris in 1979, and a book, Born to Work, was published in 1982. Hedges produced a series on different religious groups in Wolverhampton, rural life in Worcestershire, and in 1979 he documented the local fishing industry for Newcastle's Side Gallery. His active life as a photographer came to an end in 1980, when he became the head of photography at West Midlands College of Higher Education and later of the University of Wolverhampton. Hedges left teaching due to ill health in 2003, and in his later years developed a passion for collecting old hand-tinted picture postcards, a selection of which were published in the collection Painted Ladies in 2006. Hedges had long imposed a restriction on the use of the photographs he took for Shelter to protect the identity of the subjects, particularly the children. However, as the 50th anniversary of the charity approached, the photographer lifted the curb: he felt it was important that people could view our shared social history, as 'understanding our past is crucial to shaping our future'. In 2014, his work for Shelter was exhibited as Make Life Worth Living at London's Science Museum, to great acclaim, and led to the award of the 2016 Hood medal from the Royal Photographic Society. In 2021 the Shelter photographs were published as Home, alongside another book, Street. Loach said that Hedges' 'work is not only deeply human, an expression of our shared humanity, it is also important as evidence. This is how life is, and how it was.' He is survived by Ruth and Annie, his daughters from his marriage to Diana Roberts, a social worker (which ended in divorce), four grandchildren, and two siblings, Roger and Julie. Nick (Rupert Nicholas Wilmore) Hedges, photographer, born 31 December 1943; died 8 June 2025

Edinburgh Reporter

7 hours ago

• Edinburgh Reporter

Firefighters called to Morrison Street after report of electrical fire under pavement

Last night Thursday 19 June 2025 firefighters were called to Morrison Street in Edinburgh after being made aware of an electrical fire under the pavement. The pavement was blocked off to pedestrians while investigations are carried out Last night a spokesperson for Scottish Fire and Rescue said: 'We were made aware of an electrical fire under the pavement at Morrison Street. Morrison Street Photo Craig Duncan 'We are waiting on Scottish power arriving. 'One appliance is at the scene and we are still in attendance.' The SFRS have been contacted for an update. Like this: Like Related

Daily Record

9 hours ago

• Daily Record

Scottish castle that once held infamous Nazi now reclaimed by nature

The historic Stirlingshire castle has fallen into ruin. New photographs show a Scottish castle that once housed an infamous, high-ranking Nazi. As seen in the images, the castle has been reclaimed by the surrounding nature. Situated near Drymen in Stirlingshire, Buchanan Castle was constructed in the 1850s. It acted as the home of the Montrose family until 1925. The castle was then sold, before opening as a hotel in 1930—with plans to implement a golf course. However, once World War Two broke out, these plans were abandoned and Buchanan Castle was repurposed as a hospital. On May 10, 1941, Rudolf Hess flew to the UK in a self-described mission to negotiate peace. However, the plane carrying the Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler ran out of fuel and he parachuted to the ground. Hess was taken to Buchanan Castle and treated. He was then transported to the Tower of London, before being relocated to Mytchett Place in Surrey. Following a suicide attempt, Hess was moved to Maindiff Court Hospital. He then surrendered, and was moved to Nuremberg to face trial for war crimes in May 1945. After the war, Buchanan Castle briefly acted as the Army School of Education. However, after the roof was removed and parts of the castle were demolished in 1954, it began to fall into ruin. Proposals were put forth in 2002 and 2004 to convert the castle into apartment accommodation, but these were both denied. Today, while Buchanan Castle remains a B-listed building, signs around the site warn visitors not to enter for their own safety. The abandoned building has now been reclaimed by nature. The ruins have become overgrown by trees and vines in the years since its heyday. Read on for a collection of photos of Buchanan Castle as it appears today. More On World War 2 History Heritage Photography Stirling Albion FC