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Historical Context

Overgate was historically the principal westernroute from Dundee, situated due north of the15th Century Old Steeple. The importance ofthe town in Medieval times was indicated bythe fact that it was the site for the ScottishMint. This was founded in 1311 and was locatedin the Overgate. During the Victorian era inparticular, piecemeal redevelopment occurred.By the early 1920s the Overgate area wasregarded by the City Council as an overcrowded,unsanitary area of the city. The City Architectof the day, James Thomson, proposed tocarefully demolish the 18th century townhouseand rebuild it in the Overgate area. This was tobe located on the site currently occupied byLittlewoods. In the end the economicdepression of the 1930s and the second worldwar set aside plans to redevelop the Overgate.The City and Royal Burgh of Dundeecommissioned a firm of Planning Consultants,Dobson Chapman, to prepare a plan for Dundee.Their proposal for the Overgate saw most ofthe historic core being demolished. Prior to itsdemolition in the early 1960s it comprised awarren of small 18th and 19th century shopsand commercial premises.

The Overgate c.1860 (The blue shows theapproximate extent of the Overgate)

The Redevelopment of the Overgate

In the immediate post second world war erathe political will, both nationally and locally, wasto condemn areas such as the Overgate, andto replace them with what was termedComprehensive Development Areas. Generouscentral government grants and loans wereoffered to urban local authorities, such asDundee, to replace what were seen as slumsat the time, into new developments. The futurefor Overgate was seen as a major retail centreassociated with a hotel and office developments.The line of the new Overgate shopping centredid not follow the medieval Overgate. On 9thMay 1960 Murrayfield Real Estate Companysigned an agreement with Dundee Corporationto redevelop the Overgate. The first of sevencompulsory purchase orders to acquire theOvergate from owners who were unwilling tosell was also instigated in 1960. The lastcompulsory purchase order was served in 1967,the same year as the Centre opened. Servicingof the shops was from the yard north of theCentre.

Layout of the Overgate as it is in 2001.

ISSUE NUMBER1 : FEBRUARY 2002

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From this in 1959..........to this in the 1960s

With the changing patterns of retailing andmoves to provide indoor shopping centres, theemphasis for Dundee switched to the east endof the city centre when the Wellgate Centreopened in the late 1970s. A further £16 millionpound investment was spent on the WellgateCentre commencing 1993. The impact of thiswas to leave the Overgate with large numbersof vacant retail units. Little or no reinvestmentwas forthcoming and increasing levels of anti-social behaviour also occurred. The City Councilas ground superior did try to seek refurbishmentof the centre, but the then ground lessee,Overgate Centre Limited, was only prepared torefurbish the existing structure and not pursuea major redevelopment of the site (ApplicationD20449 refers). Some work did start, butsoon stopped.

The Dundee Local Plan 1998 stated that the�Council will be supportive of any developmentwhich will improve the Overgate�s attractivenessand support retailing in the city centre as awhole�

Such emphasis was part of the DundeePartnership strategy to restore Dundee as theregional centre for this part of the East Coastof Scotland.

In January 1998 full planning consent wasobtained by Lend Lease Projects Ltd. toredevelop the Overgate Centre (D23080). Theproposal was to refurbish the eastern end ofthe 1960s Overgate, centred on the Littlewoods/C&A Corridor. The western end of the Overgatewas demolished and replaced by a new shoppingmall. The cost of the new and refurbishedOvergate was £150m. Lend Lease, anAustralian Development Company who developedthe major out of town centre at Bluewater inKent, were impressed by what they saw as animproving Dundee City Centre. Pedestrianisedareas were being introduced, high qualitybuilding materials were being used to createamenity areas, and they saw in the Overgatean opportunity to form the western edge ofDundee�s city centre. From the initialpreapplication discussion between the CityCouncil and Lend Lease, until the opening ofthe centre in April 2000, only twenty-sevenmonths elapsed.

The Overgate we know in 2001.

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In pre-application discussion with the developera number of key objectives were set to ensurethat the redevelopment of the Overgate wouldbe a key feature in revitalising of Dundee CityCentre. These were the following:

1 The design of the new mall was to takeadvantage of the architecturally andhistorically important City Centre site.

2 Easy pedestrian access to the Overgatewas paramount.

3 Car parking facilities for shoppers wasintegrated into the final design to allowconvenience.

4 Internal and external security for shoppersand retailers was given a high priority.

5 The introduction of specially commissionedpublic art works.

Expanding on these objectives

1 The elevation north of the City Churcheswas totally glazed, using a glazing systemwhich provides impressive views of theCity Churches for those using the centre.Activities within the Centre are seen fromthe Nethergate, and a degree of reflectionallows the City Churches to be seen. Thiselevation is punctuated by threeentrances, also incorporating cafes. Thewestern section utilised the same typesof materials used in the refurbishedOvergate. Debenhams has its mainelevation to the shopping mall and againthe materials used are similar to elsewherein the Overgate. The Marketgait/Nethergate elevations are of a scale andcharacter appropriate to being adjacentto the inner ring road and a principal pointof entry to the city centre. By contrast,the elevation behind the City Churches issimple and understated, a sheer glass wallallowing unimpeded views of the churchesfrom the enclosed mall.

2 Pedestrian access to the Overgate isavailable from all directions, but isparticularly strong from the east andnorth, these being the direction of principalpedestrian flows and car parksrespectively. A condition of the planningconsent was that the pends remain openbetween 0730 - 2200, seven days aweek.

3 As part of the Overgate development theformer D C Thomson�s printing hall in BankStreet was acquired by Lend Lease andsubsequently demolished to be replacedby a 700 car space multi-storey car parkof which 4% or 28 spaces provided arefor disabled parking. Its design is inkeeping with the Overgate Centre. Arefurbished car park adjacent toDebenhams accessed from WestMarketgait provides a further 285 carparking spaces. Therefore approximatelyone thousand variable term car parkingspaces are available virtually on site toserve the Overgate Centre. In today�smarket, availability and easy access tocar parking is seen by retailers as beingvery important. Strategically located carparks around the Inner Ring Road providesover 5,600 parking spaces for shoppers,tourists and business people. This levelof car parking is seen as a contributoryfactor in the success of the Overgate.

4 Security of both retailers and shopperswas considered by Lend Lease to beparticularly important. The internalsecurity system operated by Lend Leaselinks the individual retail units with theshopping mall, giving 100% closed circuittelevision coverage. Lend Lease maintainthat this level of monitoring of the comingsand goings of people within the Centre isessential in maintaining a high level ofsecurity for visitors and retailers in theOvergate.

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5 The artist who was responsible for thedesign of the Overgate public art works,David Wilson, comments that

�The new Overgate is just the latestreincarnation of an area historically used tochange and renewal due to socio-economicproblems. Only being familiar with theprevious soulless concrete manifestation, Iwas unaware of the Overgate�s previouscharacter and rich history.�

�Chaotic, raucous and anarchic, theOvergate of old was very much a product ofdifferent times and values, a result of whichlife seemed to be filled with more character,texture, spirit and sense of community.

�The works on the façade I see as atestament to those times not with nostalgia,for surely none of us would wish to live inthose conditions, but more as a memorial tothe spirit of the people who lived, workedand socialised there.�

In conclusion, this examination of the Overgatereveals the following:

An area which evolved over hundreds of yearsand was part of the core of Dundee�s CityCentre was virtually swept away on the tide ofmajor change in the late 1960s. What wasseen at the time as the new Overgate lastedless than thirty years only to see itselfdemolished and replaced by a new modernOvergate.

It is interesting to contemplate on how long thenew Overgate will last. It demonstrates thaturban change is a continual process.

Lend Lease have publicly commented that fromtheir initial enquiries regarding the Overgate tothe actual opening of the Centre last year, theyhave enjoyed a good working relationship withDundee City Council, particularly the Planningand Transportation Department. It is their opinionthat this close co-operation allowed the schemeto progress as fast as it did.

25 individual sculptures were commissioned under the auspices of the Dundee Public Art Programme. Below is arepresentative sample of these.

Black and white photograph courtesy of D. C. ThomsonAll maps reproduced from Ordnance Survey Mapping with the permission of the controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Crown copyright.Unauthorised reproduction infringes crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence no. LA09026L

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