Scotland’s phoenix

The late squarson, Henry Thorold, was fond of pointing out that his Shell Guide to Lincolnshire was the bestselling of the series, not because of any intrinsic merit but because no guide to the county had been produced since the early 19th century. The same might turn out to be true of the latest volume of the Pevsner Architectural Guides, Dundee and Angus. The county, which changed its name in the 19th century, has not been described since Forfarshire Illustrated (1843) and the five volumes of Alexander J. Warden’s Angus or Forfarshire (1880-85). The book under review cannot quite claim to be the last ‘Pevsner’. Whilst most English counties are on their second and third edition there are still four volumes of Scotland yet to be published before the whole amazing enterprise that started in the 1940s is complete.

Few people know Angus. Sandwiched between the more touristical Perthshire, Fife and Aberdeenshire, it has remained L’Écosse profonde, a county of minor lairds, generally unspoilt towns and with a whale of an entrance at Dundee. Sir Walter Scott, impressed by its ancient families and Pictish remains, set The Antiquary in the locality.

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John Gifford’s volume is therefore something of a revelation. Dundee, one of the great 19th-century cities of Scotland and probably the saddest city in Britain during the 1970s, emerges as both the Cinderella and phoenix of the story. Few are aware of its rich churches by G. F. Bodley and Giles Gilbert Scott and, more surprisingly, good contemporary architecture, which includes Frank Gehry’s only work on these shores, the Maggie’s Centre. Dundee’s sink status was underlined by standing in for Moscow in Alan Bennett’s 1983 teleplay An Englishman Abroad. However, with Captain Scott’s ship, The Discovery, already established as a tourist attraction and the V&A on the way in 2015, Dundee is poised for revival.