DUNDEE & ANGUS
Throughout the Forties and Fifties my play- ground was Arthurstone Terrace and I used to play in the old foundry there. Back then Dundee was a beautiful little medieval city. From the age of five I used to walk to school, which was quite a way across main roads, but there was always a bobby at the bottom of the street. Dundee was very green: all along the Victoria Road there were places like the Old Contempt- ibles – the old soldiers’ home – which is where my brother Charlie was had up for stealing apples from their trees. My dad had a shop in Charles Street, which
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doesn’t exist any more, but it was a great commu- nity and dad was the only grocer. His shop was just off the Wellgate, right by the Wellgate Steps, which was this little alleyway – the whole place was crisscrossed with these little wynds and steps and twisty wee bits, and it was a fantastic place for a boy to play in. I particularly remem- ber Sheriff ‘s toy shop in Exhibition Road, which would sell these amazing balsa wood planes. Sadly, my father died when I was eight, which
was a family tragedy that marred that whole stage of my life and ruined the city for me. Unfortunately my dad was a very sweet man, and although my mother constantly reminded him that charity begins at home, he gave out a lot of tick, far too much as it happens. My mother couldn’t deal with my father’s gener- osity, and she was proved right. When he died he left ten pounds in the bank and we went straight into poverty. After my father died we had to move to
Tullideph Road, which I never really liked because I was torn away from all my pals around Brown Constable Street and from the neighbour- hood I’d known. Places like Baxter Park where I spent all my time playing with pals were now too far away. Many years later I was told that in the Fifties there was a move towards social engi- neering in which a lot of people, including most of my pals, were moved out to housing schemes to break up communities, which was a brutal thing; it was kind of feudal. It was a rough time for us, and it was espe-
cially bad for my mother because my father had been quite successful: he’d had a shop and had bought some land, all of which my mother lost thanks to a couple of bent lawyers. My mother
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he first part of my life was great. I saw the first light of day in Brown Consta- ble Street, on the east side of Dundee.
Above left: Brian Cox is currently playing Bob Servant in the radio and television adaptations of Neil Forsyth’s archetypally Dundonian novels. Above right: Much of Dundee’s city centre is now pedestrianised.
had a mental breakdown and was in Liff mental hospital for a long time, having electric shock treatment while I was moved around from sister to sister, with my big sister Betty really looking after me from nine onwards. I once wrote a note to my sister Irene on a Catholic mass card when she’d sent me on one errand that I really didn’t want to run. I was mad at her and wrote with an old ink pen: ‘Irene, you don’t look after me probably – instead of properly – so I’m not going on any more errands for you’. I was quite isolated, it was a time of upheaval
for me. It was also a time of change for Dundee because the city had one of the most corrupt town councils ever at that time. They allowed the fabric of this beautiful medieval town to be ripped apart by companies in the demoli- tion business, who knocked down a succession of amazing old buildings. It was incredibly upsetting and depressing to see my home town
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