Few tears were shed when the much-maligned Highgate Centre in Lochee was wiped off the map 10 years ago.
The regeneration of Lochee was a priority for the council following the demise of the £50 million Stack Leisure Park and the departure of Tesco in 2009.
The area had fallen into decline, scarred by drug abuse, with the depressed local economy leading to shop closures up and down High Street.
The Highgate Centre was at the root of many of these problems.
Life and times of a shopping mall
The 1970s concrete mall opened when the old Bank Street disappeared under the developers’ bulldozers as part of a redevelopment of the west side of High Street.
Designed as a place for people to shop and meet friends for a coffee, the Highgate Centre was once a thriving hub of the community with a variety of small shops.
The Fine Fare supermarket was originally there – with its Yellow Pack budget own-label range – before closing in the late-1980s and being replaced by Kwik Save.
There was a flower stall, a pet food stall and the Crawford bakery.
But nothing lasts forever.
People started to turn their back on its stores as it became a magnet for drug addicts and undesirables whom the general public went out of their way to avoid.
Almost all the retail units had been empty for some time by 2003 with Kwik Save and Ramsay World Travel still going but little else to tempt the shopper.
Lochee residents, increasingly concerned about the people congregating in the mall, painted a picture of a shopping centre awash with drugs, drink and stolen goods.
Shoppers were allegedly being intimidated by crowds waiting on methadone doses.
Benches where the older generation used to sit and have a chat inside the Highgate Centre were eventually removed in an effort to discourage people from loitering.
Drug addicts instead started using shopping trolleys from Kwik Save as makeshift seats.
Hit the road, Jack…
The frustration boiled over in April 2003 when around two dozen angry pensioners ambushed First Minister Jack McConnell during his official visit to the city.
In an angry exchange with the First Minister, vocal pensioners said they were scared of shopping at the Highgate because of the number of youths hanging around Boots.
Standing in front of a graffiti-daubed wall, Mr McConnell said this was the kind of mindless behaviour which made people’s lives a misery, while promising that a new Labour administration in Edinburgh would bring in legislation to give police greater powers.
“We want everyone, including elderly citizens, to be able to go about their daily business without being frightened by this kind of behaviour,” he said.
“We intend, if re-elected, to introduce a new social behaviour bill, which will give greater powers to the police and the local authorities.”
Mr McConnell’s minders tried to steer him into High Street but he was pursued by pensioners, still berating him on the lack of action, until they were persuaded to meet the First Minister in Lochee Library where, he assured them, he would listen to their complaints.
It did make you wonder why some cog in the Labour party machine decided it would be a good idea for Mr McConnell to visit the Highgate Centre on the election trail.
Independent parliamentary candidate Ian Borthwick said the pent-up anger was aimed at the failure of the authorities to tackle the city’s drug problem effectively.
He told of how he was approached when walking in Hilltown and advised that carrying a briefcase was risky because he might be mistaken for a doctor with drugs in his bag.
The fact that this was good advice was telling in itself.
County Properties, which leased the centre from owners Dundee City Council, said it was in the process of reviewing the mall to make it more attractive to shoppers and less attractive to people who just wanted to hang about and cause a nuisance.
The closure of the Kwik Save store in 2004 left the single-storey Highgate Centre as little more than a passageway between High Street and car parking to the west.
Shorn of light and life, the old building was now on the brink of extinction.
Edinburgh firm Kenmore Capital bought the Lochee centre from County Properties for an undisclosed sum in 2005, despite being well aware of the property’s history.
Kenmore Capital announced it had big plans for the Highgate following its acquisition and was said to be close to finalising a proposal for a major upgrade in 2007.
Meanwhile, a comprehensive framework for the regeneration of Lochee was approved by Dundee City Council in 2008 in a bid to modernise the area.
It identified that negative perceptions of Lochee were a result of poor-quality housing, the high number of vacant retail units and a lack of modern retail opportunities, as well as accessibility issues and transport connections.
The plan set out proposals for redeveloping retailing, pedestrian and traffic management, housing to the west of the bypass and improved public transport.
Then there was a twist.
The owners of the Highgate went into administration in 2009, joining the owners of the Stack Leisure Park at the north end of Lochee in that status.
It was a grim time for Lochee but the news was not entirely unexpected.
Slow walk to demolition
The Highgate at this stage had Farmfoods at one end and Boots at the other with the only other occupied unit being that of the Cancer Research UK charity shop.
The mall had also been flooded several times, something that was caused by lack of roof maintenance and which was a sign the landlord was not prepared to spend any money.
With the condition of the Highgate deteriorating and retailers having deserted it in droves, it was widely considered that the best thing to do with it was to knock it down.
The council bought the glass-fronted centre from the administrators as part of the £2m investment in Lochee that also included clearing Weaver’s Village.
The Highgate would be partially demolished under redevelopment plans and replaced by the return of Bank Street to connect Lochee High Street and the Lochee Bypass.
Contractors started preparing to knock down the Highgate Centre in August 2012.
First, specialist operators removed all asbestos from the building, which was then stripped of all internal fixtures and fittings until it was nothing but a concrete shell.
The once-bustling Highgate was now a chamber of echoes.
It wore its scars up until its partial demolition in September 2012 when the diggers arrived and set about pulling down the remains of the shopping centre.
The work would pave the way for Farmfoods to begin construction of a new store.
Of course, beauty or ugliness is very much in the eye of the beholder, but has the concrete monolith been fondly remembered since its demise?
The answer must be a resounding no!
Over the past 10 years few have mourned its passing.
Just ask Jack McConnell…
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