A memorable image from Dundee’s past has been revisited by the photographer who captured the scene 52 years ago.
Back in 1962, Gordon Reid was a 14-year-old pupil at Rockwell School interested in photography who was captivated by the news that the Royal Arch was to be blown up.
The landmark was in the way of the Tay Road Bridge landfall development and city fathers deemed that despite its history it had to go.
Off he trekked from his home in St Mary’s early on a winter Sunday morning to the foot of Castle Street to photograph the dramatic moment.
Well before the advent of the Health & Safety Executive and exclusion zones, he was able to set up a few yards from the Shore Terrace site and wait.
The clock ticked to 8am, the detonator was pressed, Gordon clicked the shutter of his Halina 35x, dust swirled and the Royal Arch, or most of it, was still there.
The episode was brought back to him by The Courier’s story this week on the Royal Arch’s foundations being discovered by waterfront redevelopment earthworks.
“They were having difficulty with its substantial construction,” he recalled.
“They couldn’t blow it up completely because of the railway tunnel below.
“I remember setting up and taking the picture and then saw this man wander across the shot. I hadn’t seen him before.
“He seemed to be taken by surprise by the explosion because I caught him looking back at the arch.
“As far as I believe there were no further attempts to try explosives.
“The arch was dismantled by other means and wasn’t completely removed until the following year.”
Gordon, now 67, who had a career taking pictures, backed calls to have the arch commemorated in some way in the £1 billion waterfront redevelopment.
A model of the arch, completed in 1852 to mark a visit by Queen Victoria to Dundee, stands outside the Overgate Centre.