The Tenement (left) and the MacLeod Building (right) ? Dundee High Street

Image: © Richard Law Taken: 30 Mar 2012

The Tenement dates from 1790, and is a prominent traditional ashlar masonry construction, with a former billiard hall from 1820 to the rear. During its life, the building has been residential properties (as the name The Tenement suggests), as well as housing Drapers & Tailors, Chemists, Hatters and the kitchens and staff restaurant of the Keiller jam & marmalade factory. It was also the HQ of the Dundee Western Club from 1883 until 2000. The MacLeod Building as seen today is the best remaining construction dating from the Middle Ages in the town. It was built in 2 phases, in about 1630 and 1680, and occupies much of a burgage plot known as Gardyne’s Land, which in turn is the only relatively complete surviving example of a collection of merchants’ and nobles’ houses from the time that Dundee was Scotland’s second city. The name MacLeod comes from a bagpipe maker, who lived and worked in an extension to the attic rooms until 1961. Another of the attic rooms was occupied by a W Fergus, watchmaker and Olympic gymnast (not, by any means, a common pairing of occupations) Behind the main MacLeod Building lies the four-storey Gardyne Building, which dates from 1560 or thereabouts. This fronts onto the rather narrow Gray’s Close, and is not visible from the pedestrianised street outside. Its name comes from its ownership by one John Gardyne, a sea merchant and mariner in the early 16th century, who died in 1581, whereupon ownership passed to his son, George. The property has links to the former Keiller jam and marmalade making business (of Dundee Marmalade fame) who occupied part of the Tenement Building from the 1930s, running a restaurant on the first floor. The whole site underwent significant restoration and preservation works from 2000 to 2007 with the assistance of the Tayside Building Preservation Trust http://www.tbpt.org/index.htm and is now operated as a backpackers’ hostel. Bedrooms, dormitories, common rooms and kitchens occupy much of the upper floors of The Tenement and MacLeod buildings; the Billiard Hall has been converted into the hostel’s bar and pool room; the MacLeod building also houses the hostel reception area.

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