Former Whisky Bond, Trades Lane

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 9 Jun 2021

The building is far more interesting if you wander further down the street and look straight up. For whatever reason this picture doesn't show it at all well, but as you look further up the building, the storeys get shorter and shorter. It was most probably designed like this but when you look up seeing increasingly shorter floors you can't help but wonder if day-to-day finances were impinging on the original design! The building belonged to James Watson Whisky Blenders, and was built after what is said to be Dundee's worst ever fire, which originated in and destroyed the company's original building at this site. The blending stopped in 1981 and the last bottles left in 1987. Eyewitness reports state that there were rivers of whisky, blue and on fire, running down all the streets in this Seagate area, in 1906. The company must have had some cash reserves though, as the new, now listed, building was up and operational by the following year.

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