Into The Vault
I suppose saturday started earlier in the week last week when I made my opticians appointment. That may seen like a really weird thing to say, but it becomes perfectly normal when I tell you that I travelled almost 1000 years back in time. Ok, I'm starting to jump ahead of myself here. Back to the start.
On Tuesday, I went to the opticians, saturday was first appointment I could get, so I took it, wanting to get rid of my glasses asap. Fast forward to saturday, and after a frustrating session with especially fiddly contact lenses, I headed, Cathedral bound, to pick up mum's drawing from the exhibition. At the Cathedral, I met Marc, who showed me pictures that he had been taking (rather spooky pictures they were too), and in particular, several that he had taken when he went into The Vault. The Vault was a slum area of Dundee, which was flattened at the turn of the century in order to build the Caird Hall, although if you know where to look, it's still there. I asked Marc if he could take of down there before he was whisked off in his chauffeur driven chariot (he was getting a lift home from Catherine), and he agreed. After a quick mutter in Catherine's direction, we headed down into the deep dark murky depths of Dundee's past.
At first glance, it just looks like a normal alley, the kind that would lead to the flats on the upper floors of a building. In through the gate, and down through a pend (this lane was known as Castle Court) and down the cobbled lane into the cobbled lane that runs parallel with Castle street, the remains of Tindell's Wynd. As drab and dirty as it looks now, this area has no doubt seen poverty, disease and hunger ten times over that of what is there today. It has also seen blood aplenty, as in 1908, a shot broke out in Tindell's Wynd, with a nearby gun shop being looted. The riot was so bad that Robert Peel's finest couldn't quell it, so the Black Watch was called in to put a stop to the proceedings.
The bloody history is in juxtaposition with an even older piece of history sitting right in the middle of this. Sitting on the corner of Castle Court and Tindell's Wynd is what remains of St Clement's church, the original city church. It's windows have been bricked up, and only half of the original church remains, it still stands. It saw the bloody events of that riot 100 years ago, and though the traces of that event and the buildings which harboured the rioters are gone, St Clement's still witnesses the goings on of that small corner of Dundee. But for how much longer? Will it be here in a hundred years? Only time will tell.
