The Dens Road Market

For once I am reminiscing about a place that is still there and still trading. It is however such a different place from the market that I remember. It now has maybe less than a handful of traders who have the whole building to themselves and they all seem to be selling the same furniture and household goods.

How about this quote from the Dundee City Council website, October 1981 - Bygone News http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/bygone/oct1981/#

Dens Road Market

Dundee's own Petticoat Lane...

Dens Road Market

Rated Scotland's finest indoor market - where bargain-hunting ends!

Something For Everyone:-

The Golden Age

The Younger Ones

The Trendy Set

Over 100 stalls

Come and see for yourselves - There isn't anywhere quite like Dundee's own market!

Opening times: Tuesday 9.30am - 2pm, Friday 9.30am - 5pm, Saturday 9.30am - 5pm, Sunday 10.30am - 4.30pm.

That there wasn't anywhere quite like the market I would agree with, but Dundee’s Petticoat Lane and Scotland’s finest indoor market is stretching it a bit perhaps. The “trendy set”, what on earth is that all about! However over 100 stalls is how I remember the market in its hey day which was well before 1981.

My own memories from Dens Road Market are much earlier than that and date from the late 1960s early 1970s. I remember there being lots of stalls. At one side of the building there were some really manky looking ones selling second hand clothing that would have made a jumble sale look classy. There were also other ones that were more akin to proper traders. I can remember my granddad looking at a stall that sold tools and my granny used to buy net curtains there. There was at least one cafe selling teas and hot food and my granny used to go there every time she went to the market. As a younger adult I remember a second hand book shop that had lots of good paperbacks at reasonable prices.

One thing that never changes though is the smell. It’s a difficult smell to describe but it’s sort of dusty and musty, though not in an unpleasant way. It really takes you back to childhood.