Royal Arch (structure)

For other uses, see Royal Arch (disambiguation).
Royal Arch

The Royal Arch was erected in Dundee, Scotland, between 1849 and 1853 to commemorate a visit to the city by Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, in 1844.

The Royal Arch, (described as being in the "Anglo-Norman" style), consisted of a large, triumphal arch, flanked by two smaller side arches, and surmounted by two central turrets. It was 80 feet across. Costing somewhere between £2,270.00 and £3,000.00, it was mostly funded by public subscription and harbour trustees. It was situated between King William IV Dock and Earl Grey Dock on the south side of Dock Street between the junctions of Castle Street, and Whitehall Crescent.

Victoria and Albert were on a visit to Duke of Atholl and his nephew, Lord Glenlyon (who succeed the unmarried duke 2 years later); the royal boat landed at the Royal Arch; the couple returned and embarked for London on 1 October 1844. This was the first visit by a British monarch to Dundee since the 17th century. In the end They did not come. The original arch (designed by harbour engineer, James Leslie) was made out of wood. John Thomas Rochead, designer of the Wallace Monument near Stirling designed a permanent sandstone monument to replace the wooden structure.

The Royal Arch, (commonly known in Dundee as Victoria Arch), was demolished on 16 March 1964, as part of the land reclamation scheme, and to make way for the construction of the Tay Road Bridge. The arch was dynamited, and the rubble thrown into both the King William IV and the Earl Grey Docks. Afterwards, the docks were land-filled to accommodate the slip roads for the new road bridge.

Fragments of the arch were discovered while the waterfront was being redeveloped in 2010,[1] and its foundations were uncovered in 2014.[2] In 2015, a petition was made to build a replica of the arch.[3] The Dundee City Council has stated that they "could never have rebuilt something like [the Royal Arch]", but granite paving slabs were put on the site of the arch, and four trees were planted nearby to commemorate the landmark.[4]

A cast bronze model of the arch is situated outside the east entrance to the Overgate Centre in the middle of the city. The arch was also used symbolically by Steven Holl Architects in their unsuccessful bid to build the annex of Victoria and Albert Museum to be located on the banks of the River Tay. A famous photograph of the arch taken by noted photojournalist Michael Peto in 1959, is held by the archive services of University of Dundee and is available to view online.[5][6]

Sources

  1. ↑ "Royal Arch fragment rescued from the deep". The Courier. 21 June 2010. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016.
  2. ↑ Argo, Andrew (28 May 2014). "Remnants of a long-lost Dundee landmark uncovered". The Courier. Archived from the original on 30 May 2014.
  3. ↑ Rooney, Richard (5 February 2015). "Lost Dundee — history enthusiasts want to bring back the city’s famous Royal Arch". The Courier. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015.
  4. ↑ "New waterfront pays tribute to Dundee’s Royal Arch". The Courier. 16 September 2015. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "Dundee in art & photography". University of Dundee. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  6. ↑ "Image of the Week Archive Royal Arch, Dundee". University of Dundee. Retrieved 29 March 2012.

Coordinates: 56°27′34″N 2°58′04″W / 56.45944°N 2.96778°W / 56.45944; -2.96778

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