Railway brought the "Big Stink" to Dundee.

[Bill EWS]

We all have our favourite railways and the railways in and around Dundee are among mine and I have walked much of the closed lines in Angus. However, as well as bringing prosperity, for some, it caused serious problems as well.
I found this interesting report in today's Dundee Courier. You wouldn't recognise these areas today.

The Big Stink

 

[Calthrop]

An interesting link, indeed -- appreciated. "Back then" -- tending to happen, anyway more blatantly than today -- the "muck = money" pairing was very frequently met with.

Wondering is prompted, as to whether William McGonagall had anything to say about this issue in his native city -- it would seem that most things were grist to his poetic(?) mill. The letter to the Dundee Courier from that era, reproduced in the link, would seem -- while in prose -- to resemble McG.'s output a little, in style...

 

[Dr_Paul]

I think that this map shows the ponds to the north of the railway.

 

[ian1944]

I like the unconscious juxtaposition in the article of blubber boiling and companies going into liquidation - an appalling image comes to mind.

 

[Cowley]

I like the unconscious juxtaposition in the article of blubber boiling and companies going into liquidation - an appalling image comes to mind.

I don’t know about you, but I found myself trying to imagine the aroma as well..?

 

[Dr_Paul]

I don’t know about you, but I found myself trying to imagine the aroma as well..?

My granny used to live a few hundred yards to the west of the Suffolk Fat and Bone Factory out the back end of Lowestoft. A wind off the sea would waft the truly vile stink of rotten meat being boiled into the house. Older residents of Bedfont, Middlesex, near Heathrow, will recall the similar 'Stink Factory', as it was known in the locality.

 

[ian1944]

It's only comparatively recently that Dundee stopped being largely a hole. My father was a delivery boy at the time of WW1 and described the stink from whale processing, the dirt and smoke from the industry and the clamour from the shipyards and jute factories with open shed doors. Much later, the Overgate and Hilltown were still world-class slums. Indeed, in the early 70s I saw children in the Hilltown area more or less in rags and showing dirt way beyond that day's casual smearing, real long-term grime.

As in Leith, Dundee's city-centre waterfront has been entirely a working area until recently. The similar-sized Aberdeen always had its marine industry on the river, with clean recreation areas northward along the beach.