For almost 40 years the Olympia leisure centre was one of the most prominent buildings in Dundee, its functional if rather unlovely shape dominating the central waterfront.
Now it has been reduced to a pile of steel and concrete rubble, made redundant by its namesake replacement and its site needed to herald what is hoped to be a new dawn in the city’s redevelopment.
Once the remains have been cleared away over the next couple of months, work can begin on building the V&A design museum, which is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually from home and abroad.
The old Olympia racked up its fair share of visitors in its time, from competitive swimmers to toddlers and school pupils learning to swim and to enjoy a “shivery bite” after coming out of the water.Photo gallery: Olympia swimming poolThe go-ahead for construction came in 1970, with an estimated price tag of less than £1.3 million, and the centre opened in summer 1974.
It is a measure of the impact of decades of inflation that adding waterslides in 1987 cost around £500,000 and the bill for the new Olympia in East Whale Lane came to £31 million.
The former Hilton Hotel and Gala Casino, which stood next to the old leisure centre, have also been knocked down to make way for the transformation of the waterfront.