We are trundling towards a momentous city council planning committee meeting, which is to take a decision on Dundee FC’s new ground.
This should be an easy “yes”.
Any qualms over traffic problems should be measured against Kingsway West Retail Park, half a mile up the road, with a car park eight times the size.
It isn’t a problem, why would the proposed stadium’s car park be a problem?
I’m also greatly interested in what comes after.
What’s to be done with Dens Park?
I still think a football stadiums museum should be created in the old stand. It would be an international-standard tourist attraction.
Financing, as always, is the difficult bit.
‘Working class Taj Mahal’
Could the National Trust for Scotland get involved?
Looking at the list of NTfS properties, there are too many castles, mansions, and palaces.
The old Hampden Park, holding 147,000, was a working class Taj Mahal. A wonder of the world. The biggest stadium on the planet for 50 years.
Was it ever considered for preservation by the NTfS so Scots of tomorrow could experience how their ancestors lived and enjoyed themselves?
If not, why not?
Ordinary Scottish folk flocked to bingo halls and cinemas. They danced at the Palais and drank in back street pubs and clubbies. They walked up the Hawkie and doon the Blackie.
Why doesn’t the NTfS protect these things?
Were they too working class?
Were the experiences of the people who went there not important enough to be saved for the nation?
Are only places connected to dukes, earls and sirs worth preserving?
My forefathers would have been chased off the grounds of Falkland Palace, Culzean Castle, or the House of Dun on the point of a shotgun, suspected (probably justifiably), as poachers.
What did the hereditary duke of Affybigcastle ever do for me?
My ancestors were servants at his table, marched in his armies, or coughed up their dust-ruined lungs in factories that made his fortune.
Why should I celebrate Farquhar McPoshface’s castle? He didn’t celebrate the likes of me.
Scotland’s real history
The NTfS should try harder to preserve what Scotland really was.
There is too much saccharin harking back to a time that never existed – a mythical land of misty glens and heather-clad mountains, where kilted peasants danced eightsome reels in Brigadoon.
Scotland’s real history, for the vast majority, was set in jute mills, shipyards, and coal mines. Its people were stonecutters, fishwives and ironworkers.
It was a place of tenements, prefabs, multis, cobbled streets and hard graft that forged the industrial age.
But we don’t talk about that. Too dirty, too common – it doesn’t fit into BBC2 documentaries narrated by earnest academics with views of Craigievar in the background.
Trust should step in
I’m proud of Scotland’s actual history, not the version you see on the lids of shortbread tins.
The reality of mills, steel rolling plants, brickworks, Hampden and Dens Park deserves more respect.
If the National Trust for Scotland really wants to safeguard our past it should look more often at the homes, workplaces and pastimes of ordinary folk. Genuine Scots folk.
So step in to help preserve Dens Park, NTfS.
Or are you too elitist?
National Trust response
In response to this column, the National Trust for Scotland’s Acting Director of Audiences & Support, Jim Whyteside, said: “Steve Finan raises a really excellent point – what happens with places like these, when they are no longer needed for their original purpose?
“There’s no doubt that all the places he lists are of real importance to Scotland, its history and heritage. However, we do feel that his criticisms of the National Trust for Scotland might be a bit out-dated themselves.
“While it is true that we look after plenty of grand buildings, we have been working for years to make sure that the stories of the people who lived below stairs are given plenty of focus. We do have tenements and industrial places – like Barry Mill near Carnoustie – on our books. And we have 76,000 hectares of countryside that people can access.
“The fact is that heritage is an expensive business, and with government, councils and charities all feeling the squeeze, there are no easy answers.
“It’s something that as a society and a country we have to face up to and can’t be solved by a charity like ours alone.
“Together, we need to debate how to support the reuse of built heritage, how it can continue to enhance our towns and cities and whether existing legislation and tax regimes are actually holding us back.
“We appreciate the passion to find a future for Dens Park, but do feel the ire about our charity and all we do to protect and share Scotland’s heritage is a little misplaced.
“We’d invite Steve to any of our places any time, so we can show him all the work we do to connect with nearly 5 million visitors a year, from all walks of life.”
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