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Anna: This is the end of the tour, you should now find yourself back where you started.
Kevy: There’s one final design detail we can look at. It’s the Chamber Building, formerly known as The Royal Exchange. Built in 1850, It was modelled on Dutch cloth halls. Again, like the McManus it faces, it was built on marshland, north of the old city walls. The soggy ground meant the foundations kept slipping about the place, resulting in the majestic crown steeple needing to be removed. Parts of the building tilt at an angle as steep as the leaning Tower of Pisa.
Anna: It’s currently home to a real ale pub chain, a function suite, and Fleet Collective. I do know that Fleet Collective are named after a notorious Dundee gang from the 1970s and 80s, the Lochee Fleet. All the gangs were location based, you had the Fintry Shams, Hultoon Huns, Beechwood Mob, Kirkton Huns, Gourdie Troop, Menzieshill Boot Boys, Craigie Nutters, Dryburgh Mad Squad, Ardler Pirates, Balgay Boys, Charleston Crazy Tongs, The Proper Mental Coldside Terrors, Douglas Toddy and the Young Stobie Boys. They were identified by different coloured jumpers, knitted by their mothers or grandmothers.
Kevy: Fleet Collective is similar in that they’re a loose co-operative of designers, slackers, chancers, and other wooley so-called ‘creative’ types who most likely haven’t done a hard day’s work in their lives. I had to go down to London and go through hell to set up my design practice, and they’re just here in Dundee flaunting it without a care in the world. I hope the boggy land reclaims the whole building, sucking them down with it.
Anna: Aah, it’s been a lovely tour today. I’m reminded of a local saying, “Life moves michty fest. Tak a minute an’ hae a swatch aroond.”
Kevy: I very much enjoyed that, Anna.
Anna: Yes, I did too Kevy.
Kevy: I designed an oubliette in Fintry, would you like to come and see it?
Anna: Yes please Kevy, that sounds simply delightful.