Dundee Decides 2018:
Friends’ River Line successfully bid for £20k from the Community Infrastructure Fund to perform a feasibility study. We thank the West End Community Council and the voters of the West End for this show of confidence.
Friends’ River Line successfully bid for £20k from the Community Infrastructure Fund to perform a feasibility study. We thank the West End Community Council and the voters of the West End for this show of confidence.
Our proposal
A series of linear gardens running north of the railway line
from the Botanic Garden to the Waterfront development, forming a series of distinct galleries on which other cultural and educational contributions can be placed.
Project description
With the advent of the V&A Museum of Design, Dundee, the
city will become a significant visitor attraction within Scotland. Other local
centres of culture and entertainment, such as museums and theatres, will
complete the visitor experience. In this context the Friends of the Botanic
Garden are working with its Curator to ensure the Garden retains and improves
its role as a major attraction within the city.
The situation of the Garden in the West End of the city
offers a unique opportunity to create a green route, via Seabraes and the
historic Magdalen Green, which would offer direct access from the Waterfront. The Friends propose to create a sequence of linear gardens running
from the botanic garden to the Waterfront and parallel to the railway line, but
staying close to the old shoreline on its northern side. Projects of this
kind have been tackled with outstanding success in other cities, such as New
York’s High Line and Paris’s Coulée verte, both associated with
railway lines.
The conceptualised ‘River Line’ would be a series of gardens
taking advantage of the varied and particular surroundings that can be found
along the route, each acting as a gallery for artworks of various kinds, displays
of native habitats and historical briefs covering Dundee’s old shoreline and
its uses in times gone by.
By running the path north
of the railway line, beneath and close to the old shoreline escarpment, the
route will not only be visually appealing, but be a tranquil experience set apart
from congestion and pollution. This route crosses privately owned land and
all the owners have generously agreed to consider this proposal. There will be
many issues to consider ranging from technical feasibility, privacy, security
and cost estimations, and a comprehensive feasibility study is essential, which
we hope can be met by the Council's Community Infrastructure Fund.
There is presently much
discussion about Dundee’s future as a garden city, and the birth of this
feature along a beautiful part of its waterfront would be a major step in realising
this ambition.
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