Monday 11 April 2011

OLD BANK BAR - MURRAYGATE - 1960'S

Before the Old Bank Bar opened in Reform Street in the 80's, there was another one in town who had been doing business a couple of decades earlier - the Old Bank Bar at 25-27 Murraygate - the original, and a place that goes back to at least the 1940's.
Although the pub's main door was on the Murraygate, there was another side door down the True Rest pendie which took you into another part of the pub - The Clan Lounge.
The Old Bank Bar was also well known for it's seafood dishes.
The picture dates from around the mid 60's, and the pub eventually closed down in 1968.
While I'm at it, I'd be as well to mention the shop next door in the image - at #29 Murraygate was Paul & Matthew, a stationers. The wee slogan they used in adverts and had on the shop front was - "The Pen People".
Photo by DC Thomson.

6 comments:

  1. Nice Morris Traveller

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Mini estate in front of the Morris 1000 is probably a Countryman model.From memory, B.M.C. made two versions of this estate type car. There was a more basic all metal version and the version shown with the wooden adornments which was reminiscent of the Morris 1000 Traveller.
    Not a pedant-just somebody old enough to have owned these in the past and I stand to be corrected by the more knowledgeable.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dave Phillips has a chapter on the Old Bank in his book 'The Hungry Thirties', and apparently it opened in 1903.

    But, as the late Leslie Nielsen put it, that's not important right now...what oh what was 'True-Rest Furniture'?

    ReplyDelete
  4. .
    Hi Neale.
    I talked to Marc Tait of the Dundee Independent History Group a year or three ago and asked him about that.
    Apparently, Tru-Rest had a factory/showroom during the 30s and 40s, if not later, in St Paul's Court, which is the correct name for the pend, which goes right through to Seagate.
    Perchance someone with a Dundee Directory could confirm/deny this?
    8=)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Brian. There is not even a hint of the premises, though, anywhere in my Dundee Directory collection. However I have seen the name of the Nelson's old landlord, so I'll go and post that in another place!

    ReplyDelete
  6. From the late 60s to the 80s, Currys Ltd (electrical retailers) occupied this site.

    ReplyDelete