the city

About Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea. In mid-2008, the population of the City of Dundee was estimated to be 152,320.

The town developed into a burgh in Medieval times, and expanded rapidly in the 19th century largely due to the jute industry. This, along with its other major industries gave Dundee its epithet as the city of “jute, jam and journalism”.

Today, Dundee is promoted as ‘One City, Many Discoveries’, in honour of Dundee’s history of scientific activities and of the RRS Discovery, Robert Falcon Scott’s Antarctic exploration vessel, which was built in Dundee and is now berthed in the city harbour. Biomedical and technological industries have arrived since the 1980s, and the city now accounts for 10% of the United Kingdom’s digital-entertainment industry. Dundee has two universities—the University of Dundee and the University of Abertay Dundee. A £300 million master plan to regenerate and to reconnect the Waterfront to the city centre which started in 2001 is expected to be completed within a 30 year period.

The new V&A at Dundee will be an international centre of design for Scotland which will play a vital role in Dundee’s ambitious plans for regeneration, symbolising the city’s high aspirations. It is intended that construction work will start on the V&A at Dundee site in 2013, with an anticipated opening in 2015.

It will celebrate Scotland’s historic importance in design and host major exhibitions of outstanding design, helping people understand their own and others’ cultural heritage.

V&A at Dundee will become indispensable to makers, teachers and industry nationwide as a place for the cultivation and exchange of knowledge, opportunity and design innovation. It will develop opportunities for diverse communities to engage with, learn from and enjoy design creativity, past and present.