Names to be chosen for new Dundee waterfront streets

Suggestions are invited for names for new civic spaces planned in the waterfront project

Names have been proposed for a number of new streets created as part of Dundee's waterfront regeneration project.

The council has also invited locals to suggest names for two major new open spaces created in the £1bn development.

If approved, one street will be named Thomson Avenue after pre-war city planner James Thomson, while others celebrate the city's seafaring links.

Suggested names for the two new city squares will be taken until 6 February.

James Thomson was Dundee's city architect from 1906 to 1924, during which time he oversaw the building of the Kingsway, one of the UK's first city bypasses. He was also an early proponent of a waterfront master plan.

Another proposed street name is Earl Grey Place, chosen to honour the former dock built in 1834 which was run for 129 years until it was filled in to make way for the Tay Road Bridge landfall.

And a further street could be named Patent Slip Way, after the track and cradle used to transfer vessels from the river to the dock for repairs. The upper part of a 166 metre ramp built in 1837 at the Harbour Workshops is still visible between Victoria Dock and the estuary.

Construction of the centrepiece V&A design museum is yet to get under way

A number of new streets have been built as part of the £1bn project

Lord Provost Bob Duncan said: "There is a long-established and legal process for naming new streets and we are launching that process today.

"I think that the proposed names strike a balance between logic and creativity while also paying homage to a visionary city planner from the 20th century in a scheme designed for the 21st and beyond."

A four-week consultation will be held on the proposed names before they are agreed by the council's city development committee.

Meanwhile, the local authority is seeking suggestions for names for two new civic spaces - the new central square and a space outside the city's new railway station - as well as the riverside walkway and cycle path along the central waterfront.

Suggested ideas include famous names or events associated with the city, although names of living people will not be considered, historical references to the area or names reflecting the redevelopment of the waterfront.

Submissions can be made via the council's website until 6 February when Mr Duncan, city development director Mike Galloway, city archivist Iain Flett and city centre group chairman Jon Walton will decide the winners.

Work to re-draw the waterfront road map as part of the 30-year project is ongoing, with construction of the centrepiece V&A design museum still to get under way.