Old Tower, St Mary's, Dundee

In 1870, Sir George Gilbert Scott surveyed and produced a report on the Old Steeple, the highest surviving medieval tower in Scotland, which, in 1853, he had used as a basis for his design of the tower of St Paul’s.

Scott recased and restored much of the Steeple in 1872 and was intending to replace the crown, as he had already done at Newcastle and was proposing to do at Durham. But Dr Thomas Ross, a Scottish architectural historian, declared that Scott’s was a dreadful design and that ‘We have enough of his work in Scotland already’. This comment may be seen as part of a campaign which was launched by Glasgow architects against the Englishman Scott when he was appointed to design the new university buildings in that city in September 1864.

Walker, B., and Ritchie, G., Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside (HMSO, London, 1987), p. 110.
McKean, C., and Walker, D., Dundee, An Illustrated Architectural Guide (RIAS, Edinburgh, 1984), p. 61.