Waterfront Place: Dundee's urban beach unveiled

The £1bn waterfront redevelopment in Dundee has reached a major milestone, with the opening of the city’s new urban beach.

Although not yet fully completed, Waterfront Place will be the first public space of its kind in Scotland, when it’s finished in September.

Dundee City Council leader John Alexander was joined by the director of V&A Dundee Leonie Bell at an opening ceremony on Thursday.

Councillor John Alexander said: “It’s a fantastic asset for Dundonians to use and enjoy, and I think that is the key thing here.

The opening ceremony took place on Thursday.

“It’s about creating fantastic public realm and the fact that we’ve got that really incredible design heritage as part of what we’ve delivered here in Waterfront Place and Slessor Gardens is really important.

“It attracts attention, not only of visitors but also of potential companies and investors.”

The urban beach forms just one part of Waterfront Gardens which are due for completion in September.

It’s the next phase in Dundee’s one billion pound and thirty-year long redevelopment with the area boasting art sculptures, a cycling hub and green space for people to enjoy.

Director of V&A Dundee, Leonie Bell, said: “The sun is shining, there’s been fencing which everyone that’s in Dundee would have seen for months and years around this site and now, this morning to see people sitting on deck chairs eating ice cream, spades and sand castles, it’s really quite a wonderful site, it’s an amazing happy morning.”

Costing just over £6 million, the work at Waterfront Place received £1 million of funding from the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme through the Low Carbon Travel and Transport Challenge Fund delivered by Transport Scotland.

The fund has a focus on supporting projects which enable everyday functional journeys to be taken by walking, cycling and public transport and to support an increased proportion on ultra-low emission vehicles on Scotland’s roads.