Wellgate Centre

Wellgate Shopping Centre

The Wellgate Centre in 2007
Location	Dundee, Scotland
Coordinates	56°27′51″N 2°58′10″W / 56.4643°N 2.9694°W / 56.4643; -2.9694Coordinates: 56°27′51″N 2°58′10″W / 56.4643°N 2.9694°W / 56.4643; -2.9694
Opening date	April 1978[1]
Management	Morag Dennis[2]
Owner	Invista Real Estate Investment Management
No. of stores and services	40
No. of anchor tenants	1
No. of floors	3
Parking	Multi-storey
Website	Wellgate Shopping Centre

Victoria Road entrance of Wellgate Centre and Central Library (left) in 2015.

The Wellgate Shopping Centre is one of the two main shopping centres located in the city centre of Dundee, Scotland, the other being the Overgate Centre.

It comprises two shopping floors and a third floor containing a food court, JD Gyms and Dundee Central Library. The centre has a variety of discount retailers, with, Home Bargains and B&M Bargains operating the largest stores within the centre. Other high-street retailers include Poundland, Savers, Superdrug and Iceland. Prior to its collapse, British Home Stores operated a two-level anchor-store at the entrance of the centre, which was occupied by TJ Hughes.

From its early years until the reopening of the largely-rebuilt Overgate Centre in 2000, the Wellgate was Dundee's principal shopping mall.

History[]

Original Wellgate and construction of the Centre []

The centre - whose construction began in the late 1970s - was named after the Wellgate, the thoroughfare that it replaced. It follows the traffic flow of the original Wellgate, which began with a flight of steps at the south end of the Hilltown and then became a street which ended at the junction of the Murraygate and Panmure Street; the two entrances to the Wellgate Centre are at the same locations as those of the original street (with the north entrance having a series of steps).

The 'gate' in Wellgate comes from the Old Norse word 'gata' meaning road or street and has the same origins as the word gait meaning 'to walk'. The street was referred to as 'Wellgate' because it led to a well at the foot of the Hilltown. Gate and gait can often be found in historic and modern street names, normally meaning the same thing and along with the Wellgate, Dundee's compact city centre retains several streets with this characteristic: Cowgate, Marketgait, Murraygate, Nethergate, Overgate and Seagate.

Proposed refurbishment[]

In July 2013, it was reported that the owners planned to refurbish the centre, including construction of a 900-seat cinema.^[3] In March 2014, the BBC reported that an operator had been found for the proposed cinema, and that development work at the site was expected to take place later that year, taking 12 to 18 months to complete. However this plan has been put on hold indefinitely at the moment.

The plan had been brought back in discussion in August 2018 as a new poll was conducted by Dundee City Council for the Evening Telegraph, Dundee's local paper which showed that a strong majority of people want to see the Wellgate redeveloped in the near future.^[4]

Sold in Auction[]

The Wellgate Centre was sold to a private investor in December 2021 on an online auction for almost triple its guide price, about £1.5 million. The asking price originally was £500,000.

Stores and occupants[]

As of December 2019, below are the some of the retailers, charity shops and eateries contained within the centre:^[5]

References[]

External links[]

• Wellgate Website