‘Mapping Dundee’s Music Halls’ explores the rich and often overlooked history of Dundee’s music halls, from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on posters, playbills, programmes, newspapers, photographs, and other surviving records, it examines the venues, performers, audiences, and individuals that shaped the city’s vibrant entertainment culture.
At the heart of the project are collections held by The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum and the Local History Centre at Dundee Central Library. These remarkable objects do more than record performances and events; they are important historical sources in their own right. Their designs, imagery, typography, and material qualities reveal how entertainment was marketed, consumed, and experienced, offering valuable insights into the visual culture of popular leisure and the social worlds in which music halls operated.
By combining these historic objects with archival research, the website aims to uncover the stories behind Dundee’s entertainment industry and to demonstrate the value of music hall collections for understanding the city’s cultural and social history. In doing so, it highlights the ways in which music hall culture reflected wider issues of class, gender, race, leisure, and everyday life. Through venue histories, object studies, and archival discoveries, the project seeks to make Dundee’s music hall heritage accessible to researchers, students, and anyone interested in the city’s past.
A note
Not all Dundee venues that hosted music hall entertainment are included on this map. The focus has been on halls where music hall and variety entertainment formed the core of their programming.
So, venues such as Union Street’s Thistle Hall (c.1832-1892) later incorporated into the Royal Hotel, which welcomed acts such as John Henry Anderson, the “Wizard of the North” in January 1907. Nor does it tell the story of the Seagate’s Comedy Theatre (1883-1887). Located where Robertson’s Whisky Bond now stands, the Comedy welcomed William McGonagall to its stage in 1887 where he performed his poem ‘Bannockburn’.
An exception has been Kinniard Hall, located on the Bank Street. Originally opened as the Public Hall & Corn Exchange in 1858, it was renamed as Kinnaird Hall in 1865 and remained a prominent city venue (including a history as cinema and bingo hall) until its demolition in 1969. Better known as a concert hall, it was one of the first venues that William McFarland, the father of Dundee’s halls, staged an evening of musical hall entertainment (23 February 1869). The six Kinnaird Hall posters held in the Local History Centre at Dundee Central Library, all of which are featured on this site, provide a valuable insight into the changing nature of entertainment in Dundee during the mid-nineteenth century.
Content Warning
Please note that this catalogue includes historical posters and other printed materials from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some items contain language, imagery, and attitudes that are now recognised as offensive, discriminatory, or harmful. These materials are presented for the purposes of historical research and interpretation and do not reflect the values of The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum, the Local History Centre at Dundee Central Library, or the Mapping Dundee’s Music Halls project team. Original wording has been retained where necessary to preserve the historical record and to support understanding of the social and cultural contexts in which these objects were created.
Where such content is present, entries have been clearly marked so that visitors can make informed choices about how they engage with the material. We encourage visitors to approach these objects critically and within their historical context, recognising both their significance as historical documents and the ways in which they may reflect prejudices and inequalities of their time.
AI Disclaimer
Some alt text descriptions and transcriptions in this catalogue have been generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. These tools have been used to support accessibility and to assist with the interpretation of historical printed materials, including posters and ephemera.
While every effort has been made to review and verify AI-generated content, inaccuracies, omissions, or misinterpretations may occur, particularly where original materials are damaged, faded, indistinct, or typographically complex. AI-generated descriptions and transcriptions should therefore be regarded as interpretative aids rather than definitive records.
We welcome feedback from users who identify errors or wish to contribute additional information that may help improve the accuracy and accessibility of this resource.
Acknowledgements
** Information to be added here **
Dr Billy Rough, School of Art History, University of St Andrews, November 2026
‘Mapping Dundee’s Music Halls’ has been generously supported by Northwood Charitable Trust.