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Writer's pictureAndrew Batchelor

The history of the Wee Pink Nethergate House in Dundee


The Nethergate is one of the quirkiest streets in Dundee, and it holds a lot of significant history for Dundee, housing the city's oldest building, the birthplace of Williamina Fleming, and the former headquarters of a certain video game company.


One of the quirky buildings on the street is located at 134B Nethergate which is a pink and blue building that has continued to be a staple of importance in Dundee's history - and here's how!


It has a lot of links to Dundee's video gaming industry, housing the headquarters of DMA Design, who would later be known as Rockstar North.


The building was constructed in 1893 to seal a passageway, and was marked as an "infill building". It was designed by James Hutton and it originally housed a photography studio.



G & G Taylor Photography was based at the studio, and being a purpose-built photography studio, a Tripod Camera can be seen at the top of the façade.


The next notable move for the building occurred around 1937 when Bruno Sterpaio established his soon-to-be famous fish and chips restaurant, The Deep Sea, at the location.



According to a Reddit post, the restaurant offered seating on the first floor and later expanded by acquiring an additional venue across the street.


The Deep Sea was a widely popular chipper and Dundonians visited in their droves. The chipper closed in 1986 and moved permanently across the street.


DMA Design moved into the building in 1989 and served as their first headquarters. David Jones', the head of DMA Design, father-in-law was in actual fact, the owner of the Deep Sea chipper on the site.


There, DMA Design developed Lemmings, but it wouldn't be until they moved out to the Technology Park either in 1990 or 1991, that they would develop Grand Theft Auto, which initially was penned under the title: "Race 'n' Chase".


The headquarters of DMA Design were located on the upper floor of the building whilst there were several different tenants on the lower floor of the building.



During this time, Goosebury Bush, a children's clothing store moved on site, and by the mid-1990s, the site would then house Dellos, an Italian restaurant.


At this time, the site would later become a listed building, being added to Historic Environment Scotland's register on 30 March 1995.



After Dellos closed its doors, Andre's, a French restaurant moved into the premises and operated there until the late 2000s when Mali Thai moved onsite. Unlike Goosebury Bush, Dellos and Andre's, Mali Thai had a long-term presence on the site up until they closed in 2012, but then returning for a short stint in 2015.


During the period between 2014 and 2016, the restaurant was occupied by Gulshan and as mentioned above, Mali Thai briefly returned for a short period, before Wee Mexico moved in by 2016.


Wee Mexico is a popular Tex-Mex restaurant in Dundee and it continues to operate on the site to this day. It was recently repainted in the bright pink and blue colours to match the lower exterior of the restaurant.



This wee pink and blue house also went through a lot of colour changes. Before it's current iteration, it was previously red and green and then pink and green before settling on its current colour.


The Wee Pink Nethergate House continues to fascinate those who walk past it, and it's brilliant that it is loved, it's not like any other building on the street - and it's history is just one for the ages!

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