Cab stance at City Churches - Ref: WC1011
The Old Steeple dominates this Alexander Wilson photograph (much as it still dominates much of Dundee city centre). The 'gable end' is the South Church, with the East barely seen to the right and the Steeple Church to the left and west.
The cab stance on Nethergate (the site today of a taxi rank) was the central point on the cab network, whose licencing was administered by the Police Commission. Dundee Central Library's Lamb Collection has copies of the 1883 bye laws (233 (3)).
W.P. Robertson, who ultimately owned the coach-hiring business he worked for as a young man, championed the rubber-tyred hansom cab (a two-wheeled carriage - like the one second from the right in this picture), and later popularised the motor car.
Alexander Wilson who took this photograph, was a supervisor in a Dundee jute mill for over 20 years. He bequeathed much of his collection and £50, to cover the costs involved, to the Free Library Committee of Dundee in 1923.