Cab stance at City Churches - Ref: WC1002
This photograph is taken from the north end of Dundee's Union Street, and shows carriages (known as cabs) in Nethergate, in front of the City Churches (the Old Steeple, Steeple Church, South Church and East Church).
Dundee Central Library's Lamb Collection 233 (3) is a copy of the bye laws governing the operation of cabs from 1883. As well as laying out conditions of licencing, etc., it contains details of cost based on a zone system like the London underground.
There was a strike in 1873, when the licencing commission insisted that cabs were numbered. The reasons behind the objections were never clarified, but the story featured in several national newspapers. (Lamb Collection 57 (8) has copies).
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.