Wellgate 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.

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]