Perth Garage Ltd building, at the corner of Caledonian Road and York Place Perth, May 1960
After the “Perth Garage Ltd” was closed, having been acquired and run under at least two other company names, the upper floor of the building, at the junction of Caledonian Road and York Place, Perth, was leased to the Forestry Commission in 1973 and became their Perth District Office. It also accommodated the Forest Research outstation, Forest Survey foresters, Civil Engineers and the FC Estate Agent, when I joined the Forest Research outstation in 1985. Later the Mid Scotland Wildlife Forester occupied the office vacated by the Estate Agent, after he transferred to the FC Headquarters at Corstorphine, Edinburgh. For a short period, at the end of the tenure, the Plant Health Forester had an office in the building too.
The National Trust for Scotland, under George Stewart, retired forester, former Senior World Tennis Champion and one time Scottish Ski Club, President, who skied in France, with his family, aged 100 years in 2020 before Covid lockdown, also had offices at the western end of the building, to the right of the image.
At the rear there was another entrance to the upper floor and a flat that was separate from the offices and rented by an import/export agent. Later, when the Forestry Commission split into the Forest Authority and the Forest Districts, the Forest Authority took over the wee flat and the rear half of the Caledonian Road wing, whilst the Forest Research outstation, Surveys Branch and Mid Scotland Wildlife Forester moved towards the front corner nearest the traffic lights and the National Trust for Scotland, vacated offices were used by the FC Welfare Officer.
When the FC lease finally ended in 1998, I and the other two survey foresters, as the then sole occupiers of the whole of the upper floor, had the task of clearing the 25 years of accumulated furniture, paperwork and junk, before returning the building to the owner's agents. That was some task and the Perth & Kinross Council refuse compactor lorry (dust cart) was reversed up to the large window (behind the ESSO sign) above the entrance to the right of the front of the building and all that we couldn't recycle, gift to local schools/charitable organisations, was deposited into the back of the lorry and compacted, including the carpets that had been installed, when it was a new building for the garage. We filled the lorry!
Recently (2026) the building has been re-roofed and the upper floor has been converted into flats.
My thanks to the Perth & Kinross Local & Family History, Perth Library, for posting the image on social media, which is held in the Perth Art Gallery collection of images taken by D. Wilson Laing (photographers) and their agreement to my publishing the image on the Forestry Memories archive.
A lot of memories and lives passed through those upper floor offices, whilst they were rented by the Forestry Commission and comment from those who worked out of the building whilst it was occupied by the Forestry Commission would be welcome.
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Groups: Forest Research, Miscellaneous, Road and Bridge Engineers and Works