Demolition work to pull down a Dundee primary school has begun.
Park Place Primary in the West End has lain empty since its closure in 2012, but now the site is to be converted into a short term car park for Dundee University and then later redeveloped for a new project.
Residents who live in the area have spoken of their sadness at the closure, but they admitted the school looked tired and needed knocked down.
One was Jean Anderson, whose daughter Claire, 36, attended the school in the 1980s.
Jean, 65, who lives on nearby West Port, said: “I’ve been living here for 30 years and it’s sad to see it go, but it’s progress I suppose.
“My daughter is quite sad about it as well. She comes over and picks me up a lot and every time she does, she notices how it’s coming down bit by bit.
“She’s been saying ‘that’s my primary one, two and three gone now’. She attended in the 80s and went right through the primary school before going on to the Harris, but she still remembers all her former teachers.
“To begin with I used to take her round to the school but when she got older she would go herself and I would be able to stand on the landing to make sure she got there.”
Jean said former pupils have been coming and going over the last couple of weeks to take snaps of the building before it is completely gone.
She added: “It’s only been in the last two weeks they have been bringing it down but ever since then people have actually been coming round to take photos of it before it’s gone.
“I’ll miss it myself. You miss the school bell at 10.30am, because I would think to myself, ‘I’ll go and boil the kettle now’.
“It was just one of those routines I had.”
There had been initial plans to convert the school into a recycling centre for Dundee University, but a spokesman today confirmed it would be a car park for a short period before its long-term future is decided.
Jean added: “We could really do with more parking around here, but I’m just glad it’s not being converted into flats.”
Park Place Primary was shut when pupils transferred to the new Victoria Park Primary School in October 2012 — Dundee’s first shared campus — divided up with St Joseph’s R. C. Primary School and Balgay Hill Nursery.