City Square, with the granite-fronted Caird Hall along its southern edge, is the formal civic heart of Dundee. The hall is a 1923 neoclassical concert venue paid for by the jute baron James Caird, with a colonnaded portico that gives the centre of the city a touch of Edinburgh New Town grandeur. It still hosts the city's major orchestral concerts and graduation ceremonies.
The square in front is used for markets, civic events and the city's Christmas tree. The whole space was extensively repaved in 1993 and remains a pleasant place to sit in the sun, with the tower of the Old Steeple visible to the north and the Tay glinting beyond the V&A roof to the south.