http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: “How Edinburgh was transformed from dump that inspired Trainspotting” en Sun, 31 May 2026 13:26:35 +0000 http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-301632 Mon, 18 Feb 2019 19:00:50 +0000 gembo 301632@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Looks more like disposing the body from Baptiste last night sans tete. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-301584 Mon, 18 Feb 2019 09:07:48 +0000 I were right about that saddle 301584@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>They're getting canal-water to cool the barrow-load of craft lager and caraway vodka. That's the actual nascence of Akva, caught on ISO100 Fujichrome right there. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-301582 Mon, 18 Feb 2019 08:12:02 +0000 gembo 301582@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Nice shed.</p> <p>Is the wheelbarrow linked to whatever the person us up to at the right of the photo? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-301581 Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:05:28 +0000 I were right about that saddle 301581@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="http://www.henniker.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/fountainbridge010529.jpg">Port Hamilton.</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298789 Mon, 07 Jan 2019 14:09:29 +0000 I were right about that saddle 298789@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>and what is going on with they ankle socks in mid winter</em></p> <p>An I hinna seen a simmit in years. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298777 Mon, 07 Jan 2019 12:48:37 +0000 miak 298777@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>When i were a lad in the '60's in Edinburgh... half the new town was slums...and we all lived in boxes ..if we were lucky .. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298674 Fri, 04 Jan 2019 12:29:35 +0000 chdot 298674@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>“you can solve any area's unemployment problem by bulldozing the housing stock”.</p> <p>Which in the case of Craigmillar probably never should have happened as they were well built.</p> <p>Initially there would have been little unemployment, but the nearby pits and breweries disappeared. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298666 Fri, 04 Jan 2019 11:16:21 +0000 Rosie 298666@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@crowriver &amp; others - I do a walk every New Year with a friend who lives near the Pentlands. Snowy one year, icy another, soggy another. Especially beautiful this year with frost and crunchy mud. The Pentlands are a fantastic bonus to the city.</p> <p>@gembo Will check out that route. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298654 Fri, 04 Jan 2019 10:21:02 +0000 Blueth 298654@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Can't say I recall Edinburgh being a dump in the 80s but admit that when I go in to the centre now, particularly at this time of year, I find it increasingly so. And not entirely due to various threads on here.</p> <p>There was much more pride in the place then and the infrastructure was much better maintained. You could use the pavement without disappearing down a hole, the roads did not have vegetation growing down the middle and somebody actually cleared away such litter as was deposited. I wonder how many visitors ever make a return visit; they must be disappointed.</p> <p>Some development actually took place for the benefit of the citizenry, as opposed to large scale projects designed to line the pockets of organisations with no connection to the City.</p> <p>As for having dealt with Craigmillar's unemployment problem (I was surprised to read it was only 25%), well, you can solve any area's unemployment problem by bulldozing the housing stock and moving the unemployed along then importing wealthier people to the rebuilt area. I doubt whether those unfortunate enough to have been the sufferers of this suddenly found themselves in employment but have sometimes wondered where they ended up.</p> <p>I'd better stop now or there'll be a full page. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298646 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 23:54:07 +0000 acsimpson 298646@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Executive house buyers do seem to be happy with being given tiny gardens and even less storage space. Even with small gardens they seem prone to carpeting them with plastic.</p> <p>The Celtic Rug is certainly one scenario we may be facing very shortly. If we do I only hope it's before they build another 35,000 houses on the green land around us. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298645 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 23:51:56 +0000 minus six 298645@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>paid £12 for chicken and chips. Skinny dudes left half their chips too</em></p> <p>this now everywhere, innit... five minutes on a train and they're shelling out four quid for an egg sandwich that gets poked and picked at without much enthusiasm</p> <p>and what is going on with they ankle socks in mid winter </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298644 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 23:39:42 +0000 minus six 298644@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>You can buy whole streets of new houses in the West of Ireland that sit derelict following the Celtic Tiger being turned into a floor rug</em></p> <p>yeah, i remember cycling down south from Derry around 2004 and there were all these new build ghost estates, it was tearful to behold</p> <p>thats all still there?! well now, if they give me a passport, perhaps i could be persuaded to buy in </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298640 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 21:56:08 +0000 crowriver 298640@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@gembo, "I exhort all Edinburgh residents to get out to the further flung parts of the pentlands. "</p> <p>Absolutely. I've been intending to walk that very route from Kirknewton at some point soon.</p> <p>The Pentlands are a blessing for the folk of Edinburgh, I love those hills. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298632 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 19:03:07 +0000 Baldcyclist 298632@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>We have 4 toilets (not in Edinburgh), seemed like a good idea when we bought the house. In hindsight, the boy's en-suite would have been better as a cupboard, we don't have nearly enough storage.</p> <p>Re Trainspotting, it's quite reminiscent of how the 90s was for me, not he heroin, but other softer drugs and the laddish goings on. Everyone has a Begbie in their lives, and I remember those 'here we go again' moments when 'ours' instigated some fight we rather he hadn't. I always watch it with fondness of those times.</p> <p>Night clubs I remember were Cinderella Rockefeller's, and getting dressed up in suits to try and look older. Later Calton Studios, and the monthly all nighters at Ingleston.</p> <p>Lothian Road was always a dump, but I remember Goldberg's, and the Co-operative across the road - I always thought the old lift was the coolest thing.</p> <p>I never thought Edinburgh became refined, just expensive, but then yesterday we were in Nandos at Fort Kinaird, and we were sat next to 2 young lads, who sounded much like I did when I was younger, but had paid £12 for chicken and chips. Skinny dudes left half their chips too, I was taught if something was 12 quid you cleared the plate, as I did yesterday - didn't matter how uncomfortable I was for the rest of the day.</p> <p>*Edit</p> <p>I once went out with a girl from Pilton, and I remember once getting a bus from Muirhouse after being to someones flat. I remember hearing dshh, dshh, dshh, as 3 windows got smashed, 2 lads came running out from the side of the block followed closely by 2 policemen. It was a surreal moment, I knew some pretty mental people, but the thought of breaking windows just for a chase was newn on me. There's definitely a scale of poor though, I remember that girlfriend coming to my house and thinking I was rich, and I definitely was compared to her, there's definitely more than 2 half's...</p> <p>Nostalgia is a weird thing, I remember those times with fondness, but my word I wouldn't go back! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298625 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 17:13:32 +0000 neddie 298625@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>We are OK with our family sharing a bathroom, but the toilet situation becomes a bit of a nightmare with 4 people and a sink that's virtually on top of the toilet.</p> <p>So I am all for two toilets.</p> <p>Have frequented the Good Companions on many an occasion, not so much recently... Defo helps to know the "right" people. aka local hardmen </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298618 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 14:46:21 +0000 Rosie 298618@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Re executive homes - the size of them out of proportion to their tiny garden space and I bet they have 3 bathrooms at least. What's wrong with people that they can't share bathrooms? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298615 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 14:21:45 +0000 urchaidh 298615@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>My father claims to have landed a ball in a wagon of a passing coal train while playing golf at Carnwath - longest shot he ever hit. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298614 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 14:12:25 +0000 gembo 298614@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@ejstubbs, great detail.</p> <p>I wish to link these carstairs arcs of Victorian construction (Irish navigators I assume) to the feature of Glaciation known as the Carstais Esker. Before I knew of this feature of Glaciation I used to cycle up a very curvy railway embankment.</p> <p>The esker is the other side of carstairs from the railway.. The level crossing after auchengray is where I no doubt erroneously situate the parting of the Victorian iron works and the features of Glaciation.</p> <p>I am not serious here just improvising. So always happy to be corrected </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298612 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 13:55:06 +0000 ejstubbs 298612@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><strong>@gembo</strong>: <em>The Victorians then took the train back to Edinburgh from west Linton.</em></p> <p>Involving a change at Leadburn. Does anyone know the status of the old railway station at Leadburn? I'm led to believe that the area between the old platforms was supposed to have been turned in to a picnic area but every time I've had a nose around there recently a firmly closed gate seems to have been preventing access. Its proximity to the residential property that used to be the station building probably doesn't add to its appeal as a rest stop on the A701/A703/A6094.</p> <p>In theory it was also possible to reach Glasgow by train from West Linton (aka Broomlee) by taking the train to Dolphinton and then crossing what is now the A702 to get to the Caledonian's station. From there you could get a train to Carstairs and thence to Glasgow. Unsurprisingly, given the rivalry and animosity between the Caledonian and the North British (which took over the Leanburn, Linton and Dolphnton Railway two years after it opened), there was no co-ordination of train times to allow easy connections at Dolphinton, and not even any way to book through tickets. All in all, it would quite likely have been quicker to reach Glasgow from West Linton, should you have had a need to do so, by going via Edinburgh.</p> <p>The building of the Caledonian line to Dolphinton severed the "Queen's Curve" at Carstairs, which gave a much easier link between the West Coast Main Line and the line from Edinburgh. Much of the solum of that piece of line is still easily traced on the ground, on the OS 1:25,000 map, and even on <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.688666,-3.652447,2523m/data=!3m1!1e3">Google's aerial view</a>. The result was that the Caley's determination to stymie the NBR's ambitions led to it effectively throttling capacity on its own main line to Edinburgh from the south. Even today Trans Pennine Express trains have to slow down to IIRC 25mph to negotiate the original and much tighter curve just east of Carstairs station, and all because a bunch of Victorians couldn't grasp the concept of "co-opetition". (There is a story that, in the days when the APT was under development, re-instating that chord was actively considered for a while, to allow services to access Edinburgh less of a speed restriction. However, railway ownership of the land had long been lost and the then owners were not at all receptive to the idea.) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298604 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 12:02:29 +0000 gembo 298604@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Ok so the population of Edinburgh has risen steadily over several decades. Migration from other parts of Scotland, from england and other countries.</p> <p>The divorce rate has also increased necessitating two houses where one was previously enough.</p> <p>The government has relaxed planning permission.</p> <p>Petrol is cheap.</p> <p>So every scrap of land in and around Edinburgh is now having houses built on it?</p> <p>Next to railway lines, in rivers, buildings that were previously shops, pubs, workplaces etc now all houses.</p> <p>Is this sustainable?</p> <p>You can buy whole streets of new houses in the West of Ireland that sit derelict following the Celtic Tiger being turned into a floor rug. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365&page=2#post-298602 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 11:51:10 +0000 chdot 298602@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>“Who <em>are</em> all these executives?”</p> <p>Simple answer is ‘same as ploughmen in ploughmen‘s lunch. </p> <p>Bigger question (asked before) is ‘are people buying these houses because it’s what they WANT or overwhelmingly what’s being built?’ </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365#post-298600 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 11:33:40 +0000 I were right about that saddle 298600@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>Edinburgh abides Despite detractors such as Lesley Riddoch</em></p> <p>When she is presidente of the Caledonian Republic we will install her in the Observatory on Calton Hill and she can summon anyone she likes for tea and quizzical looks. </p> <p>Recent wanderings have revealed executive homes sprouting in very unwelcome places around Edinburgh. Who <em>are</em> all these executives? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365#post-298599 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 11:19:27 +0000 gembo 298599@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@acsimpson, yes I was caught out a few times trying to buy something in John Lewis on a Monday.</p> <p>Schools in south west Edinburgh used to close for the afternoon on a Wednesday. Some shops too. </p> <p>Edinburgh abides Despite detractors such as Lesley Riddoch (Dundee on the up? I think more like North Fife Coast extends middle class franchise to other side of the Tay). Slow news day?</p> <p>One reason is the geography of the city. I was out near the source of the water of leith yesterday. Actually very busy on the hill walk as we encountered two women running with dogs and a chap who seemed just to be wandering (he tried to come off west cairn following a quad bike track instead of the path and ended up in no man's land)</p> <p>I exhort all Edinburgh residents to get out to the further flung parts of the pentlands. You can take the train to Kirknewton then walk up Leyden Road to Selm Muir Wood go into the wood, after few hundred yards follow the sign post into the field and skirt the hilly cow wigwams. The path takes you to little vantage car park on the A70. This is also called The Thieves Road. Discussed previously. Drove road from Falkirk to Peebles via the saddle known as the<br /> Cauldstane Slap. From here you can go up West Cairn and then maybe onwards to the Covenanter's Grave. Or East Cairn and back to Balerno if you can follow a map or your nose. Or straight down to west Linton on easy road. The Victorians then took the train back to Edinburgh from west Linton. But this option is not available nowadays. </p> <p>The pentlands are a great asset to the city and empty if you avoid the nearest hills to the city. The crags and Arthur's seat are also not going to have Cala homes so will be the last bit of greenery apart from Calton Hill which has been built upon over the centuries.</p> <p>The water of leith is also a fantastic resource as is the union canal (I am including it as it is a contour canal). Then the boundary of the Firth of Forth also creates some semi permeable barrier to Cala.</p> <p>These large geological/geographical features all cheek by jowl are enduring influences on why Edinburgh is a prime location for a city.</p> <p>What politicians and drivers of single occupant vehicles need to wake up to is that this is a finite resource and more houses, more single occupant cars, more air BnBs and more hotels represent an expansion of this finite resource to breaking point.</p> <p>The 2050 vision of Edinburgh cannot just be more of the same. It has to ban cars from the centre and it has to protect the geography/geology. Otherwise the 2050 vision is one of permanent smog, Edinburgh, Fife and Dundee all one big industrial housing complex,no countryside, a crash in hotel building as no one visits anymore. Anyone driving a single occupant vehicle into Edinburgh needs to contribute directly to preventing this by paying a hefty congestion charge. Just an idea, it may have been mentioned before? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365#post-298594 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 01:53:44 +0000 chdot 298594@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/lesley-riddoch-sorry-edinburgh-dundee-is-on-the-up-1-4850057" rel="nofollow">https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/lesley-riddoch-sorry-edinburgh-dundee-is-on-the-up-1-4850057</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365#post-298593 Thu, 03 Jan 2019 01:21:09 +0000 acsimpson 298593@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>It isn't too long since John Lewis started opening on a Monday. Sunday opening came later. IIRC both events occured this century. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365#post-298591 Wed, 02 Jan 2019 23:26:44 +0000 chdot 298591@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>“</p> <p>with roof garden, nursery and menagerie. </p> <p>“</p> <p><a href="http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_buildings_g/0_buildings_-_goldbergs.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_buildings_g/0_buildings_-_goldbergs.htm</a></p> <p>“</p> <p>The department store had been intended as the showpiece in a new busy interchange at Tollcross, but the new roads never passed the drawing board and the store failed to attract the kind of footfall it had been built for.</p> <p>“</p> <p><a href="https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/remembering-goldbergs-department-store-1-4326904/amp" rel="nofollow">https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/remembering-goldbergs-department-store-1-4326904/amp</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365#post-298590 Wed, 02 Jan 2019 21:51:33 +0000 gembo 298590@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@morepathsplease, our probationer tried to convince me to go to the Good Companions after our Xmas night out. Our trainee proved more sensible and was driving.</p> <p>Goldie's apparently had a roof garden in Edinburgh but I do not remember that</p> <p>Spotted a mushroom on the path on White cleuch the other day </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365#post-298589 Wed, 02 Jan 2019 21:35:46 +0000 morepathsplease 298589@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Ice skaters on the canal when I first arrived in '91. Looks like The Good Companions in Oxgangs is still open.</p> <p>There were mushrooms growing in the spare room of our digs at one point - not cultivated psychedelic but random ones growing through the carpet. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365#post-298588 Wed, 02 Jan 2019 21:21:46 +0000 wingpig 298588@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@gembo</p> <p>1: I still have it - it was a 1971 edition previously used by my parents when they were up visiting my great-granny and her children, so was out of date even then and also too delicate to carry around.<br /> My second Edinburgh street map was stolen by an Australian tourist invited to stay in our spare room by a flatmate. He left his more-damaged and lacking-marked-locations copy of the same edition of the same type of map.</p> <p>2: Probably. We'd been to WmLow and the nearby Capital (now Farmfoods) in the morning to buy food. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=19365#post-298587 Wed, 02 Jan 2019 21:19:14 +0000 gembo 298587@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@cyclops. I was pointing out The Broo to Mrs Garto the other day - and said - remember when we used to sign on there. She said, oh no, I used to sign on next to Goldbergs.</p> <p>(We were standing at High Riggs)</p> <p>I have been in goldbergs in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ayr. Yes was open Sunday pms often when not much else was</p> <p>Wiki says in the 1970s they were first company in Europe to have electronic point of sale. Also first to have a woman director in UK? Strangely no mention of the availability of Tick </p>