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Thank you to Vincent Canale who sent the
following reply.
Our Home in Beaumont Place
"I have been looking at your web site with the
photos of Beaumont Place and the Penny Tenement. I lived in No.1 Beaumont
Place from 1937 to 1942 and recall the Penny Tenement clearly.
The building where we lived was on the right
as you walked from the top end (Pleasance) down Beaumont Place towards the
King's Park (as Holyrood Park was then known). The Penny Tenement was on
the left side of the street with the massive wooden supports at the top
end (the Pleasance end ) of the tenement."
The Building with the Crack
"I find it hard to understand the photo above
that appeared in the Scotsman in 1959 showing a building with the terrible
crack in it. That building with the crack was NOT the Penny tenement. The
Penny tenement is the building the wooden supports are leaning against,
unfortunately just out of the picture."
The Penny Tenement
"I knew some families who lived in the Penny
Tenement one of which were the Frazer's in No.12, the Welsh's in, I think,
No 14 or 18?
No 12 stair was directly opposite the opening
to Forbes Street which ran straight through to Parkside Street. St.
Leonard's School which was taken over by James Clarks school was midway
along Forbes Street."
Dumbiedykes Demolition - Why?
"This was a solid Georgian building that
bridged St. Leonard's Street and Forbes Street and I cannot believe
they could pull such a beautiful building down!
This entire area was a living heart and soul
of a beautiful old city, bordering on an ancient park yet they pulled all
of it down. Lovely old buildings from Usher's brewery and the old
Stewart's distillery down to Holyrood Road which included at least two
schools, at least two churches, many old shops and thousands of homes.
Wiped away, a massive swath of Edinburgh's
historical south side. London or indeed any such English city proud of
their heritage would never have allowed the rape and pillage of their
past, so why did Edinburgh allow the terrible dismantling of a great part
of their lovely city to take place?
This must surely rate, as far as Edinburgh is
concerned, the constitutional crime of the century. The entire swath was
prime land and therefore it must all come back to money and how much could
be made from the sale of the hundreds of prime sites. It's true what the
old song says: 'Money is the root to all evil.' "
Vincent Canale: May 1, 2007 |
