Photographs of Dumbiedykes, Edinburgh by Wullie Croal

Photo 9

Reply

Don Murray

Thank you to Don Murray who wrote about this photo of a sign on a tenement wall, taken in 1965.

Don wrote:

Charles Street

"I believe that this rhino head on the wall may well have been outside the Paperback Bookshop in Charles Street."

Don Murray: March 23, 2013

Rhino Head

Don Murray also sent me a link to this Facebook page which refers to:

(a) a rhino head that hung on the wall outside the Paperback Bookshop in Charles Street in the 1960s. The bookshop was owned by Jim Haynes who is credited with founding the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh.

(b) a bronze rhino head created recently as a tribute to the head in (a) above. The Facebook page includes photos of this bronze head and of Jim Haynes.

Photo 9

Reply

Peter Stubbs

Edinburgh

Charles Street

Rhino Heads

The bronze rhino head created recently (and mentioned in 'Reply 1' above) can now be seen mounted on the wall of the University of Edinburgh Dugald Stewart Building and Infomatics Forum on the west side of Charles Street. That's where the Paperback Bookshop stood in the 1960s., with an earlier rhino head on its wall.

The Dugald Stewart Building houses academic staff from the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language. The Infomatics Forum houses researchers studying subjects including virtual reality, robotics, artificial learning.

Both buildings are part of the same complex, completed in 2008. The Infomatics Forum entrance is at 10 Crichton Street and the Dugald Stewart Building entrance is at 3 Charles Street.

Below are three photos that I took at Charles Street on 25 March 2013.

Photo

Rhino Head - 1965

Photo

9a.

Rhino Head - 2013 (black + white)

Photo

9b.

Rhino Head - 2013 (colour)

9c.

Charles Street, looking north towards Bristo Square - 2013

The rhino head is just visible mounted low on the wall on the right-hand side of the street.
It's the left-hand black dot on the wall above and to the left of the girl dressed in red,

9d.

Charles Street, looking south towards George Square - 2013

The rhino head is just visible mounted low on the wall of this building..
It's the black dot above and between the two pedestrians

Photo 9

Reply

John Hadden

Edinburgh

Thank you to John Hadden for finding two photos of the Paperback Bookshop in Charles Street on the Internet, and sending links to them. I feel that they capture the period well.

John wrote:

Paperback Bookshop

Two Photos

"Further to the location identified for the bookshop with the rhino head, here is a newspaper article referring to the bookshop and includes a photo of the bookshop with the rhino head in a lower position than in the "Where is it?" photo.

A link on that page also takes us to Demarco Archives where there's another view of Paperback Bookshop."

John Hadden, Edinburgh: March 25, 2013

Photo 9

Reply

Terry Cox

Fairmilehead, Edinburgh

Thank you to Terry Cox who wrote:

Charles Street?

"I'll bow to everyone's superior knowledge, but I thought of Charles Street for number 9, but dismissed it as a possibility. I remember the rhino head in Charles Street and it was a real one, very ragged and moth eaten, and that picture doesn't really look like it."

Terry Cox, Fairmilehead, Edinburgh: March 27, 2013

Hi Terry:

Since identifying the rhino head as being outside the Paperback Bookshop in Charles Street (Replies 1 + 2 above), I've been sent this link to an old photo of the Paperback Bookshop. (Reply 3 above)

I like the photo in this link, but don't have copyright permission to add it to the EdinPhoto web site, so you'll have to click on the link above to see it.

The question is.:

"Is the building in the link above the same building as in this photo?"

The answer to me looks like 'Yes'.

The rhino head is mounted higher on the wall in the small photo above. It is painted a lighter colour and looks a different shape, but I think that's probably because of the very low angle from which the small photo above was taken.

It seems unlikely to me that there would have been more than one rhino head mounted on a wall in Edinburgh in the 1960s, and there is also good evidence that the two photos are of the same wall.

The stonework and window surrounds on both photos match very well, and there is a small projection from the wall (below the letter 'O' of BOOKSHOP in this photo of the Paperback Bookshop which can also be seen in the small photo above.

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: March 28, 2013

Photo 9

Reply

David Black

Edinburgh

Thank you to David Black who wrote:

Charles Street?

"Your pic of the paperback bookshop shows the flat where I briefly lived, trashed by our vandal council and university.

The Paperback Bookshop was run by American Jim Haynes, something of a 1960s icon. He is now in his 80s, and lives in Paris."

David Black, Edinburgh: July 22, 2014

Jim Haynes

Thank you to David Black for also giving me the email address of Jim Haynes in Paris. I contacted Jim this afternoon and got a reply almost immediately. He told me:

- He will be visiting Edinburgh again, for 3 weeks from 7 Aug this year.

- He will be co-hosting the Scottish Arts Club Festival Dinner on 17 Aug.

- His memos are about to be re-published

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: July 27, 2014

Photo 9

Reply

Peter Stubbs

Edinburgh

The Paperback Bookshop

Jim Haynes' Bookshop

I met Jim Haynes on his annual visit to the Edinburgh Festival in August 2014.

Jim told me:

Edinburgh

- He lived in Edinburgh from 1957 to 1966.

- He bought his book shop in Charles Street, and a coffee bar down the Royal Mile, around 1961 when Edinburgh property was cheaper.
(He paid £300 for the book shop, £250 for the coffee bar at 369 High Street and £1,200 for his flat in Great King Street.)

Paris

- He now lives in Paris where and has held Dinner Parties at his home on Sundays for the past 36 years.

- He was a Visiting Professor at Paris University, giving weekly lectures on Tuesday afternoons for about 25 years.

- He returns to Edinburgh every August for the Festival. This is his 57th Year at the Festival.

- He is still writing books. His latest two were launched at a Scottish Art Club Party held in Edinburgh during the Festival in August 2014.

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: September 8, 204

Update 1

Thank you to Douglas Roberts who wrote:

'The Rhinoceros Bookshop'.

"I know it's a bit of a giveaway, but I'm sure that this shop was actually called 'The Rhinoceros Bookshop'. Hence, the head above the door.

If that was not its official name (though I'm sure it was) that was its unofficial name."

Douglas Roberts, New Town, Edinburgh: September 8, 2014

Update 2

I asked Jim Haynes about the name of his shop.

He replied:

'The Paperback Bookshop'.

"The real name of the shop was 'The Paperback Bookshop'.

The Rhinoceros Bookshop was what a lot of people called it."

Jim Haynes, Paris: September 8, 2014

Update 3

I was curious to know the background to the rhinoceros head outside Jim Haynes' Paperback Bookshop, so I asked him about it:

- Why a rhinoceros head?

- Where did it come from?

Jim replied:

The Rhinoceros Head.

"I was walking down Princes one bright sunny morning with a friend when we encountered two workmen carrying out this mounted Rhino head from the New Club.

I asked them what they were doing with it and they replied that they were throwing it away. I said that I would take it. I hailed a taxi and we took it to Charles Street.

By luck, there was a place outside the wall of the bookshop where it could easily be fixed and that is that!

I would often joke that Hemingway gave it to me or that Ionesco’s play was named after my Rhino."

Jim Haynes, Paris: September 8, 2014

Notes

1. Ernest Hemmingway's book, 'Green Hills of Africa', written in 1935, gives an account of how Hemmingway killed a Rhino in the Rift Valley, Tanzania

2. The title of Eugène Ionesco's play, written in 1959, is 'Rhinoceros'. This play is about the inhabitants of a small, provincial French town who all turned into rhinoceroses.

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: September 9, 2014