Goldbergs

Department Store

1960 - 1990

Goldbergs

Department Store

1960 to 1990

Goldbergs department store was ahead of its time when it opened at High Riggs, Tollcross, Edinburgh in 1960.  It was a modern construction on five floors, with roof garden, nursery and menagerie.

The store, with its copper sculptures at either side of the entrance at the top of a flight of stairs, was originally closed on Saturdays due to the owner's Jewish faith.

It was intended to be the showpiece in a new road system for Tollcross, but the new roads were never built.

Competition from elsewhere in Edinburgh, particularly the new St James Centre at the East End of Princes Street in the 1970s, made trading conditions difficult.  Goldbergs finally closed in 1990.

New offices for the Bank of Scotland have now been built on the site.

'Edinburgh Shops, Past and Present' [Malcolm Cant]  AND Edinburgh Evening News, October 14, 2005 [Grant Scott]

Recollections

1.

Craig Herbertson

Witten, German

Thank you to Craig Herbertson, Witten, Germany, for supplying the photograph above, and for his recollections of Goldbergs. 

Craig wrote:

Escalators

"I remember being taken by mother up the escalator at Goldbergs  - the only escalator in the world as far as I knew.

Rooftop

There was an exotic rooftop where you could have a coffee.  My mum would sit with my aunt and chat.  I sensed, for her, this was high living on a par with being in a Bond movie.  That could well have been 1969."

Craig Herbertson, Witten, Germany:   April 28, 2006

Recollections

2.

Dorothy Jeremy

Suffolk, England

Thank you to Dorothy Jeremy, now Dorothy Land, for sending me her recollections of Goldberg's.

Dorothy wrote:

1961

"My grandmother, Dorothy Aspey, took me to Goldbergs store just after it opened, possibly in 1961. I remember two things:

-  a magical display of  leather gloves on a 'tree', the gloves arranged to look like leaves. How surreal and avant garde was THAT!

-  I think the doors were automatic? There was a family story, going the rounds, that my Uncle Tommy rushed at the doors to open them, they opened automatically and he fell through. It sounds unlikely, but he WAS accident prone to an alarming degree!

It was indeed a glamorous, adventurous place to shop."

Dorothy Land, (nee Jeremy),  Suffolk, England:  May 31, 2007

Recollections

3.

Lesley Maasdorp, nee Gillies

England

Thank you to Lesley Maasdorp for adding her memories of Goldbergs to the EdinPhoto Guest Book.

Lesley lived in Balgreen, Edinburgh.  She emigrated to South Africa in the 1970s and is now living in England.

Lesley wrote:

1960s

"I have such fond memories of Mum taking me Christmas Shopping, and letting me ride on the merry-go-round at Goldbergs  -  and the entrance at Christmas with all the robot Disney characters.

Oh to be a child again. Thank you so much, not only for that memory, but all the others that came flooding back, Newhaven, Musselburgh, Portobello etc."

Lesley Maasdorp, nee Gillies, England:  October 16, 2007

Recollections

4.

Fiona Palmer (nee Jack)

Brighton, Sussex, England

Thank you to Fiona Palmer who wrote:

Macaw

"I was born in Edinburgh in 1960 and regularly went to Goldbergs at Tollcross as we lived at Viewforth.

I remember there was a blue and gold macaw parrot in the roof garden which was the highlight of our visits!"

Fiona Palmer (nee Jack), Brighton, Sussex, England:  November 19, 2011

Around Edinburgh

Tollcross