Fallen Lamp Post Accident - Where and When?

© Scotsman Publications Ltd, (Scotsman Ref 0683)with acknowledgement to Edinburgh City Archives for allowing me to reproduce
this photo from their 'Edinburgh Street Lighting Unit' collection. Please note restrictions on use of this photo.

Question

Where and When?

In April 2009, I added a photograph of a 'lorry and lamp post accident' to the Edinphoto web site, asking where and when the accident might have occurred.

This was the photo:

Answers

Outside Queensberry House -

64 Canongate

It is not obvious, from this photo, what caused the lamp post to fall.

However, the location and the date of the accident are now clear. The accident happened at the gates to Queensberry House on the south side of Canongate, Edinburgh

The St Cuthbert's building, in the upper-right corner of this photo, has since been demolished.

Queensberry House, in the upper left corner still exists. It has now been refurbished and has become part of The Scottish Parliament. New gates have been installed.

December 26, 1946

This photo was published in the Edinburgh newspaper, Evening Dispatch. The date written on the back of this photo is December 26, 1946.

Further Questions

Lamp Post

On looking more closely at the lamp post in the two old photos, I was interested to see the sign on the lamp post, in the lower right corner of the first photo below. This sign seems to have been removed by the time that the second photo below was taken.

The sign reads:

PLEASE DO NOT

SPIT

ON THE PAVEMENT

Questions

1. Was this a common sign on lamp posts in the centre of Edinburgh in the 1940s?

2. Were there also other signs carrying different messages?

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: January 9, 2011