Fort Place, Leith

Recollections
1.	Jim Macfarlane Edinburgh	- Our Home - Shops - Far End of the Street - Around Fort Place - 4 Fort Place
2.	Annie (nee Richardson)	- 18 Fort Place - 8 Fort Place - Play - Hamilton Place - Neighbours - Shops - Cairngorm House - Compulsory Purchase - Toys - Happy Days
3.	Annie (nee Richardson)	- Kerby
4.	Jim Macfarlane Edinburgh	- Return to Fort Place - 2009
5.	Yvonne Veitch Orangeville, Ontario, Canada	- Homes - Schools
6.	Ian Foster Western Australia	- Fort Street Tenements

Recollections

Jim Macfarlane

Edinburgh

Thank you to Jim Macfarlane who wrote:

Our Home

"In the top right hand corner of this photo there are three white windows. The Blakes lived there. Below that are the three windows of the flat that I was brought up in. It used to have a T-pole for hanging out the washing.

Our flat had one main room with a bed, a grange fireplace, with a space for a kitchenette (middle window), and a door to a coal bunker. The lobby had the toilet. The end room had a bed for my brother and me and another bed for my sister. It was not plumbed for hot water.

In the 1940s, it had gas lighting throughout with a large battery for the 'wireless'. The view looks east to the high-rise Fort buildings* which must have been built around 1956. I left in 1953."
* Actually Cairngorm House: see Recollections 2 below.

Shops

"On the other side of the street is the grocer on the Fort Street corner. During my years it had a 'Johnnie Walker' ad painted on the wall. The shop next to the grocer was Mrs Arkis' odds and ends shop."

Far end of the Street

"The houses down the far end of Fort Place can also be seen in this photo of Hamilton Street."

Around Fort Place

"If the photographer had taken a photo directly behind him to Dudley Bank the view would be much the same as today.

If he had taken a photo to the south he would have captured :

- the shop belonging to the carpenter' who used to rescue us when we lost the door key.

- Young the butcher.

- Duncan the crystally ice-cream and sweets shop.

- Fort Street School, and the wall of Leith Fort.

To the north, he would have seen:

- Lamb's shop.

- the wall of the 'Coalie'.

- the garage.

- a bombed building, probably cleared away by 1959.

- Our playground."

4 Fort Place

"Here is a photo of me and my brother standing in the entrance to 4 Fort Place in 1976, a little before the street was demolished. The stairs and banisters were very familiar."

Jim Macfarlane, Edinburgh: February 22, 2009

Recollections

Annie (nee Richardson)

Edinbrugh

Thank you to Annie who wrote:

18 Fort Place

"I lived in Fort Place for the first ten years of my life, from 1968, first in No 18 which was way down the right hand side near the bungalow at the end of the picture.

This was a ground floor flat with a livingroom/kitchen, toilet, coal cupboard and bedroom. We used to play opposite on scrap bit of land we called Jacky Backys."

8 Fort Place

"We then moved to No 8, second flat. This flat was a lot bigger. We had a large bedroom to the back, small internal boxroom (my bedroom), front bedroom, long room with toilet, livingroom/kitchen with a small room just off which was where our kitchen sink was. We used a tin bath to wash in. :-( "

Play

"We played kerby in the street and hidey.One day while I was 'He' I was standing in the centre of the street wondering which way to go look when suddenly I heard a smash, the ground floor flat opposite No18 had gone on fire and the mother and son came flying out the window to escape the flames!! The old lady who lived two above fainted, thinking her flat would go up!!!"

Hamilton Place

"Hamilton Place ran through Fort Place. We all thought that one of the stairs, No 6, was haunted. Only one or two flats were lived in and the stair was heavily covered in graffiti. We used to dare each other to go in!"

Neighbours

"One of my fav. neighbours was Mrs Combe who lived opposite us in No 8. She she spent many an hour leaning out her window watching us play."

Shops

"I spent my pocket money in:

- Robertson's Newsagent

- Celie Malcolm's sweety shop. It was diagonally across from Robertson's

- Charlie's (I believe that was really called Duncan's but I never knew this until recently). It was round the corner in North Fort Street.

We shopped at the Trendsetter supermarket. I'm sure there was a chippy opposite Robertsons but I can't recall ever seeing it open. Perhaps it only opened late. I was just young then."

Cairngorm House

"My Mum lived at 3 Fort Place with her family (Duncans) before she got married, perhaps around the time this photo was taken.

The high rise in the background was Cairngorm House, not the Fort building. It was one of two, the other being Grampian House, both gone and replaced, in my opinion, with an even uglier building, if that's possible!"

Compulsory Purchase

"The council made a compulsory purchase on all the homes in the street so they could knock it all down. I'm sure my parents got around £3300 for BOTH flats."

Toys

"My brother and I went back to the street not long after we moved. We somehow got access to our old flat, obviously before demolition, and found that our parents had left a lot of our old toys behind!!! The ginger haired ventriloquist dummy is the one that sticks in my mind most. We were most upset but couldn't say anything when we got home as we should not have been there :-( ."

Happy Days

"Happy days spent in this street - I'd happily go back to them."

Annie (nee Richardson), Edinburgh: March 12, 2009

Recollections

Annie (nee Richardson)

Edinbrugh

Annie mentioned playing 'kerby' in the street. I asked her how it was played and she explained:

Kerby

"One kid would stand on the opposite pavement, and would throw a football at the kerb, hoping it would bounce back to them. If not, the other person got their turn!

You can't really play it nowadays as too many parked cars and too much traffic :-( .

While sitting, waiting my turn to play (we only had one ball!!) I used to enjoy cleaning in between the cobbles on the road with an ice lolly stick!"

Annie (nee Richardson), Edinburgh: March 16, 2009

Recollections

Jim Macfarlane

Edinburgh

Thank you to Jim Macfarlane who wrote:

Return to Fort Place

2009

"I thought I would have a look at the site of Fort Place this summer. The only thing I could identify was the wall which bordered Fort Street School.

The Wall

On the Fort Place side of this wall it was all 'backgreen', and not a usable place for children. It was full of washing lines. The hooks are still in the wall."

Jim MacFarlane, Edinburgh: September 9, 2009

Recollections

Yvonne Veitch (nee Forbes)

Orangeville, Ontario, Canada

Thank you to Yvonne Veitch (nee Forbes) for posting a message in the EdinPhoto guestbook.

Yvonne wrote:

Homes

"I was born in Torphins Aberdeenshire Scotland in 1956, then moved to Edinburgh and stayed in Fort Place, then Fort House."

Schools

"I attended Fort Primary School, then Leith Academy Secondary School. I played hockey and was in Barton home team for Leith Academy.

I'd love to hear from anyone who thinks they remember me."

Yvonne Veitch (nee Forbes), Orangeville, Ontario, Canada.
Message posted in EdinPhoto Guestbook, October 10, 2010

Reply to Yvonne?

I don't know Yvonne's email address, so if you'd like to send an email to her it would probably be best to post a reply below the message that she left in the EdinPhoto guest book on October 10, 2010

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: October 12, 2010

Recollections

Ian Foster

West Australia

Thank you to Ian Foster for posting a message in the EdinPhoto guestbook.

Ian wrote:

Fort Place Tenements

"I was interested to read the Valuation Roll for 1915. My grandfather lived at 7 Fort Place, Leith. He was paying £11 7s 6d (£11.37) in annual rent to a Mrs Nicol.

There were also 18 other families in that tenement, all paying to Mrs Nicol. She would have been a rich lady in those days!

I always assumed that the council would have owned the property, not investors This Mrs Nicol also owned the tenements at Nos 9 and 11, Fort Place."

Ian Foster, West Australia: Message posted in April 24, 2012