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Recollections Nicolson Street Heading south from the GPO, the name of the road becomes: North Bridge, South Bridge, Nicolson Street, Clerk Street, South Clerk Street, Newington Road, Minto Street, Mayfield Gardens |
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Please click on one of the links below, or scroll down this page. |
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1. |
Bryan GOURLAY |
- McKenzie's Toy Shop - Catapults - Sheath Knife - Air Pistols |
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2. |
Bryan GOURLAY |
- National Commercial Bank - Skerry's - JK Rowling plaque - Martins the Bakers |
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3. |
- McKenzie's Toy Shop - Sheath Knife, Catapult, Air Pistol - Rugby Boots - Empire Theatre - The Gods - Pop Singers - Today |
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4. |
- Empire Theatre - The Gods |
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5. |
Dick MARTIN |
- Empire Theatre |
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6. |
- Empire Theatre - Stalls Arrangement - Disneyland |
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7. |
Bryan GOURLAY |
- McKenzie's Sports Shop - Football and Rugby Boots - Football Boots - Rugby Boots |
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8. |
Eric
GOLD |
- McKenzie's Sports Shop |
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9. |
Mike Melrose |
- The Empire - McKenzie's Sports Shop |
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10. |
S Cameron |
- Nicolson Square Question |
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11. |
Benzyl |
- Nicolson Square Reply 1 |
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12. |
Douglas Bryce |
- Nicolson Square Reply 2 |
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13. |
Eric Gold |
- Nicolson Square Reply 3 |
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14. |
Claire Culley
(née
Williams) |
- Hill Square |
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Recollections 1. Bryan Gourlay Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland |
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Thank you to Bryan Gourlay who wrote: |
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McKenzie's Toy Shop "Thinking about Frank Royle’s model shop a few days ago, reminded me of another magnet for my attention. McKenzie’s just a few yards south of the Empire Theatre on Nicolson Street. (They also had a smaller shop at Tollcross, on the east side of Home Street just before Tarvit Street and the Kings Theatre.)" |
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Catapults "McKenzie's had a wide range of toys and sports goods on two floors. I used to get great catapults there, which we played with endlessly setting up targets and holding 'hot shot' competitions for days. The real skill was selecting the right shape and weight of stones." |
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Sheath Knife "I also remember getting a bone-handled sheath knife for my twelfth birthday at McKenzies, which I wore on my Scout belt with great pride for a few years. It was no big deal 50 years ago, but would surely land me in a heap of trouble nowadays." |
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Air Pistols "I used to also stare longingly In McKenzie’s window at the air pistols and air rifles, but never ever managed to persuade my parents to get me one." |
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Bryan Gourlay, Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland: August 24, 2008 |
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Recollections 2. Bryan Gourlay Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland |
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Thank you to Bryan Gourlay who wrote: |
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National Commercial Bank Looking at your photo of 20-30 Nicolson Street (above), the far-left building on the ground floor with the white sign, used to be the National Commercial Bank. It closed when it was taken over by the Royal Bank of Scotland which already had a branch a few yards away on the corner with Hill Place." (That's the building on the right of this photo.) Skerry's "Upstairs, in the building in the centre of this photo, with the Friendship Centre sign, was Skerry's, a school for shorthand and typing." |
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J K Rowling Plaque "I noticed, in the passing last week, that a small plaque (with J K Rowling’s photo) has been erected on the far left of the green building on the corner with Drummond Street saying she wrote the first Harry Potter in a coffee shop which is now a Chinese restaurant on the first floor." Martins the Bakers "I remember it as Martins the Bakers restaurant in the 1960s, the dark red front below the Buffet King. That's where I began my life-long love affair with vanilla slices and snowballs" |
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Bryan Gourlay, Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland: August 24, 2008 |
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Recollections 3. Dick Martin Borders, Scotland |
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Thank you to Dick Martin who wrote: |
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McKenzie's Toy Shop Sheath Knife, Catapult, Air Pistol "Like Bryan (1 above), I bought a sheath knife for the scouts and catapult but I also had a Diana Air Pistol, all bought from McKenzie's, as did a couple of my pals. Come to think about it we were totally irresponsible in the way we used the Air Guns and catapults, hiding, in stair entrances, behind waste bins and lamp posts etc. while firing at each other. Fortunately no one ever got injured. Of course we told our parents that we were only shooting at paper targets and because we were all so loveable little boys, our parents believed us." Rugby Boots "In 1949, when I started at Broughton Secondary School, the only place my mum could get me a pair of rugby boots was McKenzie's. Plenty of shops had football boots but not rugby boots. I can't remember what difference there was between the two but you would have been classed as improperly dressed by your team mates had you turned up in football boots." Dick Martin, Borders, Scotland: August 27, 2008 |
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Empire Theatre 'The Gods' "Bryan also mentioned the Empire Theatre. McKenzie's shop had three windows, one on each side of the front door and one up the close which lead on to Surgeon's Square. In that close, beside the rear door to McKenzie's, was the entrance to the balcony, more commonly called 'the Gods', of the Empire Theatre. In the mid 1940's my grandparents would take me, on Friday nights to the Empire to see the variety acts of the day. (What has happened to them?) The queue would snake from that door right through the close and into Surgeons Square. Pop Singers "In my teen years, I was a regular at the Empire, when they had the top 'Pop' singers of the day. I remember Frankie Lane, Johnnie Ray, Guy Mitchell, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt and Frankie Vaughan, all in their prime at the time." Today "The Empire Theatre was turned into a Bingo Hall. Now it's the Edinburgh Festival Theatre." Dick Martin, Borders, Scotland: August 27, 2008 |
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Empire Theatre - Brief History The theatre originally opened as the 'Empire Palace Theatre' in 1892. It was the first of a chain of Moss 'Empire Theatres' throughout Britain. It has seats for 3,000 theatre-goers on four levels. It became a bingo hall from 1963 to 1991, and was then reconstructed with a glass frontage, to become the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, that opened in 1994. [Edinburgh Festival Theatre web site] - Peter Stubbs: August 28, 2008 |
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Recollections 4. Bob Henderson Burdiehouse, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Bob Henderson who wrote: |
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Empire Theatre "I, too, used to be taken to the theatre once a week by my parents in the 1940s, after the war. We always ended up in the these stalls - what Dick Martin called the gods. The Empire was the only theatre I was taken to that still had these stalls. They were a means of crowd control, and the same method is still used to this day in all the Disney World Parks. I recognised the system immediately on my first visit to Disney World in California, even though it was more than forty years since the days when I was taken to the theatre in Edinburgh." Bob Henderson: August 29, 2008 |
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Questions Bob: 1. I think that the 'stalls' that you mention may be something different from 'the Gods' that Dick mentions in 3 above. When I grew up in Yorkshire in the 1950s, I knew the Balcony as 'the Gods'. 2. Can you tell me what the 'stalls' arrangement was that you refer to, that acted as a means of crowd control? Thanks. - Peter Stubbs: August 29, 2008 |
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Answers Please see 'Recollections 6' (below) to read Bob's answers |
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Recollections 5. Dick Martin Borders, Scotland |
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Thank you to Dick Martin who wrote: |
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Empire Theatre Stalls My understanding of the seating arrangements in a theatre was. 1) Ground floor---------The Stalls 2) First Tier--------------The Royal Circle 3) Second Tier---------The Upper Circle 4) Top Floor-------------The Balcony The Balcony was commonly known as the 'Gods' because it was so high from ground level and nearer to Heaven, and therefore had the cheapest seats in the house. I've never come across the term 'Stalls' or 'Gods' in a theatrical sense to mean some sort of area which regulated crowd movement within the building. Safety Curtain Before the start of a performance at The Empire Theatre, the safety curtain would be dropped. On it was a notice which read:
"This theatre can be cleared in 2 minutes. |
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Dick Martin, Borders, Scotland: August 1, 2008 |
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Recollections 6. Bob Henderson Burdiehouse, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Bob Henderson for answering the questions in 4 (above). Bob wrote: |
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Empire Theatre "At the Empire, for the cheaper seats, you entered by the side doors, which were under cover at the side of McKenzie's sports shop. These doors were labelled: 'Stalls'. From these doors, you went upstairs to the stalls arrangement, then at the appointed time you were allowed into the auditorium at the balcony level. The stalls were exactly what they say; a large room on the same floor as the top circle which was divided up by wooden slatted walls." Stalls Arrangement
"This room would be completely filled with people prior to the start of the night's entertainment. It allowed everyone to get up the several flights of stairs and to their seats very quickly. This, at least, was the arrangement until 1949 when we moved out of the suburbs and stopped going to the Empire every week." |
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Disneyland "I later saw the same system being used at Disneyland. The barriers there were being used to disguise the actual size of the queue and to contain the queue in a relatively small space." |
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Bob Henderson, Burdiehouse, Edinburgh: August 30, 2008 |
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Recollections 7. Bryan Gourlay Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland |
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Thank you to Bryan Gourlay who wrote again: |
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McKenzie's Sports Shop "It's good to hear that Dick Martin was also good customer of McKenzie’s sports shop. I’m jealous he got a Diana Air Pistol." |
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Football and Rugby Boots "Dick has jogged my memory that I got my first pair of football boots there when I was about nine – and my first rugby boots about three years later. As he says, the boots were quite different, and jogging on onto the rugby pitch wearing football boots would have spurred many disapproving glances." |
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Football Boots "As I recall, football boots were brown, had an extremely hard toecap and a reinforcing strap of leather that went across at a slight angle in the space between the bottom of the laces and the toecap. Studs were made of leather and just hammered into the sole. Over time, the nails used to appear through the studs and were lethal if they came in contact with opponents’ shins. Not everybody could afford shin pads. Sometimes the nails used to come through the sole of the boot right into your foot." |
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Rugby Boots "Rugby boots were black, seemed to be made of a softer leather, with a toecap that was a different, flatter shape and nothing like as hard as football boots." |
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Bryan Gourlay, Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland: September 1, 2008 |
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Recollections 8. Eric Gold East London |
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Thank you to Eric Gold who wrote: |
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McKenzie's Sports Shop "I enjoyed reading the bit about Mr McKenzie who had the sports shop next to the Festival theatre, known as the Empire. He brought his Humber car in to the garage that I worked briefly as a kid to be washed in the Potterrow. He used to give me a shilling tip which got me into the La Scala (ha ha ha ha)" Eric Gold, East London: September 4 + 11, 2008 |
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Recollections 9. Mike Melrose Greenbank, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Michael Melrose who wrote: The Empire "Looking at your photographs of the Empire Theatre brought many memories flooding back. "My Grandparents and Parents lived in the Cowgate and Nicolson Street most of their lives. My Grandmother used to take me to the Pantomimes at The Empire at Christmas time. She remembered very well The Empire ablaze on the night that it burnt down." McKenzie's Sports Shop "I have a very vivid recollection of the sports shop next door to 'The Empire', that was McKenzie’s. McKenzie’s was on two floors and I can still remember walking up to the second floor and breathing in the smell of leather football boots, leather footballs and the distinctive smell of Dubbin. I can even smell it now, as I write this." Mike Melrose, Greenbank, Edinburgh: August 6, 2010 |
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Recollections 10. S Cameron Southside, Edinburgh |
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S Cameron wrote: |
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Nicolson Square Timber Framed Building "There was an 18th century timber-framed building that stood on the SE corner of Nicolson Square and Nicolson Street. It's now a modern building with the Mosque Kitchen on the ground floor. I remember it suddenly 'disappeared' in the 1980s or 1990s - possibly a fire - perhaps an 'insurance job'." Question "Can anybody tell me anything about the old timber-framed building? I became a Southsider 8 years ago and this question has been a bee in my bonnet. Today, nobody I know remembers, or cares, about it." S Cameron, Southside, Edinburgh: August 15, 2011 |
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Recollections 11. Benzyl Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Benzyl for replying to the question in 10 above. Benzyl wrote: |
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Reply 1 Nicolson Square Fire "As I recall, this building suffered a 'mysterious' fire in 1992, about the same time as the Palace Hotel on Princess Street, for possibly the same reason - hard times and listed building status making it a hard sell or redevelopment project. I think, apart from some nondescript shops on the ground floor, that it had been unoccupied for decades prior to the fire, as was the resultant gap-site for over ten years afterwards due, it seems, to ownership rights uncertainty. The picture on bottom left on this page from the RCAHMS Canmore web site** seems to be the building in question, although the half timbered memory is probably Parkers store, also somewhat fire-prone. The middle-top picture on the same page is a continuation of the view to the West of Nicholson Square." Benzyl, Edinburgh: August 23, 2011 |
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** All six photos in this link are from an album compiled by the survey section around 1915. |
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Recollections 12. Douglas Bryce Pilton, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Douglas Bryce for replying to the question in 10 above. Douglas wrote: |
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Reply 2 Nicolson Square Ritchie's "The shop that stood on the corner of Nicolson Square and Nicolson Street was called Ritchie's. It was more of a warehousee which sold goods, mostly clothes on credit and you paid them up. My Mother was brought up in Brighton Street, one of eleven, and my Granny would go 'ower-bye' to get them fitted-out. I remember going there. You entered from Nicolson Square and went up stairs. It was still there into the 1970s." Douglas Bryce, Pilton, Edinburgh: August 24, 2011 |
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Recollections 13. Eric Gold East London, England |
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Thank you to Eric Gold who wrote: |
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Reply 3 Nicolson Square Ritchie's "I was glad to read some people's comments on Ritchie's. It was a great landmark for people in the Southside. What a store! When I read about it, memories came flooding back. We used to go there when I lived in East Arthur Place, and so did the whole of the Dumbiedykes, too. It was a great shop for clothing. Mr Ritchie had everything there and you could get it on tick (credit). He sent the Tick Man (credit or debt collector) on a Friday night to pick up your weekly payments. He was a great man. My ma would give him a cup of tea. I'd love to know when Ritchie's ceased trading in Nicolson Square." Eric Gold, East London, England: September 1, 2011 (3 emails) |
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Recollections 14
Claire Culley North Island, New Zealand |
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Thank you to Claire Culley who wrote: |
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Hill Square Our Home "Before moving to Craigmillar in 1955 as our family mum, dad and 3 kids) was expanding, we lived in Hill Square in what would have been called a 'penny tenement'. It was a 'single end' consisting of a single room with a sink and a fireplace. Baths "I remember we had to go to the High School Yards for a bath once a week. The baths were huge and they had a seat inside as they were so deep. This was before I was 5 years old so everything looked huge. Gas mantles were used for light." Shops "I remember: - There was a cobbler underneath our tenements and the pawnbroker was across the road in Hill Square. - Around the corner was a small sweet shop. - Small lollies came in trays. - For a halfpenny, you could get two blackjacks. - For a penny, you had a tray of caramel lollies like the penny dainty and licqourice chews and spearmint ones, or an iceblock in the summer. They were just frozen ice blocks with some cordial added for flavour. - Does anyone remember the 'Lucky Tattie'. You ate around it, then you came across some tin figure which was meant to be a lucky charm. - Then there was the sherbet dab, and also potato crisps came with its own twisty bag of salt." Kindergarten "I also remember going to a kindergarten in Davie Street, where we all wore little floral smocks. We had a visit from the Queen and all the kids were taken to Holyrood Park and given a Union Jack to wave to the Queen as she drove past. It must have been 1953, the year of her Coronation, as I remember a huge street party going on. Schools "I went to Drummond St School but I couldn't have been there for long as my first school memories are of Peffermill School." Claire Culley (née Williams), North Island, New Zealand: November 13+17, 2013 |