Edinburgh History - Old Town - Recollections of Causewayside

Recollections from

Eric Gold

known to many as

Eric McKenzie

East End, London

Thank you to Eric Gold for telling me about some of the shops that he remembers.

Eric wrote:

Ice Cream Parlour

"I remember a joint similar to Jeannie Veitch's. It was in St Mary's Street at the bottom, and was called Toovie's. I've probably spelt the name wrong but it is pronounced Toovie's **.

The Toovies, I'm positive, were Italian and were very nice people."

** George T Smith has suggested the answer (below). The name of the shop would have been 'Tusi's.'

Fudge Shop and Jeweller's

When I was wee there was a fudge and chocolate shop next door to jeweler's shop owned by a great friend of our family, Joe Donnelly, a Polish Jewish guy. **

Chocolate Frogs

We would buy a chocolate frog and the cream inside would be normally a creamy white colour. But the lady did put raspberry essence in a few of them making it a reddish colour. If you were lucky and picked a red one then you got one free.

Well, one day I had a hat trick and picked three in a row and shared my winnings with my classmates (ha ha ha).

** Tony Ivanov writes

Jeweler's

"Joe Donnelly was actually named Joe Dolny. He was my uncle Joe. He wasn't my true uncle in the sense of the word but a close friend of the family.

My father was also Polish and both he and 'uncle Joe' had known each other possibly from about the time I was born in 1946.

I was five years old in 1951 when my parents moved from Niddrie to Chessel's Court in the Canongate. (The house I lived in is shown in some of your photographs.)

I remember being taken to Joe's shop at the bottom of St Mary's Street at that time.

Although Joe did sell new Jewellery etc, his main business was repairing watches and clocks. I used to see him almost every day as his shop was en route to my primary schools, St Ann's and St Patrick's.

Joe and my father were good friends for many years and as I grew older I used to help uncle Joe in his shop doing odd jobs and tidying up. There was a basement cellar in his shop which was like an Aladdin's cave, hundreds of clocks and watches.

The last time I saw 'uncle Joe' was in 1998 in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary while I was visiting a relative. He was very ill and wasn't aware of me. He passed away not long after."

Tony Ivanov, Bo'ness, West Lothian, Scotland,: Sep 14, 2007.
Tony, like Eric Gold, attended St Ann's then St Anthony's schools.

Snow Freeze

"My aunt worked for the Snow freeze, a candy store next to the Lascala were Tesco's is now. Then they moved opposite in Nicholson Street, well before I was born."

Eric also told me about Jeannie Veitch's sweetie shop

Eric Gold, East London: February 8, 2007.

Tusi's - Another Shop

Thank you to Bill Cockburn for sending me this message. It helps to explain why people have had different recollections of the location of Tusi's.

Bill wrote:

Two Tusi's Shops

"Tusi, or Tuzi, also had an ice cream parlour in West Nicholson Street. It was a few doors up from the People's Dispensary, which was on the corner of West Richmond Street and Richmond Place.

I believe that there was a butcher's shop between the Dispensary and Tusi's. Further up towards Nicholson Street was The Geisha, where I used to take the accumulator for the wireless, to be charged up. Hardly anyone had a TV. In those days.

Bill Cockburn, Comely Bank, Edinburgh: May 6, 2007