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Edinburgh at Work 1. House of Clydesdale |
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Thank you to Donald Grant, Penicuik, Midlothian, who wrote: |
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House of Clydesdale and James Scott "In the early 1970s Maitland Radio were taken over by 'House of Clydesdale', another electrical retailer who had shops all over Scotland and several in Edinburgh. They traded under the Clydesdale name and also James Scott They had a shop trading under the Scott name at Greenside Place just down from the Playhouse on the corner of Greenside Place Lane. That is now a pub." |
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Anderson Place "The House of Clydesdale service department (where I served my apprenticeship) was in Anderson Place in Leith. It was in the building that can just be seen in this photo, on the extreme left of the photo just in shot and no more. The building used to be a biscuit factory and was numbered 6, Anderson Place. Both firms are now history! You can just see the entrance to the lane at the side of the building in the left foreground. This led into the old railway goods yard on which John Lewis built their warehouse in the 1970s. At the head of the lane was a chemical works which if I recall correctly made soap." |
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The Old Bond "Moving across to the old bond I have to say I don't recall the low section of wall half way along, I'm pretty sure that must have been created during the conversion process as I remember it as a huge curtain wall throughout its length. Note that just past that section a large archway can be seen. That was where the railway from the goods yard entered the building so obviously the bond must have had it's own private siding. I've not been down there for a long time but even in my day the rails were still in the roadway." |
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Shops "The buildings at the top of Anderson Place at the corner Bonnington Road are long gone but when they were there, there was a little shop round the corner on Bonnington Road. That was owned by a Mr Nimmo and that's where I was sent to buy the cakes and biscuits (and cigs) for our afternoon tea break. It was the lot of the youngest apprentice to go out for the filled rolls in the morning from a shop along near Bonnington Toll, then Nimmo's in the afternoon. When Mr Nimmo retired and sold up it was taken over by Joe, an Eastern European man, so there's nothing new about the current influx!" |
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Lunch Times "At lunch time a few of us used to pile into a van and go up to Morrison and Gibb's staff canteen at Tanfield in Canonmills or walk down to Tennent Street to a bakehouse for freshly baked Scotch pies." |
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Donald Grant, Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland: April 23, 2008 |
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Recollections 2. House of Clydesdale |
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Thank you to Bob Henderson, Burdiehouse, Edinburgh, who wrote |
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Furniture "I'll put a little more flesh on the bones of the Clydesdale story told by Donald Grant. I remember two of their shops, one in the South Bridge and one in Gorgie Road. I bought my first lot of furniture in the South Bridge Clydesdales in 1957. They catered for the lower end of the market. If you wanted to do a bit of social climbing you shopped at Grants on the North Bridge or across the way in their High Street branch. At that time, Grants had a small theatre where you could go to watch the new fangled television." Bob Henderson, Burdiehouse, Edinburgh, April 26, 2008 |