Edinburgh History - Old Town

Canongate and Jeffrey Street

Cath Tuff, now living in Warwickshire, England has already sent me recollections of Dumbiedykes and Craigmillar that I have added to the EdinPhoto web site.

Here Cath is trying to find more information about her family.

Cath wrote:

"My Dad's uncle William Hay lived with his wife Helen and children, Margaret, Jessie and David at 96 Canongate. He is long gone but he may have grandchildren, still living."

My Dad's aunt Alison Ballie Hay married Robert Bickerton. They lived at 22 Jeffrey Street. Robert was a widower who had children, Robert, Margaret, Isabella, Helen. Alison and Robert also had a daughter, Jessie, and possibly other children."

If any family members are out there please get in touch. I will be over the moon as I don't know this side of the family."

Cath Tuff: June 1, 2007

If you would like to contact Cath, please e-mail me and I'll pass on your message to her.

Thank you. - Peter Stubbs: June 3, 2007.

Prince Albert Buildings and Canongate

Thank you to Iain Peebles, Bloomsbury, London who wrote:

Prince Albert Buildings

"I was very interested to see the photographs of Prince Albert Buildings, Dumbiedykes. My great great grandfather, James Cameron and his family lived at 114 Prince Albert Buildings from about 1865 until 1870."

Canongate

"He ran a house painting business from premises at 214 Canongate. The business was continued by his son, also James Cameron, who died in 1954.

The shop would have been demolished not long after that when so much of the Canongate was redeveloped, but I've often wondered if it might have been captured in any old photographs."

Iain Peebles, Bloomsbury, London: June 21, 2007

Photographs

If you know of any old photos that show James Cameron's shop in the Canongate, please e-mail me and I'll pass on the news to Iain.

Thank you. - Peter Stubbs: June 26, 2007

White Horse Close

Thank Michael Melrose, Greenbank, Edinburgh, who wrote:

"I was born in 1954 and was brought up at 8 Horse Wynd and 6 Canongate, up to the mid-'60’s.

I have very vivid memories of life at the bottom of the Canongate. Old White Horse Close was demolished and rebuilt in the early-'60’s.

Your photographs of the 1800’s are not greatly different from my recollections of what the close looked like in my childhood.

Many of my primary school pals, some of who’s fathers were whalers with Salvesen, lived in the Close.

Our tenement in the Canongate was no big deal, but the squalor in the Close was unbelievable, even for a youngster like me.

The buildings were falling down. One recollection is of my pal not being able to open his front door as the frame was so crooked. There were no inside toilets or baths then !

Michael Melrose, Greenbank, Edinburg: August 31, 2007