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Portobello Hotels |
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Recollections |
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1. |
Richard Keltie |
- West of Scotland - Marlborough Hotel - Cook's Balmoral Hotel - Request for Information |
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2. |
Richard Keltie |
- Photo and Business Card - Cook's Balmoral Hotel - Regular Guests - Advertisments |
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3. |
Sandra Braid |
- Cook's Balmoral Hotel |
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4. |
Richard Keltie |
- Postcard - Back of Postcard |
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5. |
Ken
Gordon |
- 1930s - 1934 - 1938 - 1940s - 1940s to 1960s |
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Recollections 1. Richard Keltie (Tich) Glasgow, Scotland |
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Thank you to Richard Keltie for sending me the photograph above. Richard wrote: |
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West of Scotland "My great-grandmother Martha Cook (born Martha McGill) was born in Stranraer about 1849. In 1870, she married my great-grandfather James Cook in Glasgow, where he died at the very early age of 32 in 1881" |
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Marlborough Hotel "Some time after that - I do not know when - she left Glasgow and went to live in Portobello. In the 1901 Census she is listed at 37, Promenade, Portobello and her occupation given as 'Hotel Keeper'. Her daughter - my grandmother - married my grandfather at 37, Promenade. On the Proclamation of Banns, that address is named as the 'Marlborough Hotel'." |
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Cook's Balmoral Hotel "Some time later - again I do not know when ** - my great-grandmother opened another establishment - 'Cook's Balmoral Hotel' - at 52, Promenade."
** This would have
been 1906 or earlier: - Peter Stubbs: May 29, 2007 |
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Request for Information "I've not read a word on the internet about either the Marlborough Hotel or Cook's Balmoral Hotel, nor seen any pictures of them, so I take it that the attached picture is something of a rarity. I believe the woman looking out of the first floor window in the picture was Martha Cook, my great-grandmother. It perhaps goes without saying that I'd be very interested to learn more about, and see pictures of, the old Marlborough Hotel, Cook's Balmoral Hotel, and also my great-grandmother of whom I don't have any other photographs." |
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Richard Keltie (Tich), Glasgow, Scotland: April 25, 2007 |
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Recollections 2. Richard Keltie (Tich) Glasgow, Scotland |
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Photo and Business Card Thank you to Richard Keltie for sending me another photograph of the Cooks Balmoral Hotel. This photograph appeared on the business card for Cook's Balmoral Hotel. The business card read:
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Richard wrote: |
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Cook's Balmoral Hotel "Here is a different picture of Cook's Balmoral Hotel which shows only the sign on the roof. It doesn't feature the 'Cook's Hotel Restaurant' sign. If you note the woman standing to the left of the two seated ladies, you will see a striking similarity to the female leaning out of the first floor window in the photograph at the top of this page. See the thumbnail image below. This explains why I suspect that she was my great-grandmother, Martha Cook. These are the only pictures I have of Cook's Balmoral Hotel; I have none at all of the Marlborough Hotel." |
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Regular Guests "My last surviving aunt, who is 100 and sharp as a tack, tells me that some of her grandmother Martha Cook's regular guests were from the boxing fraternity." |
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Advertisements "The hotel placed the following advertisement in 'The Scotsman' newspaper in 1909 and 1910"
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Richard Keltie (Tich), Glasgow, Scotland: April 27, 2007 |
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Answer 3. Sandra Braid Portobello, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Sandra Braid for sending the message below. Sandra wrote: |
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Cook's Balmoral Hotel "I was looking at your website recently and found a photograph of Cooks Balmoral Hotel which was sent in by Richard Keltie. I live in Portobello and was immediately interested. I have done a wee bit of research but I am afraid that there is not much out there. However, the two houses which made up the Balmoral Hotel still stand. I can send Richard up to date photographs if he wants. Also, depending on how far he wants to take the research it is very easy for me to do a property search which will let him find out when his great grandmother purchased the two properties and when she sold. I know that she died in the property in 1920. In 1940 the property was still known as the Balmoral Hotel but had different owners. It then, at some point, was known as the Clifton Hotel, and it is now back to two individual properties. The daughter Margaret was unmarried and died at her home in Joppa Road in 1947 which is just a few hundred yards away from the hotel. I am also able to view Wills which will give Richard a lot more family information." |
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Sandra Braid, Portobello, Edinburgh: May 28, 2008 |
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Recollections 4. Richard Keltie (Tich) Glasgow, Scotland |
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Richard Keltie wrote to me again, telling me about a postcard he had found of Cook's Balmoral Hotel. Richard wrote: |
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Postcard "I have just come across this further picture of Cook's Balmoral Hotel. It's the same picture as one I sent previously, used on a business card - only this time it's in postcard format. It was posted on September 4, 1905, which gives some early provenance regarding the existence of Cook's Balmoral Hotel. It was sent by my great-aunt Martha Cook, known in the family as Mat or Mattie. She was the daughter of Martha Cook, my great grandmother, who as you know ran Cook's Balmoral Hotel. |
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Back of the Postcard "Although the postcard was addressed to my grandfather Robert Keltie, it was clearly intended for his wife, Mattie's sister Mary Cook, my grandmother. It's a quirky note from Mattie, apparently describing murder most foul !!! 'Dear Sis, Snatcher my old pal died last week. Some brute poisoned my pet. Write & console me soon. Mat.'." |
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Richard Keltie (Tich), Glasgow, Scotland: December 6, 2008 |
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Recollections 5. Ken Gordon Daviot, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland |
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Thank you to Ken Gordon for sending me two photographs of the Balmoral Hotel, both taken in the 1930s. Ken wrote |
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1930s "My Granny and Grandpa bought the Balmoral Hotel some time in the 1930s. My Grandpa was a watchmaker in Lasswade but with the opening of Woolworth’s in Edinburgh and the sale of costume jewellery available for 3d or 6d his business disappeared overnight. He therefore sold up and bought the Balmoral." |
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1934s "This photo shows my Granny in the garden with an unknown girl holding a dog on the doorstep. The photo is dated July 1934." |
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1938 "This photo has a note on the back which says: 'I hope this picture will always remind you, yours truly Swiss boy Railtrey (name very unclear) Portobello 24th Sept 1938'.” |
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1940s "My elder sister was born in the Balmoral Hotel in 1941 and still takes delight in telling people, who immediately think her granny owned the prestigious North British (as we used to know it). However we know that the Balmoral in Porty is much nicer. Most of the war soldiers were billeted in the Balmoral and after the war my Grandparents sold up again, some time around 1946." |
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1940s to 1960s "After selling the Balmoral Hotel, my grandfather bought a tobacconist on St Andrew Square. In the 1960s, it was compulsorily purchased to build the new bus station)." |
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Ken Gordon, Daviot, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland: March 22, 2009 |
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Recollections 6. Richard Keltie (Tich) Glasgow, Scotland |
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Richard Keltie wrote again, reporting more progress in hs investigations into his great-grandmother's life in Portobello. Richard wrote: |
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1900 Directory Tea Rooms and Marlboro' Hotel "As you know, I've been trying to pin down when my great-grandmother, Martha Cook, arrived in Portobello and when she started up the Marlborough Hotel. I've now just come across entries in the 1900-1901 Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory. - One entry lists her address as Tea Rooms, 37 Promenade, - The other entry abbreviates the name to Marlbro' Hotel. Richard Keltie (Tich), Glasgow, Scotland: May 4, 2014 |
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Recollections 7. Richard Keltie (Tich) Glasgow, Scotland |
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Thank you to Richard Keltie for writing again. Richard wrote: |
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1902 Directory Marlborough Temperance Hotel "Here is a reference to my great-grandmother's hotel at 37 Promenade, Portobello. It comes from the Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory, 1902-03. 'The Marlborough Temperance Hotel'' This is the first time that I've ever seen it called or heard it called a temperance hotel. Even my late aunt, who incidentally passed away aged 102, never referred to it as a temperance hotel, and she was usually quite precise. She had a remarkable memory Richard Keltie (Tich), Glasgow, Scotland: May 5, 2014 |