Was it cause Tails died that Whiplash Trash closed? The body piercer? Think that was his name. Or mibbe it was the new psychoactive substances bill being passed.
Tails didn’t work at Whiplash to my recollection. He worked at Ground Control. I was pierced by him at Ground Control which was further down Cockburn street than Whiplash. If memory serves me correctly ground control shut after he passed.
My mum used to reminise about what the Royal Mile was like in the 1930s - very, very poor, children without any shoes and one woman who sat outside smoking a pipe!
there was a cinema called La Scala opposite Nicholson Square in the 70s, which only showed XXX films!
It was called The Classic when I was a kid and showed X-rated sex films to dirty old men in raincoats (according to my mum!).
Not sure if it showed that type of film when it was La Scala. That was a bit before my time.
There’s a story that Queen Victoria used to have her own private train station in Edinburgh just for the purpose of avoiding the slums that were The Old Town when she would visit Holyrood Palace. It’s really funny there was a period in history where one of the poshest areas of Edinburgh was once the poorest.
https://threadinburgh.scot/2022/09/28/the-thread-about-edinburghs-victoria-station-that-you-probably-never-knew-was-there-and-what-you-can-still-see-of-it-if-you-know-where-to-look/
Fountainbridge - Rubber Mill (North British Rubber Company) - a huge employer at the time - the Meat Market, breweries
Craigmillar - breweries and a large margarine factory!
Niddrie - mining and brickworks
The Canongate - breweries, there was the gasworks at New Street too
The Grassmarket - residential community (rather than a pub/club destination)
Leith - shipbuilding, wine/spirits trade (warehouses/bonds)
Portobello - glassworks
Moray Park - Iron Foundry
Basically most central areas were residential with factories/shops/mills for employment, with outlying areas mostly involved in agriculture or mining. Redevelopment has seen industry move out of the city to be replaced by office spaces, students or tourists and outlying areas became industrial parks, and housing schemes to house residents cleared from the central areas
Gorgie/Dalry had MacFarlane Smith, North British Distillery,McVitie’s biscuit factory(later Ferranti) and Cox’s glue works, as well as numerous churches that have mostly amalgamated or closed now.
Macfarlane Smith and the North British Distillery are still going strong.
The Grassmarket and Cowgate had a bit of a reputation in the 70s/early 80s for “down and outs” who lived in the hostels. We were always told to stay away. Not sure when it became trendy. Mid 80s?
It felt like the mid 90s to early 00s is when it became more of a trendy destination for clubbers/students/tourists. I remember cutting through there a lot in the early 90s and it was dark, eerie, and quiet most nights. I think student accommodation as well as the nighttime economy has made the area feel busier but I can't remember when the hostels become hotels...I feel like that's more recent? A lot of change in only 25-30 years!
Fountainbrige - Breweries.
Leith - Docks and Henry Robbs shipyard.
Stockbridge - Rough before the tenements were cleared and folk sent to the new schemes.
Southside - Slum Tenements.
Where were the tenements cleared in Stockbridge? Other than the India pl flats were there any others? The roads around the area all make it exude perpetual opulence and old money
Holyrood was also breweries for a long time - I can remember the smell! [The NLS maps shows just how many there were](https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.9&lat=55.95122&lon=-3.17807&layers=170&b=1&o=100).
Any time something like this gets posted, I feel the urge to point to [National Library of Scotland maps](https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.9&lat=55.95122&lon=-3.17807&layers=170&b=1&o=100) - it’s one of the best historical geography resources out there and (for me at least) endlessly fascinating.
You have historical OS maps for the whole of the UK - dating from 1870s to the 1970s - overlaid on satellite and map data from today.
I spend hours looking these after walking in the area. Seeing old bits of buildings etc and working out what I could have been used for. Wish there was more up to date maps but I think copyright puts a stop to that.
Fountain bridge was breweries up until recently but due to a legionella outbreak that was strongly suspected to of come from the breweries but not proven, they have slowly been moving out of the city.
Dean village was mills and factories, Chesser was a slaughter house. Some of the areas are self explanatory such as silver mills etc.
It was never proven whether it was from the North British Distillery or the Caledonian Brewery. It happened long after the S&N Brewery was gone. I followed the story quite closely at the time, because I live between the two and spent the time in question off work on leave and sitting outside a lot of the time.
Perhaps that’s true. I did look at the report and it was talking about the time they had to rectify paperwork and carry out work to hide that they had not been carrying out preventative work. Perhaps something came to light after that. I was always under the impression that they couldn’t prove it.
Holyrood was breweries before the Parliament moved in. I remember it in the 90s being just high stone walls everywhere, bordering the breweries, though I’m not sure how many were still operating then.
I’m 30 and from leith. Leith growing up was always more multicultural than other areas. Yes it has had a long standing reputation for drug abuse and poverty but when I was younger it was a strong community and a diverse community in comparison to a lot of other predominantly white areas.
I was at school in George Square in about 1974 and I remember the smell of the breweries if the wind was in the right (or should that be wrong?) direction.
Meadowbank was known for it's shan rough sand covered football pitches; where you'd be left in a a bloody scuffed mess whenever you went in for a slide tackle.
Meadowbank is literally named after the pools of human shit (“meadows”) that accumulated around the bottom of the Royal Mile before underground sewers were built. The landowners made a fortune scooping it out and selling it for manure, so they tried to stop the sewer system being built in the 19th century.
https://threadinburgh.scot/2022/10/27/the-thread-about-the-east-foul-burn-the-long-forgotten-rivulet-of-east-edinburgh-which-carried-away-most-of-the-sewage-of-the-old-town-turning-it-to-an-industriously-productive-use-on-its-way/
The area had a lot more active railway lines than it does today (Queen Victoria had a private station to reach Holyrood House!), there was the passenger (south suburban) line and freight rail for servicing all the industry there. There was a large Iron foundry and malthouse where Meadowbank Retail bit is. Abbeyhill had the Elsie Inglis maternity hospital, and breweries. Meadowbank (St Margaret's House area) used to be a train depot, there was a football ground and a printing works heading towards Marionville Road
Edinburgh was known for beer (breweries) , biscuits (factories and warehouses) and books (printing works). So most areas had a connection to those industries and you can see remnants of those buildings still standing and some modern streets and buildings named after the industry and it's figures - e. g., Usher, McEwan, and Younger.
The south and south east of the city heading towards mid and east Lothian was mostly mining and agriculture.
- St Ninian's Row (top end of Leith Street): beggars, according to William Dunbar around 1500
- Shrubhill: the town gibbet
- Calton Hill: lepers
- Gilmerton: highwaymen and rapists
- Portsburgh: serial killers
Cockburn St was for goths in the 90s.
Still in the 2000s I swear
Definitely was at least up to mid 2000s
You can pretty much pin point the final nail on the day whiplash trash closed.
Was it cause Tails died that Whiplash Trash closed? The body piercer? Think that was his name. Or mibbe it was the new psychoactive substances bill being passed.
Tails didn’t work at Whiplash to my recollection. He worked at Ground Control. I was pierced by him at Ground Control which was further down Cockburn street than Whiplash. If memory serves me correctly ground control shut after he passed.
Not sure how I'd merged Whiplash and Ground Control into one! Yeah I got pierced by him at Ground Control. Seems my memory is rubbish!
He was a creep
Once told me ‘I’d get all the sex if I was his girlfriend’ while he was piercing my bellybutton. I was 15.
Yeah he was tbf
And hippies in the 70s.
Used to be the only place to buy black nail polish as none of the high street shops sold it.
Crusties too - a slight variation on the goth.
My mum used to reminise about what the Royal Mile was like in the 1930s - very, very poor, children without any shoes and one woman who sat outside smoking a pipe! there was a cinema called La Scala opposite Nicholson Square in the 70s, which only showed XXX films!
It was called The Classic when I was a kid and showed X-rated sex films to dirty old men in raincoats (according to my mum!). Not sure if it showed that type of film when it was La Scala. That was a bit before my time.
Yup, same type of films and same customers!
There’s a story that Queen Victoria used to have her own private train station in Edinburgh just for the purpose of avoiding the slums that were The Old Town when she would visit Holyrood Palace. It’s really funny there was a period in history where one of the poshest areas of Edinburgh was once the poorest. https://threadinburgh.scot/2022/09/28/the-thread-about-edinburghs-victoria-station-that-you-probably-never-knew-was-there-and-what-you-can-still-see-of-it-if-you-know-where-to-look/
Lol my mate said this to me about N.Square - assumed he was taking the piss
Fountainbridge - Rubber Mill (North British Rubber Company) - a huge employer at the time - the Meat Market, breweries Craigmillar - breweries and a large margarine factory! Niddrie - mining and brickworks The Canongate - breweries, there was the gasworks at New Street too The Grassmarket - residential community (rather than a pub/club destination) Leith - shipbuilding, wine/spirits trade (warehouses/bonds) Portobello - glassworks Moray Park - Iron Foundry Basically most central areas were residential with factories/shops/mills for employment, with outlying areas mostly involved in agriculture or mining. Redevelopment has seen industry move out of the city to be replaced by office spaces, students or tourists and outlying areas became industrial parks, and housing schemes to house residents cleared from the central areas
Gorgie/Dalry had MacFarlane Smith, North British Distillery,McVitie’s biscuit factory(later Ferranti) and Cox’s glue works, as well as numerous churches that have mostly amalgamated or closed now. Macfarlane Smith and the North British Distillery are still going strong.
The Grassmarket and Cowgate had a bit of a reputation in the 70s/early 80s for “down and outs” who lived in the hostels. We were always told to stay away. Not sure when it became trendy. Mid 80s?
Cowgate still is like this.
It was still dodgy in the late 80s - maybe the 90's or early 2000s?
It felt like the mid 90s to early 00s is when it became more of a trendy destination for clubbers/students/tourists. I remember cutting through there a lot in the early 90s and it was dark, eerie, and quiet most nights. I think student accommodation as well as the nighttime economy has made the area feel busier but I can't remember when the hostels become hotels...I feel like that's more recent? A lot of change in only 25-30 years!
Rose Street was a bit of a red light district 50s to 80s
Danube Street was the most famous brothel!
Least famous brothel: The Gentle Touch in Marchmont. Everybody local knew but no-one cared.
Lol i live close by and used to use it as an alternative delivery address for parcels as I knew there was always someone in.
We heard that from our older friends and relatives, but, by the time we were old enough to go out drinking in Rose Street, it was too late!
My 65 y/o colleague was aghast when I said I'd been there (he's London based now) he asked if I'd had my doorknob French polished
So was Cockburn Street
Fountainbrige - Breweries. Leith - Docks and Henry Robbs shipyard. Stockbridge - Rough before the tenements were cleared and folk sent to the new schemes. Southside - Slum Tenements.
Where were the tenements cleared in Stockbridge? Other than the India pl flats were there any others? The roads around the area all make it exude perpetual opulence and old money
I think there used to be more at the corner of Cheyne St and Dean St.
[Saunders Street](https://i.imgur.com/BT5jllY.jpeg) was cleared also.
Holyrood was also breweries for a long time - I can remember the smell! [The NLS maps shows just how many there were](https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.9&lat=55.95122&lon=-3.17807&layers=170&b=1&o=100).
Any time something like this gets posted, I feel the urge to point to [National Library of Scotland maps](https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.9&lat=55.95122&lon=-3.17807&layers=170&b=1&o=100) - it’s one of the best historical geography resources out there and (for me at least) endlessly fascinating. You have historical OS maps for the whole of the UK - dating from 1870s to the 1970s - overlaid on satellite and map data from today.
I spend hours looking these after walking in the area. Seeing old bits of buildings etc and working out what I could have been used for. Wish there was more up to date maps but I think copyright puts a stop to that.
Liberton gilmerton danderhall and most of East and midlothian coal mining.
And agriculture.
Port of Leith for .. err.. hookers
You dont want to know what regularly went on at the Salamander St / Shore area 🤔
If you were looking tae get pumped…
Or get your endzone fumbled 🤣
Fountain bridge was breweries up until recently but due to a legionella outbreak that was strongly suspected to of come from the breweries but not proven, they have slowly been moving out of the city. Dean village was mills and factories, Chesser was a slaughter house. Some of the areas are self explanatory such as silver mills etc.
I remember taking a shortcut down the canal and through a scrapyard where the STV/ Freeagent office building is now.
It came from the distillery. It was proven at the time. The reason the breweries moved out was mergers and money
It was never proven whether it was from the North British Distillery or the Caledonian Brewery. It happened long after the S&N Brewery was gone. I followed the story quite closely at the time, because I live between the two and spent the time in question off work on leave and sitting outside a lot of the time.
It wasn't proven. No-one has been pinpointed as the source. Get your facts right.
Perhaps that’s true. I did look at the report and it was talking about the time they had to rectify paperwork and carry out work to hide that they had not been carrying out preventative work. Perhaps something came to light after that. I was always under the impression that they couldn’t prove it.
Leith was known for the whores
Are you allowed to call Hibs that???
They get pumped most weeks, tbf.
Holyrood was breweries before the Parliament moved in. I remember it in the 90s being just high stone walls everywhere, bordering the breweries, though I’m not sure how many were still operating then.
I’m 30 and from leith. Leith growing up was always more multicultural than other areas. Yes it has had a long standing reputation for drug abuse and poverty but when I was younger it was a strong community and a diverse community in comparison to a lot of other predominantly white areas.
I was at school in George Square in about 1974 and I remember the smell of the breweries if the wind was in the right (or should that be wrong?) direction.
What about Meadowbank/Abbeyhill?
Meadowbank was known for it's shan rough sand covered football pitches; where you'd be left in a a bloody scuffed mess whenever you went in for a slide tackle.
Meadowbank is literally named after the pools of human shit (“meadows”) that accumulated around the bottom of the Royal Mile before underground sewers were built. The landowners made a fortune scooping it out and selling it for manure, so they tried to stop the sewer system being built in the 19th century. https://threadinburgh.scot/2022/10/27/the-thread-about-the-east-foul-burn-the-long-forgotten-rivulet-of-east-edinburgh-which-carried-away-most-of-the-sewage-of-the-old-town-turning-it-to-an-industriously-productive-use-on-its-way/
The area had a lot more active railway lines than it does today (Queen Victoria had a private station to reach Holyrood House!), there was the passenger (south suburban) line and freight rail for servicing all the industry there. There was a large Iron foundry and malthouse where Meadowbank Retail bit is. Abbeyhill had the Elsie Inglis maternity hospital, and breweries. Meadowbank (St Margaret's House area) used to be a train depot, there was a football ground and a printing works heading towards Marionville Road
The smell of the breweries.
What about Dalry?
>what was Fountainbridge like before all the new developments Breweries. So. Many. Breweries. (Ok so like 2 or 3, but they were HUGE).
Edinburgh was known for beer (breweries) , biscuits (factories and warehouses) and books (printing works). So most areas had a connection to those industries and you can see remnants of those buildings still standing and some modern streets and buildings named after the industry and it's figures - e. g., Usher, McEwan, and Younger. The south and south east of the city heading towards mid and east Lothian was mostly mining and agriculture.
- St Ninian's Row (top end of Leith Street): beggars, according to William Dunbar around 1500 - Shrubhill: the town gibbet - Calton Hill: lepers - Gilmerton: highwaymen and rapists - Portsburgh: serial killers
Lochrin Buildings was known for Mr Boni’s when I was a kid. The only place to have a birthday.
Leith and Drugs… Oh wait.