#princes-street — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #princes-street, aggregated by home.social.
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I'm waiting for my tram, 26 dollars in my hand... (apologies to the Velvet Underground)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55207778228/in/photostream/lightbox/#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #StreetPhotography #tram #PrincesStreet #EdinburghTram #BlackAndWhitePhotography
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It's bright today!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55166346336/in/photostream/lightbox/Couple dazzled by the spring sunlight on Princes Street
#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #StreetPhotography #PrincesStreet #BlackAndWhitePhotography
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Taken this day, 2019, did you call for a cab??
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/40622799863/in/photostream/lightbox/#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #EdinburghByNight #NightPhotography #photography #photographie #PrincesStreet #Taxi #BlackAndWhitePhotography
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"Scotland stands with the people of Iran"
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55112796798/in/photostream/lightbox/Latest #mural on the side of Saint John's Church on Princes Street (the church there has a long history of murals commenting on social, ethical and political issues around the world)
#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #Art #StreetArt #photography #photographie #Iran #Scotland #Ecosse #SaintJohnsChurch #PrincesStreet
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Early spring sunlight on the west end of Princes Street
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55110835730/in/photostream/lightbox/#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #Architecture #photography #photographie #PrincesStreet #WestEndEdinburgh #BlackAndWhitePhotography
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A festive season in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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Blue skies and golden, winter sunlight less than an hour ago, on the way to my appointment.
Now murky, grey clouds closing in as I left, and rain starting. There's a reason we talk so much about weather here...
#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #Grassmarket #PrincesStreet #ScottMonument #EdinburghCastle #castle #chateau
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Coming, going, waiting, shopping, hoping https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/54873352863/in/photostream/lightbox/
People watching on Princes Streets
#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #StreetPhotography #PrincesStreet #PeopleWatching #BlackAndWhitePhotography
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#Edinburgh Castle enjoying the last hour of a September day, the sunlight stretched out into honeyed copper tones, bathing ancient stonework.
#Autumn in Edinburgh...
#Edimbourg #Photography #photographie #automne #architecture #EdinburghCastle #Castle #Chateau #PrincesStreet
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Frederick Douglass Inspires in Cork City Centre
I love this mural of Frederick Douglass. It’s painted on a wall of the small avenue going up to the Unitarian Church on Princes Street. I think the church has been closed for quite some time, but I’m glad this area is maintained.
https://inphotos.org/2025/06/29/frederick-douglass-inspires-in-cork-city-centre/
#Cork #Ireland #PrincesStreet #photo #photography #UnitarianChurch #FrederickDouglass #mural
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Frederick Douglass Inspires in Cork City Centre
I love this mural of Frederick Douglass. It’s painted on a wall of the small avenue going up to the Unitarian Church on Princes Street. I think the church has been closed for quite some time, but I’m glad this area is maintained.
The history of the church here is fascinating too.
Apertureƒ/4CameraILCE-7RM5Focal length24mmISO1000Shutter speed1/500sAfter a fire in January 2024 destroyed the interior of the chapel, Cork Unitarian Church was left without a home and with little hope of continuing. Some of the church’s lay leadership believed that there was a future if the model for running the church radically changed. The church now operates as a Limited by Guarentee corporation – independent of external ecclesiastic governance (e.g. ordained ministers, synods, etc.). This is more in keeping with the model of most Unitarian Universalist (i.e. UU) church congregations in the EU (see: EUU). The Cork church congregation no longer has a permanent building to maintain. All of the energies of the church go to meeting the needs of the congregation, not preserving historically significant architecture.
While the Cork congregation has moved on to a different way of doing “church”. The congregation still has an affection for its former Princess street home. We also have an interest as Corkonians in seeing that the asset of the building, with all of its historic and architectural significance, is preserved. Cork Unitarian Church supports effort to donate and repurpose the Princes Street building as a publicly held asset – revitalising Cork’s City Centre and providing social and cultural benefits of the entire Cork community.
#Cork #FrederickDouglass #history #Ireland #mural #Photo #Photography #PrincesStreet #publicArt #streetArt #StreetPhotography #UnitarianChurch #urbanGarden
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#ViewFromABus : Princes Street and the Scott Monument at dusk this evening.
#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #PrincesStreet #ScottMonument #architecture
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Bar + Block at night. Not somewhere I'd visit (not a carnivore), but made for an interesting night shot as I was passing.
#Edinburgh #Edinburgh #EdinburghByNight #NightPhotography #photography #photographie #restaurant #PrincesStreet
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Johnny Walker Whisky Experience at night (in what used to be Fraser's Department Store for many years)
#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #EdinburghByNight #NightPhotography #photography #photographie #PrincesStreet
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Taken this day, 2024, #BlueHour , Princes Street https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/53481335489/
Yes, you get views like this in #Edinburgh when you're just leaving the pub...
#Edimbourg #EdinburghByNight #NightPhotography #photography #photographie #PrincesStreet #Dusk #Crepuscule #BalmoralHotel
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Taken this day, 2022, trams that pass in the night https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/51802656990/
#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #EdinburghByNight #NightPhotography #photography #photographie #PrincesStreet #EdinburghTram #Tram #BlackAndWhitePhotography
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The Ross Bandstand: the thread about 170 years of squabbling over a public performance space
The much-debated Ross Bandstand found itself being discussed (yet again) today. But what is the Bandstand’s story? How did it come to be there and who was Ross? Let’s find out.
The Ross Bandstand in 2013. CC-by-SA 2.0 Daniel HallenThe Ross Bandstand was opened on the evening of Friday 10th May 1935, when an inaugural concert of “music in the parks” was attended by a crowd of at least 10,000 spectators. It was largely financed by a £5,000 (c. £300k in 2023) gift from William H. (Willie) Ross, after whom it is named. Ross was the Chairman of the Distillers Company Limited (usually just known as DCL or the Distillers Company) a company he had worked for since starting as a boy clerk out of school. He had risen through the ranks from the very bottom to the very top, taken over from the founding families and guided it through industrial and economic crises to become a British corporate stalwart.
William H. Ross, chairman of the Distillers Company Limited. © Glasgow City Council Libraries, Mitchell Library, GC 052 BAIAs early as 1926, the old Victorian Bandstand in West Princes Street Gardens, while still a popular public attraction, was seen as out dated and in disrepair (sound familiar?). Inevitably, letters began appearing in The Scotsman suggesting its replacement. It would take 9 years to come to fruition – nothing concrete had happened for the 8 years until 1934 at which point Ross stepped in with his offer. He approached the Lord Provost Sir William Thomson in 1934 on his own initiative, after the previous attempts had failed due to squabbles over funding, location and a backdrop of economic troubles (sound familiar?!)
A concert at the old Bandstand, 1905. © Edinburgh City LibrariesThe City had only acquired West Princes Street Gardens in 1876 when the lease of the West Princes Street Proprietors expired; before then it had been a gated private garden for those residents and tenants along that section of that street. However they had been trying to acquire it since at least the 1850s. One of the most prominent voices for bringing the West gardens into public control had been the social reformer Rev. Dr James Begg of the Free Church. He spoke out against what the press called the “committee of shopkeeper” who were the proprietors and their champion Henry Cockburn, who felt the public lacked interest in the gardens. Begg countered that “public involvement was dependent on public rights, and shutting them out from public parks and gardens [had] gone far to destroy their public spirit“. Begg and the Scottish Association for the Suppression of Drunkenness managed to gain access to the public for the Gardens on Christmas and New Years Days “with a view to keeping parties out the dram shops“. Occasional public concerts in the gardens had to be stopped in both 1853 and again in 1875 when conditions descended into a near riot on account of “all denominations” of the citizenry trying to force their way into the Gardens to hear military bands, with “skirmishes” ensuing. They were supported in this by the Liberal and Reformist Lord Provost Duncan Mclaren. These arguments of public vs. private rights of access to the Gardens all sound very familiar, don’t they?
The first bandstand was built in 1872. When the West Princes Street Gardens organisation was wound up in 1879 it was found that they had substantial excess funds left and so these were used to construct a new bandstand in 1880 to the designs of Peddie & Kinnear. It quickly acquired an amphitheatre of seating on all sides.
The old bandstand, 1900. © Edinburgh City LibrariesIn 1897/98, in another one of Edinburgh’s interminable squabbles about the location and funding of concert halls, West Princes Street Gardens was mooted as a site for the potential Usher Hall. It was eventually built on Lothian Road, completed 16 years later.
The new bandstand was designed by the City Architect, Ebenezer James Macrae, “the man who shaped modern Edinburgh“. It has a performance stage for bands of up to fifty members. A 40 feet wide concrete canopy projects 11 feet ahead of this, not just to keep the weather off the performers beneath but also to help direct the sound downwards and forwards to the audience. For the same purpose, the rear of the stage was constructed in the manner of a “sound mirror” and the stage was hollow, to act as a passive amplifier. A paved dance floor area was laid out between the stage and the seating. The opening programme for 1935 was a very martial affair – the schedule dominated by the bands of the Scots Guards, Irish Guards, Border Regiment, Royal Scots Greys and Gordon Highlanders (amongst others). However, in a break from military music, Councillor Stevenson of the Parks Committee made it known that they were investigating the potential for staging Shakespeare on the stage.
The Ross Bandstand in 2012 © Edinburgh City LibrariesOn Sunday 13th May, 1945, Winston Churchill’s VE Day Broadcast over the BBC was relayed to the Ross Bandstand, followed by a concert and Victory Dance performed by the band of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. What would become the Edinburgh Military Tattoo started out at the Ross Bandstand in 1949, when 15,000 people attended a display of military drill and music from the band of the Highland Light Infantry under the direction of Colonel George Malcolm. The Royal Scots Greys provided a trumpet fanfare, the Royal Scots the pipes and drums, there was sword dancing, rifle drill, PT displays, a “Sixteen-some Reel” danced by the men of the Royal Scots and women of the Women’s Royal Army Corps and a general parade of service personnel.
VE dance in May 1945. Evening News photo, from “Living Memories” by Jennifer VeitchIn the 1950s, the Council organised a programme of entertainments at the bandstand throughout the season. In 1954 you could see dancing, displays of fly fishing, ballet, a parade of animals from Edinburgh Zoo and of course military bands (the Cameronians were in residence). From 1946, as part of a postwar “Holidays At Home” scheme, on Saturdays throughout the summer there was a “Children’s Hour” performed each Saturday at 1030AM. Music, sing-alongs, Punch & Judy, competitions, team quizzes and dancing all took place. These ran until 1961
The final Children’s Hour at the Ross Bandstand, 9th September 1961. Evening News photo.The bandstand began to fall out of favour in the 1960s, attendances dropped as public expectations changed. There were repeated letters to The Scotsman demanding the seating have a roof put over it “as a matter of desperation”. £10,000 was earmarked for this, but never spent. A temporary roof was eventually procured by Edinburgh District Council for the Bandstand’s seating area in 1986 at a cost of £180,000 for festival events. The 14 ton crane hired to erect it promptly cracked the concrete of the seating area and got stuck. When it came to re-erect the roof in 1987, the Conservative group on the council attempted to stop it at the Policy & Resources Committee. They wanted the whole bandstand gone on account of “the noise and cost to ratepayers”. It was “a scar on the landscape” said Cllr David Guestv
The crane stuck in the Ross Bandstand. The temporary roof tent and supporting structure can be seen behind it. Evening News Photo.The SNP precipitated local controversy in 1971 when they tried to book the Bandstand to host a public debate on party policy on the European Common Market. The very conservative Finance Committee came down hard on the line that it was strictly to be used only for “entertainment purposes”.
Headline – Lord Provost of Edinburgh Asked to Aid SNP CaseAlongside use as a semi-covered Festival venue, the institution that was the end-of-festival Fireworks concert helped to save the bandstand, as each year the Royal Scottish National Orchestra would play a concert choreographed to fireworks launched from the castle. However, because there is never anything new under the sun in Edinburgh local politics even in 1989 the District Council was accused of “fervour” for “low art” by trying to make it more accessible the public by staging popular events and the letters pages of The Scotsman once again overflowed with debates on the pros and cons of the festivals.
The most recent attempt at redevelopment started way back in 2016 when the City of Edinburgh Council consulted on the future of the bandstand, with US architects appointed in 2017 to design new proposals which came to be dubbed “The Hobbit House” on account of the curving, grassed canopy. This was part of an overall public / private “partnership” scheme called (for reasons opaque ) The Quaich Project. It eventually foundered in 2021 due to a combination of political squabbling, disagreements over the design, substantial dissatisfaction over the potential restriction of access to what is seen as a public space and the main funder pulling out. The interminable debates around the Ross Bandstand continues to go on to this day, as it has done for the last 170 years.
The 2017 “Hobbit House” design proposal. From Rossbandstand.orgNote to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.Explore Threadinburgh by map:
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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
“All for the Ladies: the Thread about Darlings, where the Older Woman could “forsake the styles of youth to select fashions that have dignity”
The following is taken from a wartime guide to Edinburgh, published by the Citizens Advice Bureau in 1940-41.
FASHIONS FOR THE OLDER WOMAN. To-day, when a woman finds she must forsake the styles of youth to select fashions that have dignity as their key-note, she will find in her quest for appropriate clothes that here requirements are happily anticipated at Darling’s. There are Gowns, Coats and Accessories for her specially, in which elegance and comfort are well allied to a wise economy. DARLING’S “ALL FOR THE LADIES” PRINCES STREET, EDINBURGH.
Sir William Young Darling CBE FRSE LLD MC (1885-1962) joined the family drapery business in 1922, which was located at 124-5 Princes Street, where the New Look store now is and advanced to become its Director. He was a member of the Corporation of the City of Edinburgh from 1933, made city treasurer from 1947-40 and was Lord Provost from 1941-44, for which he was awarded the customary knighthood. During wartime he was the Chief Air Raid Warden for the city from 1939-41, a period when it saw sporadic and occasionally fatal aerial attacks. Post war he was the Unionist Party (predecessor to today’s Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party) Member of Parliament for Edinburgh South from 1945-57. He was the great uncle of the late Edinburgh Central (later Southwest) Labour MP, Baron Darling of Roulanish.
William Darling in 1947A 1932 advert for the company in The Scotsman declared that their sale offerings include: Hats of Every Description, Travel Coats and Costumes, Model Afternoon and Evening Gowns, Washing Dresses, Kintwear, Blouses, Stockings, Gloves and Shoes, Lingerie and Corsets, Furs, Including Model Fur Coats, Silks, Cloths, and Tweeds.
Darling was a bit of an author; during his wartime service during the Irish War of Independence (1920-22) he was joint editor of an army newspaper called Weekly Summary. He published 5 anonymous novels in the 1930s, after which he behind to use his own name. He published a book to celebrate the centenary of the family business in 1949, “Princes Street Parade. A Century of Fashion“. I have found a few pages online from auction sales of what now seems to be a collectors item:
Published by Darling & Company. Purveyors of Merchandise for Ladies and their Daughters for THREE GENERATIONS in the Capital of Scotland
Woman. In Her Pursuit of Fashion
WHILE KINGDOMS rise and fall and new communities are born, there is one thing which is stabled through all the flux of years. Woman is always with us – Woman, with her endless search for the beautiful, the adequate and the appropriate – Woman in her pursuit of Fashion. THIS REMAINS, whatever else betides
1872. THE FEMALE FIGURE begins to find itself*1. It emerges, if only frontally, in its straight elegance, but the flounced importance remains, and a romantic atmosphere is engendered by the adoption of the bustle”
1928-1929 THE SILK STOCKING HAS ARRIVED. No longer, except in the pages of history, can a Queen assert that she has no legs! All the ladies have legs2, and how proud they are to show them!
- I assume women didn’t have figures before 1871? ↩︎
- Before 1927, women had wheels instead of legs and had to be moved around by men? ↩︎
Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.Explore Threadinburgh by map:
Travelers' Map is loading...
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.These threads © 2017-2026, Andy Arthur.
NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret