#princesstreet — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #princesstreet, aggregated by home.social.
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Up in Smoke: the thread about Princes Street’s fiery history
Just before three o’clock in the morning on Thursday 9th July (2026 for future readers) a well-established fire was discovered in central Edinburgh. Video clips soon circulate on social media and even from distant vantage points flames could be seen leaping into an already smoky night sky. It did not take long for on-the-spot eyewitnesses to share dramatic, close-up footage confirming a building on Princes Street was ablaze. These videos spread as quickly as the flames had and armchair spectators quickly took to arguing amongst themselves about the details. It was the former Debenhams department store that was ablaze, or was it? Doesn’t this sort of thing only happen in Glasgow? Did it have anything to do with ground floor shop units recently exposed as being part of a complex tax scam? Which hotel development scheme was the site part of? Some were sure it was an “insurance job”, others that it must be the work of an illicit vape shop. Few thought any interiors would survive, but would the B-listed Victorian façade?
As the smoke cleared in the cold light of day, a burnt-out, smouldering shell of a building emerged. From the level of devastation it was obvious that answers to questions like those above would be a long time coming. Indeed, two weeks later at the time of writing, this whole street block remains closed for the foreseeable future. For a city well into its summer tourist boom and with its August festivals rapidly approaching, the fact its principal public transport artery remains categorically shut demonstrates the severity of the matter. Threadinburgh is not in the business of hazarding guesses about what might have happened or speculating about what the future holds, but it very much is into telling stories of the history of buildings. The opportunity also presents itself to take a thematic trawl through the news archives for a retrospective look at other serious fires that have happened along the street. These it turns out are nothing new it and very much are not just a “Glasgow thing“. Flames have a bit of a habit of breaking out when buildings are vacant or being redeveloped and have claimed more than one department store on the street in its time.
The morning after. Aerial photo shows the devastating damage caused by the fire. The party wall on the right was already exposed from demolition of the former Next store as part of a separate hotel development. Photo credit Craig Duncan, used with permission of The Edinburgh Reporter – see the other aerial images there.A point that has proven unexpectedly contentious is what actually was on fire? The categoric answer is number 109 Princes Street and very definitely a part of the former Debenhams department store. Some have sworn blind that it very much was not part of that establishment. Perhaps their confusion can be forgiven; it was an expansive place with a convoluted floorplan, formed from multiple original buildings. At street level the vacant shop units directly beneath the fire still showed branding of their previous occupants: River Island and Levi’s. But as is common along Princes Street, different premises extend above, below and behind each other and it is not always obvious from the looking at the shopfronts how upper floors are related to the lower ones. This is all the result of two centuries of constant rebuilding and redevelopment. The diagram below hopefully clears things up for any remaining doubters and helps relate the different constituent parts of the store to their former occupants. These premises have been largely vacant since closure in early 2021, shortly before the company went under. The entire block, from 109-112 Princes Street, was purchased by offshore-held property company Criterion Capital and was awaiting redevelopment into a Zedwell chain hotel. (To confuse matters somewhat, the next door block from number 104-108 – the former Zara, Russell & Bromley and Next – are also currently going being redeveloped into a hotel for the Ruby chain.)
Façade layout of 109-112 Princes Street and adjoining buildings. The outline in red is the extent of the former Debenham’s department store. Coloured pink at 112 is the former Scottish Conservative Club. In orange at 111 is the link building that joined the two halves of the store and in blue at 109 was the former Scottish Liberal Club with its own street-level door. Also numbered 109 but shown in green was the former Levi’s shop and in yellow at 110 was River Island. To the right, the former Next store at 107-108 has already been demolished. To the left at 113-117 is a modern building which replaced the Palace Hotel, itself destroyed in a 1991 fire.Like most “old” buildings along Princes Street, number 109 is not a Georgian original but actually a Victorian replacement. It began life in 1871 as The Palace Hotel, a new building by architect John Lessels. In 1888 this establishment moved a few doors to the west, to a more prestigious location on the corner with Castle Street. The original building was taken over at this time by the Scottish Liberal Club, a politically-aligned gentlemen’s club.
Newspaper advert for the Palace Hotel, Edinburgh Evening Courant – Thursday 02 February 1871The Club paid £37,000 for the building and undertook “alterations of an extensive character in order to make it suitable for its new purpose” at a cost of £6,000 before occupying it. Facilities included reading, writing and smoking rooms on the first floor; billiards, cards, members’ dining and committee rooms on the second; and thirty one bedrooms above that. They inaugurated their new premises on the evening of 2nd April 1890 in a ceremonial dinner presided over by Archibald Primrose, Lord Rosebery. In his speech he quipped that their former home had many small rooms “in which the different sections of the Liberal party might discuss questions from the various points of view from which they regarded them” but now they were moving themselves to the centre of the “noblest street in the world” they might come together as a result. He also noted in jest that they were only one door removed from the rival institution of the Scottish Conservative Club at number 112. They had taken over the former Alma Hotel in 1877 and had a new club built on the same site by Robert Rowand Anderson in 1884. His Lordship joked that potential members for either club may go in the wrong doors and join with their opponents in error.
Exterior and interior of the newly re-opened Scottish Conservative Club. Illustrated London News, 14th July 1884.That previous Liberal clubhouse noted in the speech was at the furthest west corner of Princes Street, a building they had taken over from the Osborne Hotel. On 19th December 1879 this had been badly damaged by a fire that broke out in the roof of its corner turret. Much of the upper level of the building was destroyed and yet more damage was done to floors below by water that had poured through as a result of ineffective fire-fighting attempts. The Club had only taken possession of these premises 10 days earlier. They were able to return the following March after repairs, comparing photos from before and after shows that uppermost storeys of the corner turret were completely rebuilt in a subtly different style. They left this site seven years later on account of it being taken over by drapers Robert Maule & Sons,who progressively converted it into a department store. This would become the local landmark and meeting point of choice known as Maule’s Corner. Maules would be taken over in 1934 by Binns of Sunderland, who rebuilt the store in a contemporary style.
The Osborne Hotel in 1877, two years before its conversion to the Scottish Liberal Club and serious fire damage. Credit: Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City LibrariesThe Liberals would remain at number 109, with shops in the ground floor units, until 1977. At this juncture its dwindling membership agreed to sell the building, to avoid a costly repair bill, and disseminate the profits amongst themselves. This caused something of a controversy as a sizeable minority wanted the money to go instead towards the Liberal political cause (a fuller history of the Club can be read on their website here.) Two doors down at number 112, the Caledonian Club had downsized to smaller premises on Abercromby Place in 1975 (the name had changed following the 1969 merger of the Conservative Club with the Caledonian United Service & Northern Club, itself formed by the merger of three clubs). This club had been unable to meet its running costs on Princes Street, partly as the result of fire damage caused in June 1974. An 18-year old waiter employed by the club was later charged with three counts of culpable and reckless fire raising and two of wilful fire raising. He was found guilty and sentenced to three years probation.
Overlay comparison of the 1935 Goad fire insurance map (showing internal and construction details) and the 1944 Ordnance Survey town plan of Edinburgh, between 105 and 117 Princes Street. Move the slider to compare. Both reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandAt this time the whole row on Princes Street from the Liberal Club at 109 to the Conservative Club at 112 was acquired by the chain Debenhams Ltd for conversion into a department store. What most people have probably never appreciate is that behind the Victorian façades of these buildings, the insides were completely gutted and almost nothing original was retained. The only principal original feature that was retained at 112 was Rowand Anderson’s grand staircase, although it was relocated to the back of the building, along with its impressive stained glass windows dedicated to Benjamin Disraeli. (Hopefully its position here has saved it from fire damage)
Internal view of former Scottish Conservative Club, being rebuilt as Debenhams with the retained façade. The gap is where number 111 once stood, the Palace Hotel party wall is on the right and that of the former Scottish Liberal Club is on the left. Credit: RCAHMS via Trove.Scot, SC 466158At number 109 the most substantial retained feature was from the Gladstone Library: wooden panelling complete with bookshelves, fireplace, large brass plaque featuring a passage by Francis Bacon from Of Studies and a bust of William Ewart Gladstone. This was latterly used as a shop floor divider but it is highly probably that it has not survived the fire intact. Fortunately the Gladstone bust had been removed in recent years to the care of the Scottish Liberal Club and is therefore safe (you can read a bit more on the Scottish Liberal Club website).
The relocated remaining panelling and fireplace from the Scottish Liberal Club’s Gladstone Library, with the bust of the man himself at his centre. Picture taken in 2017 when it was in use as a shop floor divider. Picture credit Zarina at Page to Stage Reviews, used with permission.Behind 112, on the opposite side of Rose Street South Lane, a warehouse and loading bay was built, connected over the street by a two-storey corridor that also extended the store all the way through to an entrance at 144-150 Rose Street. To join the Liberal and Conservative halves of the store together the intermediate building at 111 – the former Lotus & Delia shoe shop – was demolished and replaced by a modern, glass-fronted link building. It is of interest that Debenham’s was the first major redevelopment on Princes Street after the 1978 abandonment of Sir William Kininmonth’s Princes Street Panel. This was a masterplan for the comprehensive redevelopment of the entire street, every original building replaced by something modern that conformed to the Panel’s design standard. It mandated that the façades above ground floor level were to be set back to make room in front for a balcony. Each balcony would eventually join with its neighbours to create an end-to-end walkway above street level. There are only a few example of such Panel buildings on the street and the frontages of the former Liberal and Conservative Clubs were only able to be retained because the standard had been scrapped.
Three Panel redevelopments on Princes Street in 1974; Littlewood’s department store (now replaced by Primark), the replacement New Club and the private office development that replaced the old Life Association of Scotland building. Credit: Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City LibrariesWinding the clock back over 160 years, the first really serious fire of note took place in 1860. In a curious concurrence with recent events, it involved a hotel redevelopment! The wooden scaffolding and building framework for an extension to the Balmoral Hotel above number 87-88 caught fire. This latter premises was the home of publishers Edmonston & Douglas, who were fortunately able to remove much of their stock before it was damaged by smoke or the fire brigade’s water. A far more devastating incident would occur on 26th November 1892 at the department store and warehouse of Charles Jenner & Company, which occupied the entire block fronting South St David Street as far as Rose Street.
Sketch of the Jenners fire, Edinburgh Evening Dispatch – 28th November 1892. Notice the fireman on the right is hosing down the Waverley Temperance Hotel on the other side of South St David Street, as there was a genuine worry the wind would carry the fire across to it.Three steam fire engines attended and four firemen were injured in the ultimately futile attempt to extinguish the blaze, hampered by the collapse of a water main running through the store itself. Their efforts were instead directed towards trying to save the adjoining Royal Hotel, in which they were ultimately successful. When the flames had been damped down and the smoke cleared the next day, the scene of destruction was total. Jenners was fortunately well insured, as some £250,000 of damage – approximately £28 million in 2026 – was caused. Some one hundred and twenty employees, who lodged on the premises, were less lucky and lost everything except the clothes on their backs. An exact cause was never established, although it is known to have broken out in the warehouse of the drapery department after it had closed for the day at 4PM and it was not outwardly detected until after 10PM, by which time it had ample time to take. Their store, converted from the original Georgian buildings on Princes Street and early Victorian replacements on South St David Street, was rebuilt in the grand Victorian Renaissance Revival style that still graces the city to this day.
Charles Jenner & Co.’s department store after the disastrous fire of 1892. The destruction was complete of the original buildings, but the store was rebuilt in the grandest of style by William Hamilton Beattie in the same location, reopening in 1895. It had proved impossible for Jenners to find another location which would have allowed them to re-open sooner and they were unable to trade for three years. Credit; HES via Trove.Scot SC4666176Five years later on the evening of 11th December 1897, a fire took place at number 111. This was the premises of McNab & Shepherd, drapers and silk mercers, and stood where the glass link building of Debenhams would be built over eighty years later. It was all that separated the clubs of the Conservatives at 112 and the Liberals at 109 and the members of both institutions were first on the scene. The Evening News reported that a competitive rivalry quickly established itself as hoses were run out of both buildings and amateur fire-fighting efforts commenced “with great energy“. This arrested the spread until the professionals arrived from the High Street under Firemaster Pordage, preventing a far more serious incident developing. The business was insured for the £7,000 of damage caused although £15,000 of stock was disposed of in a subsequent fire sale (respectively around £809k and £1.7 million in 2026).
Fire sale advert for McNab & Shepherd, Evening News, 21st December 1897It would be over half a century before the next serious blaze. This happened on November 9th 1955 when the C & A Modes department store at number 33-38 was destroyed. This building dated to 1863 and was the former Edinburgh Hotel. Firefighting efforts were hampered by the fact a similarly large and destructive blaze had broken out on Jeffrey Street just hours earlier, consuming two shoe warehouses, and fire engines had to be called from as far away as Dalkeith to assist. Rumours abounded that sparks carried from the first inferno had set the roof of C&A on fire, but investigation would find it had actually been started by an electric iron that had been left on. C&A rebuilt their store on the site, replaced in turn by a far more visually offensive modern building in 2004.
9th November 1955, “Fire at C & A Modes – From Scott Monument before the roof fell in.” Credit, TSPL via Trove.Scot, DP609393Thirty-five years on, over the course of three months in 1990 the Virgin Megastore at number 125-131 suffered a series of fires, two serious, while it was under renovation. The first on March 30th broke out in the basement but fortunately did not spread and no lasting damage was caused. A more serious event took place on May 26th in a top-floor storeroom, causing £1m of damage to stock, the collapse of the shop’s suspended ceiling and significant water damage to office premises on floors below. The company took these unfortunate events in its stride and even published humorous adverts in the Evening News to reassure customers they were still in business. In an about turn, twelve years later on 23rd July 2002 it was the water from fighting a fire in one of those second floor offices that would cause significant to Virgin’s premises and stock.
Virgin Megastore advert, 1st June 1990, Evening NewsAn inferno to equal that which destroyed Charles Jenner’s store almost a century before took place on the evening of June 9th 1991 at number 116-117. This was the former Palace Hotel, a five-storey, 20,000 square feet building that was vacant (there’s that word again!) at the time and on the market for offers over £2 million. It had spent a number of years in a redevelopment quagmire, closing its doors for the last time in 1989. On the night in question it was broken into by a group of youths who had been sheltering from a sudden downpour in its doorway. Venturing in to the abandoned interior to explore they lit pieces of newspaper they had found to try and light the way, some of which ended up being dropped. The fire spread with frightening speed and the group was lucky to escape with their lives, one girl found herself trapped in a toilet and had to climb out its window into the lane at the rear. Sixty firefighters and fourteen appliances under the command of Deputy Firemaster Colin Cranston battled the blaze for hours. They were able to stop the spread to adjacent premises but for the Palace Hotel there was nothing anyone could do.
Atmospheric newsprint photo of the Palace Hotel fire, the brave efforts of the fireman on the turntable ladder proving utterly inadequate in the face of the inferno. Edinburgh Evening News – 10th June 1991The destruction was total – £11m of property damage and the remains of the structure had to be pulled down in subsequent days before it had a chance to fall down. Ironically the demolition of this listed building has been approved by the District Council’s planning committee back in 1988, to much outcry from heritage organisations, only for it to be saved when the scheme proposed for its replacement fell through. £750,000 of stock in the adjoining Debenhams store (which you will recall includes the façade of the original Palace Hotel) was smoke damaged and disposed of in a fire sale. Two 16-year-old boys were charged but the case against them was thrown out of the High Court two years later by Lord Kirkwood. His Lordship was of the opinion that the evidence presented by the prosecution was not sufficient to merit the charge of “culpable and reckless fire-raising“, he noted for the record that the accused had tried to stamp out the fire they had accidentally started.
The demolition of the Palace Hotel in 1991 after the fire. Credit, HES via Trove.Scot SC371011The first serious fire in this decade took place on 19th April 2021 at none other than number 112; Debenhams! Over thirty firefighters, five fire engines and a major incident unit successfully tackled the blaze. The building had been shuttered since the Coronavirus lockdown, the company announcing in February that year they would not re-open any of their stores in Scotland and would run down those in England. The second incident was altogether more serious. On January 23rd 2023 fire once gain struck the Jenners building, also closed, vacant and under redevelopment at the time. Although the damage to the building itself would ultimately prove to be limited, the ferocity of the fire in the confused and confined building-site interior claimed the life of fire fighter Barry Martin from McDonald Road fire station. The city centre came to a standstill on 17th February for the passage of his funeral cortège.
The fire of July 2026 is the third serious fire on Princes Street this decade and is very much still a current event. What becomes of the building and Edinburgh’s public transport is very much a matter to stay tuned to reliable local news outlets for.
The morning after. Street-level photo showing damage caused by the fire. The party wall on the right was already exposed from demolition of the former Next store as part of the separate hotel development behind the scaffolding. Photo credit Michael Macleod, used with permission of The Edinburgh Minute.DatePremisesDescription20th March 1860Edmonston & Douglas bookshop, 87-88 Princes St.Wooden scaffolding and building framing for extension of Balmoral Hotel being built above shop caught fire19th December 1879Scottish Liberal Club, 146 Princes St.Fire started in roof of corner turret and spread through attic space, causing signficant damage26th November 1892Charles Jenner & Co., 47-49 Princes St.Fire totally destroyed department store11th December 1897McNab & Shepherd, 111 Princes St. Fire broke out in basement area but was stopped from spreading by amateur fire-fighting efforts from adjoining buildings9th November 1955C & A Modes, 33-38 Princes St.Fire totally destroyed department store30th March 1990Virgin Megastore, 131 Princes St.Fire in basement during renovation26th May 1990Virgin Megastore, 131 Princes St.Fire in top floor store-room causes £1m stock damage9th June 1991Palace Hotel, 116-117 Princes St.Fire totally destroyed hotel23rd July 2002131 Princes St.Second floor office of Aspect Software badly burnt out, thought to be an air conditioning fault. Significant stock damage to Virgin Megastore on floors below from water. 3rd August 2007Romanes & Paterson, 62 Princes St.Fire on 3rd floor spread through internal voids. 17 fire appliances deployed over 24 hours. £2 million of structural and stock damage.19th April 2021former Debenhams, 112 Princes St.Fire in vacant building.23rd January 2023former Jenners, 47-52 Princes St.Fire in vacant building being converted and refurbished claimed life of firefighter Barry Martin8th July 2026former Debenhams, 109 Princes St.Fire in vacant building awaiting conversion to hotel caused catastrophic damageChronological Table of the fires referred to in this post, plus a few extra. N.B. this is a subjective and not an exhaustive list, but I have made every effort to capture all the main, destructive fires plus those with a historical relationship to the Debenhams building.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.
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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
One positive thing about the closure of Princes Street: one can walk down the middle of Princes St without being worried of getting run down*. It's kind of liberating.
The last time I did that was during lockdown, I think - and even then one had to watch out for buses, which kept running.
* apart from food delivery drivers. They're having even more fun!!!
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Princes St is to remain closed into August. Which could be pretty chaotic, what with George St being closed so it can house venues for the Fringe!
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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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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.
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“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