Sketch of

Edinburgh Old Town

 

View from Calton Hill  to the South and SW

Looking towards Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park, Canongate and housing at Dumbiedykes

 Part of a sketch  -  View from Calton Hill, looking to the south and South West towards Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park, Canongate and Dumbiedykes housing

 ©  Reproduced with acknowledgement to Eric Gold, East London.

Enlarge this photo

   Part of a sketch  -  View from Calton Hill, looking to the south and South West towards Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park, Canongate and Dumbiedykes housing ©

View to the SW and W

   Part of a sketch  -  View from Calton Hill, looking to the west towards North Bridge and Edinburgh Castle ©

 

Sketch of Edinburgh Old Town

Sketch

This sketch is dated 'Edinburgh 1963', but it is unsigned.  If you know who drew this sketch, please e-mail me so that I can contact them. 

The sketch was bought by Eric Gold, East London, formerly of Dumbiedykes, "from a lassie in a toot shop (junk shop) in London."

Dumbiedykes

Dumbiedykes was the area immediately to the right of Salisbury Crags, beside the church in the valley beneath the crags.  The people in the old tenements at Dumbiedykes were being re-housed, many at The Inch and Craigmillar, when at the time that this sketch was drawn.

Several of the former residents of Dumbiedykes have sent me their recollections of living in the area in the 1950s.

 

Dumbiedykes

It was Eric Gold Eric (known to many as Eric McKenzie), now living in East London who sent me the sketch at the top of this page.

Eric writes:

Waterson's Close

"I phoned Joe McKenzie last night.  He lived very near me at Dumbiedykes.  I lived at Arthur Street  and he lived at Lower Viewcraig Row.  He was in my class too.

He mentioned Waterson's Close.  It led from Joe's house to St Johns Hill were our school was.  I've tried for years to get the name of it (ha ha ha ha).  Joe has a great memory for names and faces.

1963 Sketch

We looked again at the sketch:

Part of a sketch  -  View from Calton Hill, looking to the south and South West towards Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park, Canongate and Dumbiedykes housing ©

Joe said the artist was bang on target with the year, 1963. He and his family moved out of the Dumbiedykes in 1963 just before Christmas. Cowans, my side of the brae, Prospect Street, Prospect Place and St Margaret's church were all in tact then.

By late-1964 the whole area was demolished and flattened.

Joe, like myself and countless others, miss our Dumbiedykes days, as they were great memories -  not because we were wee bairns, but because the people were all one big happy family there.

Eric Gold, East London:  November 27, 2007

 

Edinburgh Old Town

Around Edinburgh

 

 

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