Waverley Market

History

    

Waverley Market

Nineteenth Century

The Waverley Market opened in 1869. In 1877 the market was roofed over and made available for travelling exhibitions, touring funfairs and menageries.

When these events were held at the market, the resident stallholders were often evicted into the street to sell their wares!

Source:  National Museums of Scotland: Scottish Life Archive

Twentieth Century

I have just searched the Scran web site for images of Waverley Market and found about 400 images.  These include some views of the roof garden above the market and many photos of exhibitions and shows that have been held at the market.

Most of the photos are from the archives of Scotsman Publications.  Some of the exhibitions at Waverley Market were sponsored by The Dispatch, a newspaper that was absorbed into The Scotsman Group.

The table below lists all the exhibitions at Waverley Market that I found images of on the Scran web site, followed by a few more recent photos, also found on the Scran web site.

Today

The Waverley Market closed in 1977.

-   It re-opened as Waverley Market Shopping Centre in 1984.

-  Following a major refurbishment in the 1990s its name was changed to Waverley Shopping Centre.

-  Following another refurbishment in the early-2000s, its name was changed again, to Princes Mall.

 

Waverley Market

Shows, Exhibitions, Events

1900s

International Fisheries Exhibition

1900s

-  Dog Show

1906

-  Kelvin Products Exhibition

1920s

-  Motor Exhibition

1940

-  St Cuthbert's Festival Cavalcade Exhibition

1948

-  Dog Show

1950

-  Fat Stock Show

1951

-  Circus

-  Fat Stock Show

1952

-  Alexander's Ford Motor Show Year in doubt

-  Dog Show

1953

-  Flower Show

-  Tattoo Dinner

1954

-  Dog Show

-  Fat Stock Show

-  Flower Show

-  Food Exhibition

-  Fur Breeders' Show

-  Ideal Home Exhibition

-  Jazz Festival

-  TA Jubilee Fair

1955

-  Circus

-  Dog Show

-  Flower Show

-  Ideal Home Exhibition

-  Medical Associations' Dinner

1956

-  Flower Show

1957

-  Dog Show

-  Flower Show

1958

-  Fat Stock Show

-  Flower Show

-  Waverley Carnival

1959

-  Dog Show

-  Edinburgh Civic Exhibition

-  Flower Show

-  Ideal Holiday Show Possibly 1961 or 1962

-  Ideal Home Exhibition

-  Manequin Parade

-  National Productivity Year Exams

-  This Scotland Exhibition

-  Scotland's Food Exhibition

1960

-  Dog Show

-  Fat Stock Show

-  Flower Show

-  Girl Guide Exhibition

-  Hobbies Exhibition

-  Ideal Home Exhibition

-  Mod Ball

-  National Temples Band

-  Scottish Open Air Holiday Show

-  Shakespeare Exhibition

1961

-  Epstein Memorial Exhibition

-  Ideal Home Exhibition

1962

-  Scottish Autumn Flower Show

1963

-  200 Summers in the City Exhibition

-  Lothian Car Club Driving Tests

1964

-  Ideal Homes Exhibition

1965

-  Fat Stock Show

1966

-  Ideal Home Exhibition

-  Waverley Carnival

1967

-  Dog Show

-  Edinburgh New Town Bicentenary Exhibition ***

1968

-  Carnival

-  International Computer Show  (IFIPS) ***

-  Waverley Carnival

1969

-  Dog Show

-  Food Exhibition

-  Ideal Holiday Exhibition

-  Scotland's Food Exhibition

1970

-  Pigeon Show

1971

-  Dog Show

1972

East of Scotland Motor Show

-  Great Northern Welly Boot Show

 

Waverley Market

Shopping Centre

1984

-  Miss Waverley Market

1985

-  Shopping Centre Official Opening

1988

-  Piano Busker

1989

-  Spud U Like

***  Photos of this show not found on Scran, but I have been told about the show by Gus Coutts.

***  Photos of this show not found on Scran, but I have been told about this exhibition by Allan Dodds, and I also remember visiting the exhibition.. See, also, Recollections 2 below.

 

Recollections

1.

Linda Robertson

Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England

Waverley Market Exhibitions

Many of the exhibitions at Waverley Market have been listed above, but Linda remembers another, and writes:

'Old Edinburgh'

"I wonder if anyone else remembers an exhibition that was on at the Waverley Market which looked at Edinburgh over about 100 years.

It must have been about 1968-72-ish. I remember being amazed at going through a door and finding myself in a mock-up of a Victorian street.

It was like stepping back in time.  It was dusk, on a cobbled street, complete with hansom cab & horse, and all of the windows were lit so that you could see into the houses.

I've never forgotten it!"

Linda Robertson, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England:  August 20, 2012

 

Recollections

2.

Laurie Thompson

Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England

Thank you to Laurie Thompson who wrote:

Waverley Market Exhibition  -  1967

"Two Hundred Summers In a City"

"I remember, one warm summer's day in 1967 while on a fortnight's visit home to Edinburgh from London (in fact, I think it was the very same day that I bought the Beatles' newly released 'Sergeant Pepper LP'), going to see an exhibition in the Market called - if I remember rightly - "Two Hundred Summers In a City".

The only thing that sticks in my mind about the Exhibition is seeing a glass case containing a pickled cancerous lung, taken from a smoker, showing all the horrors that smoking can inflict.

Presumably this was just part of a display covering the city's medical establishments' history over the preceding two centuries, but the image certainly stayed with me for a long time!"

Laurie Thompson, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England:  June 8, 2014

 

Waverley Market                     Market Street                  Around Edinburgh

 

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