Dumbiedykes Survey Photographs  -  1959 Survey

Prospect Street

Arthur Street

and

'The Scotchie'

Prospect Street, Arthur Street and 'The Scotchie'

Location

PROSPECT STREET is the street on the left of this picture.  The hill, upper left , is at the base of Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park.

THE SCOTCHIE is the hill (lower right).  It had a level top, used for football matches.

ARTHUR STREET is the steep-sloping street straight ahead (centre and right in the picture).  Several carts and lorries ran out of control down this street, ending up in Holyrood Park, including this coal lorry:

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Question 1

Tenements Demolished

The street on the left of this picture is Prospect Street.  There used to be tenements on both sides of this street.  Does anybody know why those on the west side, at the foot of the hill beside where the car is parked, were demolished?

Answer 1

Bomb Shelters

Thank you to Roberta Luciani, Canada who wrote:

"I don't know what happened to the buildings on the Scotchie, but I do remember there being a bomb shelter there.

There were bomb shelters in all the back greens of the buildings.  They were pulled down after the war, or should I say, partially demolished, and the greens were never the same afterwards."

Roberta Luciani, Thorold, Ontario, Canada:  February 10, 2008.

Question 2

What was the Factory?

Here are children playing on waste ground by Prospect Place, in the Dumbiedykes district of Edinburgh, in 1959.  Does anybody know what the building with the skylights  in the centre of the picture was?  -  perhaps some sort of factory or studio?

Answer 2

Alex Cowans & Sons

Thank you to Bob Henderson who lived at 17 Arthur Street, 1938-48, who
e-mailed me, telling me that the factory was Alex Cowans & Sons.

Alex added:

"As children, during and just after the war, we used to look in at the ground floor windows, which were always open, amazed by the roaring clanking monsters that were the box making machines.

Bob tells me that he now lives at Burdiehouse, Edinburgh.  He moved there when  the scheme was built, just after World War 2: "THE HOMES FIT FOR HEROES"

Bob Henderson, Burdiehouse, Edinburgh: December 2, 2006

The Car

   ©

The steep slopes beneath Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park can be seen in the background.  There is just one vehicle, a small black car, in this picture. 

After adding this photo to the web site, I was pleased (and surprised!) to receive an email from Ian Mycko who used to live in the area. 

Ian gave me details of the  giving me details of the school at St John's Hill, Dumbiedykes.   He ended with the comment:

"P.S. The car in the photo of Prospect Place was my dad's car."

Ian Mycko, January 2005

Ian added that he was a pupil at St Patrick's RC Primary School from 1963 to 1966, and that the school is just to the right of this picture of St John's Hill:

©

The large photograph above was one of several dozen taken in 1959 by Adam H Malcolm in the Dumbiedykes area of Edinburgh.  These photographs were taken shortly before the houses were demolished.  Adam H Malcolm donated these photographs to the Edinburgh City Libraries in the 1960s and they can now be found in the Library's Edinburgh Room Collection.

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