Wardie Square

Granton, Edinburgh

Wardie Steps and Wardie Square

The photograph above was taken on 6 April 2003, from near the foot of Wardie Steps, that lead down from Granton Road beside the house that was once home to the Royal Forth Yacht Club  to Lower Granton Road at a point close to the Eastern Breakwater of Granton Harbour.

This view looks to the west into Wardie Square.   A new building can be seen in the background.  This is the top of apartments built on the north side of Granton Road, close to the point where it meets Granton Square.

Please click on the image below to see a view from a similar position, but taken with a longer lens about sixteen months earlier, before the new apartments were built in Granton Road.

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Recollections

1.

Ian Thomson

Lake Maquarie, New South Wales, Australia

Thank you to Ian Thomson who wrote:

Relations

"This photo, looking west in Wardie Square, certainly brought back memories to my wife and myself:

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The last house on right is where my wife's grandparents, the Bells, spent their married lives and raised 6 children.  They rented the house from the Duke of Buccleuch.

Mr Bell worked in the Granton Harbour all his working life, so, at a guess, we are looking at early 1900s.  My wife's mother, Ean Kearnan (married name) was also brought up here."

Gas Heater

"The houses, in these days, were fairly spartan with outside toilets and no hot water.  So, in the 1950s, with my time as an apprentice plumber just about completed, I decided to impress my then girlfriend's grannie by installing an Ascot gas heater over the sink.

Well, there were numerous problems including the Toby key breaking the shut-off valve under the ground and the Water Board being called upon.

Old grannie Bell, in the end, was absolutely delighted to have hot water, and I became very popular with requests for further plumbing jobs."

Neighbours

"In the Bells' house, there were also John, Jim, Willie, Jean and Betty Maxwell."

Ian Thomson, Lake Maquarie, New South Wales, Australia:  October 11, 2011

Houses

Ian Thomson asked when the houses in Wardie Square were built. They were built around 1840.  That was about the same time as Granton Harbour was being built nearby.

Full Index

Views of Edinburgh

Princes Street views:
 Looking E         Looking W         Looking N + NE        Looking S

from Calton Hill        Preparing for the Trams        Princes Street Gardens

Other street views:
 Grassmarket         George Street          High Street        High Street closes        Leith Street
Lothian Road       North Bridge       Saint James Sq        Waverley Bridge       More Streets