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Recollections Chambers Street |
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Please click on one of the links below, or scroll down this page. |
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1. |
George T SMITH |
- Operetta House Cinema - Causeway Setts |
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2. |
Graeme Charles
MUNRO |
- Operetta House Cinema |
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3. |
Jack
CRAIG |
- Shops - Bus Terminus |
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4. |
George T SMITH |
- Model Shop |
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5. |
Eric GOLD |
- Model Shop - Model Planes - Model Yacht - Radio Shop |
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6. |
Jack
CRAIG |
- Model Shop - Model Plane |
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7. |
John CLARK |
- Model Shop - Model Plane |
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8. |
June ROBERTSON |
- Vegetable Barrow |
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Recollections 1. George Smith British Columbia, Canada |
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Thank you to George Smith of British Columbia, Canada, formerly Edinburgh, who wrote: |
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Operetta House Cinema "I remember the 'Operetta' in Chambers Street, which my mother attended as a cinema during and shortly after WW1. I recall that it was a Police clothing store as late as the 1950s." Arthur Lloyd, on his web site writes that the Operetta was at 5 Chambers Street, on the site of the Gaiety Theatre Music Hall which was built 1875 and closed in 1892. |
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Causeway Setts "Causeway setts or 'causeys' were a source of garden paths and patios when they were lifted from the Edinburgh streets. I remember that the causeys in Chambers Street were made of wood so as to muffle iron wheeled traffic as it passed the university. I can't remember if the roadway in College Street was similarly muffled." |
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Recollections 2. Graeme Charles Munro Adelaide, South Australia |
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Thank you to Graeme Charles Munro who wrote: |
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Operetta House Cinema "I also remember the 'Op' cinema in Chambers Street. It was the first one I went to in 1939. You handed over three jam jars, and got into the cinema and were given an orange and a bag of broken biscuits when you came out." Graeme Charles Munro , Adelaide, South Australia- 4 September 2005 |
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Recollections 3. Jack Craig Silverknowes, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Jack Craig who wrote: |
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Shops "My Dad's shoemaker shop, George Craig and Son, was at No 33, Chambers Street. It was where the new Scottish Museum has now been built. A few doors down the street, there was Frank Royle, model aircraft shop. Further down, before the National Museum, up some outside stairs, there was the first Chinese restaurant in Edinburgh. If my memory serves me well, there was also a shirt manufacture business there." |
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Bus Terminus "Chambers Street was the terminus for the SMT country buses going to Dalkeith, Newtongrange, Gilmerton and all places South." |
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Jack Craig, Silverknowes, Edinburgh: August 15, 2008 |
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4. Recollections by George T Smith British Columbia, Canada |
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Thank you to George T Smith replied to the comments about the model shop (3 above). George wrote: |
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Model Shop "I noticed a reference to 'Frank Royle, model shop' in Chambers Street. There was certainly a model shop at the top (west) end of Chambers Street. I think however that Royle's shop was close to the Salisbury cinema in Clerk Street. As lad it was my regular Saturday trip to see both shop window displays to see what new model was on show." George T Smith, Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada: August 19, 2008 |
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Address Yes. The Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directories for the 1950s and 1960s give this address: Frank Royle: The Model Shop: 82 South Clerk Street. - Peter Stubbs: August 20, 2008 |
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This topic continues with 'Recollections 2' on the South Clerk Street recollections page. |
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5. Recollections by Eric Gold East London |
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Thank you to Eric Gold who wrote |
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Model Shop "There was a wee model shop in Chambers Street at the top end and on the left hand side where the new museum is and opposite of the new Sheriff Court. My second cousin Billy used to get his stuff there and he would make planes and ships. They were professionally built, too. The Chambers Street model shop sold good models and was a bit more professional than your average model shop. I preferred it to the one in Clark Street. My second cousin, Billy, from the West Port built top class models of planes and ships, and he got his ware and tares there." |
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Model Planes "I bought a wee balsa wood kit off the guy, a nice man who owned the shop, and I built a plane and flew it near Jimmy Clark's school. It crashed down at the end of the hill and it was in pieces. The chap who owned the shop was getting new stock, so he sold me an old professional plane with a proper diesel engine, but he said the engine needed repairing. So I striped it down and re-assembled it and got it working, and boy did that plane fly! The only problem was that it would fly until the gas ran out, then we'd have to go a great distance to pick it up in the park. All the bairns from Arthur Street with their wee planes and kites would be in the park but my aeroplane was faster and was great." |
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Model Yacht "As it was a big plane, I sold it eventually to my cousin, Billy. He made it remote control and he gave me a big yacht and I sailed her in Duddingston Loch and St Margaret’s Loch in Holyrood Park." |
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Radio Shop "Those were the days! I could have sailed and flown the models to States (ha ha ha ha ha ha). There was another shop that caught my eye. It was 'Brown's Radio' in George IV Bridge. I used to get old radio equipment there. The manager was great and very helpful too, and was there for years." |
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Eric Gold, East London: August 21, 2008 |
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Recollections 6. Jack Craig Silverknowes, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Jack Craig who wrote: |
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Model Shop "Frank Royle definitely had a shop in Chambers Street, just a few doors down from my father’s boot making business at 33. My father died in 1937. I think Frank Royle was still there then. I know that he opened another shop in South Clerk Street. (I lived just around the corner in Montague Street from 1938.) Maybe that shop was a move rather than a second shop. BUT the first one was definitely in Chambers Street." |
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Model Plane My brother George and a friend, John Arthur were the founder members of the Edinburgh aero-modelling club and they both 'lived' in that shop, bringing home strips and sheets of balsa wood and Japanese tissue paper and stuff they called dope which was painted on the paper to tighten it up. They used elastic bands to propel the aircraft which would be trial flown in Nelsons Park (the site of the now Commonwealth Pool)." |
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Jack Craig, Silverknowes, Edinburgh: August 15, 2008 |
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Recollections 7. John Clark Canada |
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Thank you to John Clark who wrote: |
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Model Shop "How well I remember the shop on Chambers Street that sold all kinds of models and equipment. We didn't have much money to spare in those days, not long after the war, but we could somehow manage to get a few extra pennies together to buy a model kit. It was great fun." |
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Model Plane "We would flatten out the blueprint, and get all the balsa wood pieces together, then put the pins into the print on a piece of wood and bend them into shape, and eventually, voila.... you would have a wing, and a fuselage all glued together. Then we would add the soft tissue-like paper, till you had it all taut and ready to go. It was powered by an elastic band from front to back. I lived three floors up in a tenement, and I would attach a squib ( firecracker ) to it , wind it up and wait till the last minute to send it flying." |
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John Clark, Canada: August 25, 2008 |
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Recollections 8. June Robertson (née Wood) California, USA |
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Thank you to June Robertson who wrote: |
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Fruit and Vegetable Barrow "I wonder if anyone remembers the barrow selling fruits and vegetables: - first in Chambers Street - then up from the Infirmary Street baths and pool, right on the corner of the Bridges My grandparents ran it, then my Dad, john Robertson, then the Blues family. I remember going to the market and smelling all the lovely fruits. It's no longer there, of course, but the memory never fades. June Robertson (née Wood), California, USA: April 10, 2011 |
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