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rich
14-May-08, 22:37
It is ironic that ,in this era of nearly achieved Scottish Nationalism, the nation's architectural heritage should be at risk from a lobby of developers. Haymarket, the Grassmarket and - above all - the Royal Mile are under threat of demolition.
What is being lost here is not only buildings but entire communities.
This should concern everybody from Galasheils to John O'Groats, so I make no apology for posting this on the Caithness org.
But how to get across what is being lost? One way is to google up SOOT, Save Our Old Town.
Another is to read this acount of life in the Royal Mile and the Canongate, a mere - was it 25 years ago?? - well a couple of decades ago anyway. And I should declare my interest, my daughter and grand-daughter were both born into this community that is currently under threat by developers based in London.
So here is Janet Fenton, my dear friend and mother of my daughter, addressing the Scottish Ministers describing the treasure they seem hell-bent on destroying on the eve of Scottish independence.

Janet Fenton, Milton Street, Edinburgh
Objections

The Old Town , and its wonderful Canongate is important to me, to my family, and to many others who understand and remember that communities are made up of people.People like the young women that I can I remember watching (girls in fact, who were probably no more than five years older than I was a t the time.) They came out on early Saturday evening, from the old Arthur Street tenements, with their bouffant hair and ghostly lipstick and their sugar starched petticoats.

To me, they were the last word in daring sophistication. Even then I wondered at how they managed it from single ends that afforded little space and a shared stone sink on each landing.After I grew up I could not believe my luck as a young married woman at the start of the seventies when we were allocated one of the council houses in the newly refurbished Chessels Court .

There were a lot of us – young marrieds with children in the Canongate, and the grass at Chessels was a great play park as well as a shared social area for parents on sunny summer days. One Christmas when it snowed heavily on the first day of the school holidays, the children started the biggest snowball fight of the decade. Mums joined in and filled the court with laughter and snow, and as the afternoon light bled out of the sky, homecoming dads took over and about thirty men women and children continued to pelt each other until teatime.

My cousin was just down the Mile at Abbeyhill with her kids, and on the way there with mine I would walk past the homes of upwards of ten families I can still recall with children that played with mine.

One of my sons came in to the house one day after five minutes outside bewailing the loss of his shoes, taken away by a ‘big boy’. We found them, filled with dog’s dirt; I didn’t need to ask which big boy had done it, the culprit was run to ground by another mum, the grapevine alerted, confessions and apologies accomplished, in a functioning and observant, and caring community.

After attending St Saviour’s child garden in the Court, my boys attended Milton House School and their cousins went to South Bridge . My cousin’s kids went to Abbeymount. On Saturday mornings we went shopping.
I pushed my big pram up to the Bridges and, starting at J & R Allen’s Food Hall for the fancy stuff, I shopped along to the Tron and into the bank (there were three on the crossroads) back down the Mile where I had the choice of three butchers and the fish shop, several bakers, Willie Lowes grocers, the fruit and veg shop that doubled as a florists where my number one son always got a carrot and was allowed to wash it and start eating it on the way down the road - and of course the co-op, where I recited my number and handed over my milk tokens and arranged the week’s delivery of milk to the house. At Christmas time, I could do all my food shopping and all my present buying – lots in Eastern Crafts - without departing from that route.

There were the delights of Patrick Thomson’s department store, where shop assistants called you ‘modom’ and if you had the money you could buy clothes and have them altered. You could also go for afternoon tea, accompanied by a string quartet, and although I didn’t do that too often, I do remember when they installed escalators and my second son found the emergency switch that brought them to a standstill and the manager to despair. We also bought our clothes from Burrows Stores, and in addition to the remaining shoe shop on the Mile there was a bargain shoe shop where the Scandic Crown now stands, Universal Household Stores provided string and tin openers and nails and most of my children’s toys were brought from Plega, which had a wonderful selection of choices.

I remember a hand crafted Scandinavian pull along cow and the first anatomically correct boy doll I ever saw, as well as affordable stocking fillers and pocket money toys. There was also a launderette just below John Knox’s house. Apart from Patrick Thomson’s, these were family businesses. We went swimming in Infirmary Street , and saw movies at the Odeon, or at The Calton Studios, where there was a family event on Sundays. First lunch, then the kids could see a suitable film while the adults relaxed over a coffee or beer and a blether.

My firstborn arrived in the Elsie Ingles. I was with her in her Canongate home where she gave birth to my beautiful granddaughter many years later. What will the Canongate mean to her?Buildings need to come down and go up and they need to provide shelter for people and provide income for people and be fit for purpose.

They need to be financed, and they need to provide value for money. The needs and desires of different groups can conflict. Ordinary people who form communities do understand that and usually welcome the work done on their behalf and let their elected representatives and public servants get on with it.

When there is a concerted effort to question what is being done on their behalf, people rightly expect their opinions to be listened to and considered.I am aware that there is often a prejudice that suggests that so-called standard letters come from people who do not take time to consider the issues, or who fail to understand the finer nuances of what are appropriate criteria for decision making.

This kind of thinking can get out of hand, where it ceases to recognise the primary purpose of planning legislation or the raison d’etre of local authorities.Developers who stand to gain financial benefit invariably have more resources in terms of time, marketing advice, the production of printed and other promotional materials, access to the mainstream media and, it seems, the ear of the decision makers.

They are proactive rather than reactive and they are not trying to do it on a limited income with small children in tow. No stirring the mince with a child on the hip while on the phone for them.So rather than reformulate the clearly expressed objections which have been worried at as much as a rag by several terriers, and arrived at with broad consensus from the community ( who have been genuinely consulted) affected, I thought you might like to take the very human step of considering WHY I wish to lodge OBJECTIONS TO ALL 11 CALTONGATE Planning applications

Whitewater
14-May-08, 23:17
Hi Rich,
I was not aware of any of the plans afoot for the destruction of the Haymarket, Canongate, etc. The old town is a favourite part of Edinburgh for tourists from all over the world, it has not lost any of its charm. On my rare visits to the city it is always one of the first places I visit (sometimes the only place)

Janet has made a grand and heart pulling appeal on behalf of the area, all the residents and small family businesses which thrive there. I really can't see the SNP party agreeing to all this, but I guess it was set up by the previous Labour Government. If Alex Salmond allows this to happen he can forget about his dreams of Nationalism, nobody who dearly loves Scotland or its capital city would agree to this.

Where can we lodge our objections?

golach
14-May-08, 23:27
Rich,
sadly we live in a much more modern world these days, the euphoric picture of old Canongate/Dumbiedykes life you partner posts has long gone. The area of the Caltongate that that is being developed is and was derelict warehouses off Calton Rd, and an old disused Bus depot, rat infested and of no use to any one.
I married a Leither in the 60's, my eldest was also born in Elsies the only female run maternity hospital in Scotland. Leith suffered just as badly as the Canongate is doing at the moment, the heart of Leith the Kirkgate was torn out in the 70's and replaced by a concrete monstrosity of a shopping mall. Every Leither cursed the city fathers. We got a brand new cooncil hoose in 1964, a Multi, we thought we were in heaven, aye right 15 stories up, no central heating, just underfloor heating that heated your downstairs neighbours house more than it did yours.
But I am digressing, Leith has lived through the destruction, the corporate mistakes, and is now becoming one of the most upmarket places to live in.
The Royal Mile, the Canongate, the Dummydykes will survive, but maybe in a more modern, and up to date way. just look what they did to the Raddison Hotel, it was built sympathetically, and now looks like a 17th century Street, but was only built in 1990, before that it was the biggest hole in the ground in Edinburgh.
I firmly believe the Canongate will survive, and will benefit from the new works.
And P.S. these developments have got nothing to do with the present political party that is in power at the foot of the Royal Mile, this is the City Fathers of Edinburgh that have decided this one, so dont blame the SNP.

Whitewater
14-May-08, 23:49
Thanks for that information Golach. Us Cathnesians have to be kept informed.

George Brims
14-May-08, 23:57
Well this horse is well and truly out of the stable and away down the road, tail in the air. Living in Edinburgh and environs from 1972 to 1985, I learned to stifle my outrage at the destruction of a great city's architectural legacy. There was just too much to be annoyed about.

Examples:
That lovely Georgian crescent (Hillside Cres) off the first part of London Rd, next to Leith Walk. In the middle is a yellow and white concrete monstrosity that not only doesn't blend in for colour, it doesn't even have the same number of floors/rows of windows, as the rest of the crescent.

Anyone remember the buildings that stood where the horrid concrete monstrosity of the St James Centre now looms?

Or the streets around the University now occupied by Appleton Tower etc? Not to mention the other concrete monstrosities on George Square.

Does anyone know what the building going up just off the Royal Mile, at the top of Victoria St, is going to look like? I bet you anything it isn't going to blend in with the surrounding area, not by a long chalk.

Moira
15-May-08, 00:35
As an occasional visitor to Edinburgh, I find it difficult to get fired up on the issues concerning it. I'm more concerned with what the long term prospects are for Caithness.

rich
15-May-08, 02:05
For anyone wanting to register an objection to the Caltongate project:

http://www.eh8.org.uk/http://www.eh8.org.uk/

rich
15-May-08, 02:07
you have to go to the top right where it says Canongate community forum

darkie@dreamtilt.com.au
15-May-08, 07:38
Thanks for that information Golach. Us Cathnesians have to be kept informed.
Thanks for the info WhiteWater,next time someone ask's me what I am I'll say a Cathnesian,that should confuse the h*** out of them,always thought of myself as a Glebe boy,looks like I got an upgrade http://forum.caithness.org/images/icons/icon6.gif

canuck
15-May-08, 12:08
It is ironic that ,in this era of nearly achieved Scottish Nationalism, the nation's architectural heritage should be at risk from a lobby of developers. Haymarket, the Grassmarket and - above all - the Royal Mile are under threat of demolition. ...


Having been well trained by the good folk of Caithness when I participated on the NAG campaign team, I'm now involved in "Save Craigentinny Primary" the local school in a section of Edinburgh a wee bit further east than the areas Janet speaks of.

I'm not sure that Scottish Independence is quite as inevitable as you suggest. However I would love to chat about it over a cup of coffee. Are you available next Thursday?

The Pepsi Challenge
15-May-08, 12:10
For anyone wanting to register an objection to the Caltongate project:

http://www.eh8.org.uk/http://www.eh8.org.uk/

I've objected to it. Some good friends of mine own the Fudge House on the Royal Mile, and have, during this whole debacle, been intimidated, bullied, and forced into submission. Their ice-cream shop, which has been part of their family business since the mid-40s, will now be demolished. And for what exactly? You may well ask.

rich
15-May-08, 14:46
A few points

Let's not forget that the Royal Mile is designated as a World Heritage site. Unfortunately this does not seem to count for much in Edinburgh governmental circles.

It matters little to me whether it is the Labour Party or the SNP who are putting the boots to the Canongate. There is more than enough guilt to go round.

Re. the Radisson Hotel. It is a fairly pleasant building as these things go. It is however a facade. What is planned for the Canongate is even less than a facade, as anyone can see by looking at some of the rather strange pictures of the Caltongate scheme.

The whole Caltongate development will help create a Butlin's on the Rock. Cheap, tawdry and tacky.

It has even been denied that there is a healthy community of residents on the Royal Mile. Well I have a daughter and grand-daughter who were born, not in any hospital, but at home. You cant get much more communal than that.

badger
15-May-08, 14:59
Developers large and small will get their way with planners wherever you are because they have money and influence. It happens all over the UK (and I've moved around a fair bit) - no matter how many local objections there are if you've got enough money or the ear of someone in power, you'll get what you want.

I learnt that lesson the first time in one of the most beautiful little villages in the south where a local developer wanted to build two large, hideous houses in a prominent position. Everyone objected - made no difference. He built them.

Good luck with the objecting - it's still worth fighting even if too often "they" win.