The more obscure, unusual, overlooked, and irreverent bits of Edinburgh and Leith local history
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Tags: edinburgh irreverent overlooked
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11.3.2025 22:34Comment on The thread about Esta Henry; the life and times of the Queen of the High Street by Peter Nimmo[…] herself instead to yet another new activity; women’s football. She became the director of the Edinburgh Lady Dynamos, a team formed from core members of successful pre-war teams when the women’s game had […]
11.3.2025 21:14Comment on The thread about the Edinburgh Lady Dynamos, the trailblazing women’s football team denied a sporting chance by the authorities by The thre...Thank you for the pictures and text. I was born in 1952 at the Western General Hospital while my parents and two older siblings stayed ay Lochinvar Camp. Stayed there for about three years before getting an upgrade to a council house at West Pilton Place/View.
10.3.2025 08:32Comment on The thread about Wardie Playing Fields and the “absolutely scandalous” Lochinvar Camp by Leslie Edward Fatherley[…] although Edinburgh was one of the most enthusiastic local authorities when it came to building postwar prefab housing, it couldn’t keep up with demand for housing and the camp found itself in demand with a long […]
8.3.2025 14:01Comment on The thread about AIROHs, ARCONs, Tarrans and Uni-SECOs; temporary, post-war, prefabricated housing in Edinburgh and where it was built by T...… reposted this!
6.3.2025 10:37Comment on The thread about Wardie Playing Fields and the “absolutely scandalous” Lochinvar Camp by John Faithfull 🌍🇪🇺🏴🧡✊🏻✊🏿… liked this!
6.3.2025 10:26Comment on The thread about Wardie Playing Fields and the “absolutely scandalous” Lochinvar Camp by she hacked you… reposted this!
6.3.2025 10:14Comment on The thread about Wardie Playing Fields and the “absolutely scandalous” Lochinvar Camp by Peter Nimmo[…] matters into their own hands and made a night time “seizure” of the recently vacated Anti Aircraft Gunners’ camp at Craigentinny, which they took possession of as squatters. The group formalised themselves as the […]
6.3.2025 10:09Comment on The thread about the defence of Edinburgh and Leith from bombing during WW2 by The thread about Wardie Playing Fields and the “absolutely s...[…] base at Port Edgar along the coast and displaced to Granton Docks instead where there was already a shore training facility called HMS Claverhouse. Lochinvar had to move to make way for the pressing task of combined operations training in the run […]
6.3.2025 10:00Comment on The thread about the Naval Reserves in Leith and Granton and their tenuous link to 17th Century Jacobitism by The thread about Wardie Playi...In reply to <a href="https://threadinburgh.scot/2025/03/05/the-thread-about-wardie-playing-fields-and-the-absolutely-scandalous-lochinvar-camp/comment-page-1/#comment-1985">Anonymous</a>. Thanks Gordon, I've looked into the detail and you are indeed right; the Cavalry Park camp was closed in 1919 and although the Corporation did consider taking it on for temporary housing this never happened and its contents and then structures were advertised for disposal by sale in 1922. I've replied to you by email with a bit more detail. Andy
6.3.2025 09:51Comment on The thread about Wardie Playing Fields and the “absolutely scandalous” Lochinvar Camp by Andy Arthur - ThreadinburghWardie Playing Fields. Fourteen acres of windswept turf in the north of Edinburgh where generations of school children have loved or loathed muddy games of football, sports days and the dreaded "cross country" runs. But there's rather more to the story of this place than just that. It had a brief but very important role to play during World War 2 and for over 10 years afterwards it was the site of some of the most desperately needed but most deplorable housing in the city.
5.3.2025 07:30The thread about Wardie Playing Fields and the “absolutely scandalous” Lochinvar CampServing on a Q-ship was one of the most dangerous postings a World War One sailor could expect to find themselves on. It was their job not to avoid or attack enemy U-boats, but to deliberately attract their attention and encourage them to attack! In 1917 Neil Shaw Mackinnon, a marine engineering officer from Leith, found himself in the engine room of a Q-ship. His service was brief but eventful; hallmarked by bravery and a run of luck that would end only in tragedy. Less than three weeks after he was presented with a Distinguished Service Cross by King George V he would disappear with his ship into the cold, dark waters of the Irish Sea.
16.2.2025 17:40The thread about Neil Shaw Mackinnon and the loss of the Q-ship “Cullist”It's often forgotten that Edinburgh has a purpose built 3,000-seater open air theatre, probably because it has been rarely used in the last 90 years of its life. But if you were to go to Braidburn Valley Park and look across at its western slopes you will see unmistakable, regular terraced rows that were once seats and a pleasant, tree-lined lawn that was once a stage. This thread takes a diversion down the rabbit hole of this particularly unusual and overlooked feature of south suburban Edinburgh.
4.2.2025 19:00The thread about the Braidburn Valley open-air theatre: “Idyllic. But not in this climate!”On this day (January 31st), the tragic and farcical events of the Battle of May Island took place. In little over an hour two of the Royal Navy's biggest and newest submarines were sunk; four more and the cruiser HMS Fearless were badly damaged and 104 men had lost their lives. The term "battle" is sardonic in this case as no shots were fired and there were no opposing forces; on one side were 40 vessels of the Royal Navy but on the other was only a conspiracy of the weather, inadequate leadership decisions, technological over-reach and the confusion that can easily transpire when a plan begins to unravel.
31.1.2025 16:00The thread about the “Battle of May Island;” if something can go wrong, it will go wrongOn this day (January 15th) in 1963, a small silver airliner with 45 people on board took off from Sao Paulo in Brazil en route for Rio de Janeiro. Moments later it plunged into the ground in the city's suburbs, taking with it 13 lives. The last victim to be identified was that of Esta Henry, a renowned and somewhat eccentric Edinburgh antiques dealer; her husband Paul was at her side and perished too. Thus ended the final chapter in the colourful life of the lady the papers called the Queen of the High Street.
15.1.2025 10:00The thread about Esta Henry; the life and times of the Queen of the High StreetA fact that passed me by until this morning, January 1st 2025, was that yesterday marked the 100th anniversary (in Edinburgh at least) of the tradition of special Hogmanay programming from BBC Scotland. Follow me now on a brief thread of the early history of BBC Radio in Edinburgh and its claim to be the home of the ubiquitous annual Hogmanay broadcast extravaganza.
1.1.2025 17:47The thread about the dawn of BBC radio in Edinburgh and the centenary of the first Scottish Hogmanay programmingThe Christmas tree on the Mound is one of those annual Edinburgh institutions you take for granted; it always seems to appeared each year and you expect that it always shall. But just how the tree on the Mound came to be and just how far back the tradition of public Christmas trees goes in Edinburgh is a festiverabbit hole down which this tread shall lead you.
21.12.2024 08:30The thread about Edinburgh’s public Christmas trees; from Victorian commercialism to symbols of international friendshipSince its foundation in 1913, the residents of Edinburgh Zoo haven't always been happy to just stay in their enclosures for the amusement of the public. Every now and again one or two have made a bid for their freedom, and some of them have even succeeded!
7.12.2024 08:30The thread about the Great Animal Escape; a brief history of breakouts from Edinburgh ZooWG Burn Murdoch is a complex character, a skilful wildlife artist who specialised in polar exploration with an interest in natural history, he was also a keen trophy hunter and involved in commercial whaling and hunting. He is also intimately and inextricably connected, financially, organisationally and artistically, with the foundation of Edinburgh Zoo.
4.12.2024 08:15The thread about WG Burn Murdoch and the troubling history of Edinburgh Zoo’s polar bearsFor many a year there was a humble old cottage in the corner of Holyrood Park that was attributed to be one of the most famous houses in Scottish literature; Jeanie Deans Cottage from the Heart of Midlothian. This thread looks into the history of the house and why its not quite what its name and the official records suggest it to be.
30.11.2024 17:59The thread about Jeanie Deans Cottage; a famous but misattributed Scottish literary house