An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
Spokes, the Lothian Cycle campaign, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year and is in optimistic mood.
In its summer Bulletin (No. 128) it hails the recent local-authority election result since the SNP, Labour and Greens are committed to dedicating 10% of the city’s transport revenue and capital budget to cycling. Matched funding comes from Sustrans.
August is not one of the wetter Edinburgh months. It just feels like it. Somehow the 50mm of rain which water us during the Festival are moister, plumper, and more drenching than the 70-80mm that drop on us from a great height in October through January.
So, no folding your Issue 265 into a novelty sou’wester tomorrow. You’re stuck with news – 4 pages of it, good, bad and intriguing but all of it exclusively about Broughton. And the bits just beyond. And some other stuff.
GOOD TIMES ROLL ON WAVERLEY MARKET
Galashiels-based Keasim Ltd have applied for planning permission to create a ‘Festival Village’ on the vacant, 0.4 hectare roof terrace above Waverley Mall (Ref. 17/03159/FUL).
LATEST INSTANCE OF A BROUGHTON BRUIN
Eurasian brown bears were not uncommon across Scotland in the past, and had a reputation for fierceness which encouraged Roman entrepreneurs to export them home as participants in bloody entertainments.
Martial, writing in AD 80, described one such amusement at the inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre.
Laureolus, a criminal, was centre-stage:
NO CAUSE FOR ALARM
On this day in 1861, the Edinburgh Evening Courant carried the following report:
A quite astonishingly poor planning application by Royal Bank of Scotland has been rejected (Ref. 17/02203/LBC).
Having recently closed its branch at 2–3A Blenheim Place, RBS wanted to remove its signage and former tills there but retain one of two cashpoint machines outside.
Scout Leader Scott Richards hails new standard, and reveals secret history of dissent.
Have you entered the Broughton Street raffle yet?
Promising great prizes (see the list below), tickets are available from 38 local traders at £1 a shot.
And all the money raised goes to three local charities: Waverley Care, the Rock Trust and the Yard.
What’s not to like?
Grab a fistful before the draw at the end of the month.
Traffic congestion along Leith Walk appears to be getting worse, even before Leith Street is closed for its underground upgrade.
A reader contacted Spurtle yesterday to report problems on Haddington Place, where:
… the pavement is being made very narrow by the number of workmen’s vans parked outside the new Costa café. Those silly men are being more and more ridiculously brave with their parking on this pavement, knowing perfectly well that no traffic warden will come round to give them tickets for these offences.
In Issue 264 (out from 1 July) we published John ‘Jackie’ Hogg’s photo, from 1935, of the Christy brothers in good voice during a children’s sing-song in the back-greens of Broughton Road.
Here we show it again for those who want a closer look.
Hogg sent us two other images which we now publish for the first time. They both date from 1940 and detail ‘Spitfire’ concerts held to raise money for the war effort.