Edinburgh

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Re: Edinburgh

Postby Lucky Poet » Mon Jul 22, 2013 9:57 pm

In principle they're a great idea. I take some comfort from Dublin's experience, where I believe they have gone from the worst thing ever to something of a success; in Edinburgh's case, it would really mean at least completing the (one) line, and probably adding to it. I hope it happens, someday...

As things stand in Edinburgh, complaining about the trams is now officially the third most popular leisure pursuit, only narrowly beaten by 'having had one's tea', and thinking of ways to hold Glasgow back. Observe this protest, done in the form of crochet:
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They pop up now and again, these things, and the Council keeps taking them down, claiming that they're a Health & Safety risk, no less. (No, really.)
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby Boxer6 » Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:30 am

Lucky Poet wrote: <snip>
They pop up now and again, these things, and the Council keeps taking them down, claiming that they're a Health & Safety risk, no less. (No, really.)


Well, of course they are - if the navvies wrapped them round their necks in this weather, they'd overheat and die in no time!

Probably. ;)
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby Lucky Poet » Wed Aug 14, 2013 8:28 pm

I've been meaning for ages to go up Hillend, at the eastern end of the Pentlands, and that cracking weather of a couple of weeks back was just the excuse. You wouldn't think there was a city behind your intrepid and knackered photographer, here:
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There being the city, somewhere in all that haze:
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Back down in there, Advocate's Close has quietly reopened, with some rather controversial additions to the roofline. I sort of almost like the way they look in the close itself. In any case, it's grand to have the close back:
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Elsewhere, a couple of random and not very festive Festival-ish shots, taken while dodging people handing out flyers and visitors stomping around looking for the next Fringe venue:
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby HollowHorn » Fri Aug 16, 2013 1:59 am

Lucky Poet wrote:
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Cracker. 8)
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby Lucky Poet » Mon Aug 26, 2013 6:43 pm

Thanks, man. Since then, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (© Radio 4 and other irritants) has been an ongoing concern. It's not without occasional bitterness:
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A strange thing happened last night, its last official night. At the stroke of about ten past nine or so, the Fringe wrapped up, the welcome banners snapped up like that scene in Blazing Saddles, and wearying of their noisy rude presence, nature herself rolled in the haar:
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Some stragglers remained, looking lost. So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, beat it:
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A right cheerful and welcoming city, Edinburgh :D
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby Sharon » Mon Aug 26, 2013 6:52 pm

Ah, such a lvely fog :)

Cracking photos, they dont half mke a mess of the city during festival time! Are these from your new camera?
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby Lucky Poet » Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:10 pm

There's never enough fog - I love photographing in it :)

It is indeed the new camera... steep learning curve ahead.
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby cumbo » Mon Aug 26, 2013 11:23 pm

Stunning set there LP . I always enjoy your Edinburgh Photos,sit down with a cup of tea and breath them in. The black and white Auld Reekie shots have a real end of the festival, show over vibe.
Looking at the planning book pages takes me back to a plan that EDC had in the 70's to put in a walkway above the pavement on Princes Street linking shops through the first floor windows to cut congestion. That's one thing that Edinburgh has over Glasgow,they have a planning department that is sympathetic to the City.
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby The Egg Man » Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:32 am

Of course, if Embra' had shops on both sides of the street, congestion could be halved.
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby Lucky Poet » Wed Aug 28, 2013 11:16 pm

Way kind of you, Cumbo. Cheers :D

As for congestion on Princes Street, I do my part by rarely going near it. Overly busy and pish, apart from the views.

A slight aside, before they even finished Princes Street, David Hume himself was one of a group of early residents who took the Town Council to court for allowing buildings on the south side of the street, ending up some time later with it being (mostly) preserved as an open view.
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby Lucky Poet » Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:57 pm

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Doors Open Days this weekend, 28th & 29th of September.

Come see the lovely architecture and enjoy the famous local hospitality.

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Re: Edinburgh

Postby Lucky Poet » Sun Oct 20, 2013 11:40 am

Not actually part of Doors Open this year, I happened to see some photos on Flickr from a few years back of the interior of an old church now called the Mansfield Traquair Centre, just off the foot of Broughton Street. I've passed the place any number of times, but never imagined it was anything remarkable. Well, it turns out it is. It also turns out it's open to visitors on the second Sunday of each month (usually).

Built for the short-lived, slightly odd and now extinct Catholic Apostolic Church, the structure itself is a bonny enough thing, being a monumental sandstone affair by Robert Rowand Anderson (also responsible for the Central Station Hotel as it happens), but the murals by Phoebe Anna Traquair are quite something, colourful in the extreme and covering almost every square foot of the interior. It's fairly obvious that the congregation included some very wealthy individuals. The results are possibly the closest we'll see to the way cathedrals used to look before the Refomation stripped them of their decoration. The building was saved from accelerating deterioration in the nick of time in the late 1990s, and subject to some intensive restoration work, lasting years and costing a fortune but with marvellous results.

The chancel arch is the principal feature, I suppose, and it certainly grabs your attention as you enter:
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Though looking back to the western wall, there's an even larger and almost bizarrely jubilant affair:
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Subtle it ain't. The overall effect is beautiful though, as the decoration is carried on through the whole place:
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In parts where the painting is seen at closer range, there's some far more delicate work:
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This being my favourite, I think. Very Arts & Crafts:
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It only housed the Catholic Apostolic Church till 1958, as the organisation gradually disappeared (partly owing to the fact that they stopped ordinating priests in 1901, for reasons best known to themselves). Here be links:
>RCAHMS<
http://www.mansfieldtraquair.org.uk

As a footnote, there used to be one of their churches in Glasgow, in McAslin Street, possibly build by Pugin but demolished c.1970.
>RCAHMS
>Map<
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby rabmania » Sun Oct 20, 2013 1:21 pm

Terrific LP!
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby HollowHorn » Sun Oct 20, 2013 6:36 pm

Agreed.
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Re: Edinburgh

Postby Lucky Poet » Sat Nov 23, 2013 11:25 am

It's well worth a look if you're in the neighbourhood at the right time.

Not very far up the road, Regent Bridge (or Regent Arch if you feel like it) was built from 1815 to 1819, designed by Archibald Elliott with engineering guidance by Robert Stevenson (of lighthouse and Robert-Loui's-Grandad fame), carrying Waterloo place over the gully between Princes Street and Calton Hill as what's still the northern end of the A1. From above it's another of those bridges that looks like a street that the old Edinburgh improvers were so fond of; from below it's a massive 50 foot wide tunnel, pretty much. Quite a feat of engineering, really. I was only there to try to photograph the groovy Autumn sunlight and shadows though:

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Elsewhere, and below another bridge (George IV, by the Central Library), a spurned lover on the Cowgate? Or maybe somebody carrying a torch for Carnegie libraries? We'll never know:

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