Yesterday

Infirmary Street Baths photographed from the balcony on a quiet morning. Constructed in the years between 1885-87 in response to a cholera outbreak, it closed in 1995.

Waverley Cameron and their enamelled signs advertising pens. There was also a metal merchant nearby who sold nuts, bolts, screws and sheet metal.

A closer look at the signs that used to be half way down the steep hill (on the right).

The view east from the bottom of Blair Street, below South Bridge. Underneath the arches is the entrance to the Gilded Balloon. Everything burned in the big fire on December 7, 2002.

The view from South Bridge (visible on the left of the above picture) as it was in March 2008. On a wall, in huge letters, is the text 'THIS IS REALLY CLEVER'.

The hospital relocated to Little France and this site became Quartermile housing. In May 2003 I photographed this little outbuilding shrouded in ivy. It was near the 23 bus stop in Lauriston Place, not far from the top of Middle Meadow Walk.

As far as I can remember I took this photo in 1979. It's from the bottom of Drummond Street with the old Flodden Wall on the left.

The St Leonard's area photographed from the Radical Road on Arthur's Seat in the days before the smoke ban.

Photographed on Infrared film using a 24mm wide angle lens.

This area now seems to be occupied by The Crags Community Sports Centre. 2017: It's now a bike park.

That giant car park is now Festival Square and the adjacent financial district.

At the corner of Montpelier Park and Merchiston Place was Boroughmuirhead Post Office. This has been relocated to smaller, less grand premises nearer Viewforth. Ferrari and Bruntsfield Kitchen both failed here as restaurants. Boroughmuirhead is not just the name of the Post Office; this used to be an ancient forest where royalty went hunting.

Sadly another (eventual) failure at Bruntsfield was Peckham's delicatessen which replaced Nastiuk's similar shop. Despite local opposition it's now a small Sainsbury's.

Morningside's Waitrose store underwent an identity crisis before it was established. Previously it was Safeway then briefly Morrisons then Somerfield before it became Waitrose.

Tesco built a small carpark behind this wall for their Metro store at Holy Corner at Bruntsfield. The Georgian villa, formerly Mulhearn & Brotchie's garden centre, became a coffee shop and a hairdresser.

The garden centre is closed but Tesco hasn't yet appeared at Holy Corner.

Later to become Tesco's small. overcrowded carpark off Merchiston Avenue. This view of the church won't be seen again unless the Tesco building is flattened.

The Plaza Ballroom at Morningside was long gone when I snapped this sign.

This area now has new canalside homes. To the right of the church building are the tenement flats at St Peter's Place (part of Viewforth).

This view from February 2004 shows the dreary view towards the Viewforth Bridge.

Brown of The Mound. The old stationers closing down. Now it's a drinking establishment called The Carwash.

The Castle Trades Hotel was a hostel for 'down-and-outs' in the Grassmarket.

Castle Wynd South has been rebuilt and looks nothing like this any more. It connects The Grassmarket to Johnston Terrace, now renamed to Patrick Geddes Steps.

This picture from the '70s shows my children looking at the overgrown wilderness before these houses were built.

Looking back the opposite way from the overgrown area near the footbridge.

At the foot of The Mound, near Princes Street. The Rev A B Cameron also used to play the bagpipes - but not particularly well.

As mission statements go, this isn't too bad, though the pace of 'coming alive' since the demise of the brewery and rubber mill is slower than many people expected.

1884 EDINBURGH MEAT MARKET is proudly emblazoned on this building at the corner of Semple Street and Fountainbridge. In recent years it's been a nightclub and a restaurant. In the former, patrons visited to meet the meat; in the latter, patrons ate the meat at Fat Sam's. The building behind is Scottish Widows Headquarters.

This is how the end of the Union Canal looked on 29th May 2001.

5th July 2002 and this section of the canal has no water. This was shortly after a major leak at 4.30am on Sunday 23rd June 2002. This photo is of the same corner at the end of the canal as in the previous photo but from near the rusty hut.

The view looking towards Leamington Lift Bridge.

The same view but zoomed in.

Photographed in February 2004 from the Leamington Lift Bridge.

From the canal bridge at Viewforth prior to demoltion

The view from Viewforth bridge in 2005. The brewery building is still standing and there are no new canalside houses yet.

Union Canal just west of Viewforth looking towards the bridge connecting Yeaman Place to Polwarth Crescent. The houses at Dorset Place have yet to be built. There are still factory type buildings along on the left.

A similar view from July 2005. Looking west from the bridge at Viewforth.

This is the view that used to greet drivers coming onto Fountainbridge from Ponton Street near Tollcross back in 2002.

October 2005 and little has changed in the 3 years since the previous photo.

The Palais building still remains in January 2013. To its right the new building now accommodates the Cargo restaurant. The Union Canal used to continue across Fountainbridge to Port Hamilton and Port Hopetoun which occupied the entire city block bounded by Lothian Road, Semple Street and Morrison Street.

The former Palais de Danse was a bingo hall for a few years. There used to be a snooker hall next door in the space now occupied by the framework of a new multi-storey building overlooking the Union Canal's Lochrin Basin.

Brewery demoltion under way.

The view east along Fountainbridge from 2003. The bridge across the road and the buildings beyond it are all gone. This long-lens view makes the U-shaped Scottish Widows Headquarters and Edinburgh Castle seem closer than normal.

Number 194 Fountainbridge as it was in 2005.

An early view of Picardy Place (continuation of York Place) looking down Leith Walk. You will notice that the site of the Omni Leisure Centre is a grassy slope. The twisted scaffolding was supposed to light up coloured fluorescent tubes influenced by wind. It was a flop and it finally died forever when struck by a thrown beercan.

The grassy slope referred to above had this car park at its foot. Calton Hill is to the right.

Same standpoint but with the camera panned to the right to show Calton Hill.

As far as I can remember, this bus stop was in Leith Street near the top of Nottingham Place, and I took the picture from the footbridge from the St James Centre.

The carpark area (3 pictures up) finally got built on.

1970s haircuts with Hendrix perms a-plenty on an opentop double decker bus in Princes Street.

At the foot of Leith Walk. Google Earth's view today reveals that the only major difference is that trees have grown up along the arches.

The Buttercup Dairy Company in or near Manderston Street. Not a particularly stunning photograph - only really here for historical interest.

Lisa Johnson from New Zealand told me this was in Henderson St. In the back left is No 89 Henderson St where her gran and grandad lived. Alan Mackay tells me 'it was directly opposite Tollbooth Wynd around the corner from the old 'Brew' and Lamb's House. It was a community project in the mid to late '70s. I remember it well and have a friend who used to work on the playground.'

A remarkably quiet scene from the '70s.

Thanks to Mark Parker for identifying this as near the junction of Easter Road and Thorntree Street.

I can't date this picture (maybe October 1999) but it shows the building with nature taking over with trees on the fire escape.

A more recent image from May 2012. I included it because the portrait mural is no longer there.

This site in Morrison Street has now been built on.

My daughter and son stand at the corner of North Bridge and High Street. The Tron Kirk looks the same today but the menswear shop at the corner of Blair Street is currently a Starbucks coffee shop. The crossing was resurfaced with granite setts imported from China.

Another image from the late '70s or start of the '80s. From The Edinburgh Gig Archive "McGoos, formerly the Palace Picture House, was THE mod hangout in mid sixties Edinburgh, located at 18-20 High Street, opposite John Knox's house.

This road only existed for a short period (for carpark access) while new council buildings were being built at the corner of New Street and East Market Street. The building straight ahead was demolished to become 'Caltongate'.

Digging the foundations for the swanky new council offices at the corner of New Street and East Market Street.

The view in the opposite direction along the temporary road shown 2 pictures up. North Bridge is in the distance.

A graffiti artist with a sense of humour drew a TV screen around this square hole in the fence. I composed my picture to show the old Royal High School through the 'screen'.

Not exactly My Beautiful Launderette, this stood in the Niddrie Mains area.

Also from Niddrie. Empty buildings stood for a long period and someone stencilled TOLERANCE on this one. Arthur's Seat is in the background.

Mr Singh's optimism about the Fire Sale was unfounded; it never happened. But at least the building was used to display paintings by local artists. New, affordable homes built nearby had the name 'Parc' given to them. An occupant noted that this was 'Crap' spelt backwards...

This is how Causewayside looked through a wide angle lens when the National Map Library Of Scotland was still a hole in the ground. Photographed in the mid '80s.

The previous photo was from the front of my flat at Causewayside; this is from the rear. It shows Blackford Hill and the Pentlands as well as Millar's factory, best known for Pan Drops, a peppermint sweet.

The former Dick Veterinary College is on the left, Sciennes is on the right. New houses have been built since Bertram's Foundry closed some years ago.

The boxy, concrete buildings on the left are at the corner of West Adam Street and Roxburgh Place. Roxburgh Street runs across the picture - houses have been built on the empty space to the left of the fire escape stairs. The buildings in the foreground have mostly been demolished. The street there is now New Arthur Place. At the left edge of the picture (next to the car) is a shop at 61 Pleasance currently occupied by Laurence Smith & Son. To its right, on the empty corner, the Salavation Army now has a building on the corner of East Adam Street.

The shop referred to above is on the bottom right of this picture (61 Pleasance). On the east side of The Pleasance the car park is now occupied by New Arthur Street and Briery Bauks. The boxy, concrete buildings in the centre of the picture are at the corner of West Adam Street and Roxburgh Place.

Long before Edinburgh Royal Infirmary moved here I took this long exposure of traffic on Old Dalkeith Road. Behind the grassy bank on the right was the farm alluded to in the next picture.

I lived in nearby Moredun when I took this photo. The pub was named the Jolly Farmer presumably because there was actually a farm there before the Upper Craigour houses were built.

I lived here at the end of the '60s until 1972. The 3 blocks of flats at Gracemount have since been demolished.

The entrance to Portobello's fun fair, not far from the power station and swimming pool.

If, like me, you spent some part of your youth at Portobello open-air Swimming Pool across the road from this edifice, then you'll remember the red-brick chimney looming over you. Clouds drifting past made it seem to be falling over.

There are houses on this site now, of course. It's a pity they didn't make this a listed building. It might have made a good industrial museum.

It's a while since the exit ramp from Waverley Station was this quiet.

Wikipedia tells me that Supertramp's Breakfast in America was released in 1979, thus enabling me to date this picture.

Robert Cresser's Brush Shop is fondly remembered, so no apologies for posting 3 pictures of the shop in Victoria Street.

A wider view showing more of the location.

It's always sad to see local artisans disappear.

For many years the gasworks at Granton was a local landmark visible to airline pilots landing at Edinburgh Airport. Now there's only a shell of a single gasometer.

These 3 blocks of flats have been demolished, as have the gasometers over at Granton.

Ingliston King Kong

Ingliston King Kong taken in '75 or '76.

In 1969 when I took this photo of St Leonard's there were no trees.

The same view in 2013, firstly in infrared (next picture is normal colour).

The same view as the previous 2 photos in normal colour.