Thread by @cocteautriplets

It's a measure of the contemporary importance of religion in mid-Victorian Edinburgh that the most prominent commercial advert in the annual post office directory, *the* place to be seen, is for a NEW PULPIT ROBE ESTABLISHMENT

"The subscribers have much pleasure in calling the special attention of LADIES and CONGREGATIONAL COMMITTEES to their Stock of
Pulpit Robes and Cassocks."

I'm assuming it was left to the Meenister's wife or kirk committee to procure his robes.

VERY EXCELLENTLY MADE

they can with the utmost confidence guarantee that the STYLE, FINISH and ELEGANCE of their Robes cannot be surpassed.

For the Meenister about town, the finest Royal Ottoman Silk Robes can be yours for just £11 11/-, or around £1,290 in current money

The PO Directory Advertiser is a fascinating insight into the upper and middle class slice of 1870s Edinburgh life. LOOK AT ALL THESE THINGS YOU CAN BUY!

You can buy Education from Dr Graham

You can find some place to "better" your daughters under the stewardship of a Lady Superintendent

There's somewhere to go for Cricket (and more curiously, Shinty) supplies

And if you're short of "Good MALE and FEMALE SERVANTS of all kinds", these can be had, just an enquiring letter away

Why not join the library with the "most liberal" terms in town?

Seems that using multiple exclamation marks to draw attention to one's self predates the internet by at least 120 years

"Never spoken here"

BEST TEETH at the following Prices

Mmmm, Pickled Tongues 😋

And of course, time stands still within the walls of Kay's

If you'd have told me there was an American Ice Cream parlour in 1870s Edinburgh, I would not have believed you

For the musically inclined, treat yourself to a set of bagpipes

The Royal Blind Asylum offered "brushes of every description" for sale, brush making and weaving being a craft particularly suited to the hands of the blind

A machine to supersede the Pen for Writing! 😮

WHIPMAKERS TO THE QUEEN

If you're a Victorian widow, you need to know where to go get your widow's cap.

100 years ago, Newhaven was already the place to go for upwards of 100 years for FISH DINNERS

Hats, hats, hats (thoroughly Rainproof!!!)

And here we have what might appear to be a 19th century version of a Twitter spat

BICYCLES. BICYCLES. BICYCLES.
Edinburgh's first bike shop I wonder?

TO NOBLEMEN, GENTLEMEN, AND THE PUBLIC GENERALLY.

Look at any old Town Plan of Edinburgh and you're always struck as to just how much of what is now the suburbs of the city was given over to commercial nurseries.

I like that last one in particular as it was particularly encouraging the use of the then new-fangled public transport innovation of the tram to visit the premises on the edge of the city

Brewing was one of the principal industries of Edinburgh since Georgian times, and it was secondly only to Burton-on-Trent in the empire. Brewing and distilling supported a copper industry and HENDERSON & RITCHIE'S WORT REFRIGERATOR

SANG's PATENT THROSTLE

The Edinburgh Western Tanning, Currying and Japanning Company (Limited) did a great Peel Session back in '98

Need to go to London? Why not travel by "Splendid Fast-Sailing Screw-Steamship"?

If you're planning a spot of colonising, be sure to visit William Calder for your Emigrant's Tent

The business of doing death right and with all due ceremony is, for the Victorians, big business

The Royal Gymnasium was Edinburgh's theme park and had all kinds of entertainments, some more bonkers than the other.

The Industrial schools occupied a space somewhere between reform schools and workhouses. In return for food, education, training and a healthy dose of scripture, orphaned or very poor children contributed to their upkeep by provision of labour. Chopping firewood was a speciality

The isn't just a shoe, this is a LECKIE'S FASHIONABLE shoe (for masons?)

Edinburgh was always at the forefront of medical science

Let's finish where we began. And while there were multiple pulpit robe makers, it seems the printers could only get their hands on one set of advertising illustrations