A wee #nowandthen animated gif to start the day
Where are we this morning? Well, it's now just an extension of George IV Bridge, but in 1912 it was a street in its own right known as Lindsay Place, in a now forgotten neighbourhood called Society 
Quick history. Society referred to the "Fellowship and Society of Ale and Beer Brewers of the Burgh" who were chartered in 1598 to have the supply monopoly for "good and sufficient ale" for the burgh, and granted land on this site to do it.
Water was supplied from the Burghloch (now drained as the Meadows), and pumped by a windmill, still marked by a number of rather unremarkable lanes around Appleton Tower. The Society only lasted about 20 years, although brewing in the neighbourhood lasted until the late 1960s
(The copper kettles of the Society were melted down in 1639 to be cast into artillery for the Army of the Covenant, as per a previous thread, the Scots produced curious lightweight copper cannon reinforced with iron hoops, rope and leather)
Lindsay Place was built up in the 1840s after the formation of George IV Bridge, before the wide Victorian boulevard of Chambers Street was driven through the Georgian Squares of Society. Stuart Harris suggests it was named for Thomas Lindsay, a shoemaker resident at the site.
By 1893, the Town Plan records the "Analytical Laboratory & School of Medicine" on the site, handy for the University medical school just down the road on Teviot Place
And if we zoom in on our 1912 photo from the National Gallery, we can see a sign corresponding to this
The Post Office directory also records it as the Headquarters of the Scottish General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps. R.A.M.C T.F. is the Royal Army Medical Corps Territorial Force, i.e. a military medical reserve force
The photo has all the usual fascinating details of an Edinburgh gone by. And as usual, the obligatory Paw Broon in bunnet makes an appearance. This time chatting outside the weel kent Edinburgh institutions that were James Thin's bookshops
Lawrie's Tobacco Store has a sale on. Tobacco and its advertising are *always* super prominent in old photos of Edinburgh neighbourhoods, usually the quantity of adverts is directly proportional to the level of squalor
Next door at David Allan's shop you can buy all the latest foodstuff brands like Van Houten's Cocoa, HP Sauce, Bovril, Splendo Margarine. Tea and chocolate usually occupy the no. 2 and 3 spots for adverts in these old photos.
At No. 7 is Donald Mackay's "Territorial Bar", one assumes taking its name from the military establishment above.
All dominated by chimneys and the usual ramshackle 17th/18th century tenements of the old town. Not sure that chimney extension would be passed by a HETAS certified installer...
But that's not what caught my eye about this photo or why I'm sharing it. This photo has something far more intriguing - and rare - lurking in it, whether by design or by happy accident.
Anyway, let's zoom in a bit. Can you see what it is yet?
How about now?
Let's highlight it a bit. Yes, that's right, someone's been up there on that parapet and daubed the building in Suffragette graffiti! The OSL (? Suffrage League) by the looks of it.
And why stop there? I assume they were cut off midway through the word "Suffrage", or ran out of paint.
Keep going! Looks like it was "Down with something", and perhaps the word "Movement" above OSL FOREVER
All the way to the end!
I've looked through hunners of photos of Edinburgh from this period, and this is the first time I've seen anything like this. Chalked graffiti, yes, but nothing on this scale, nothing this political and on a government building too. I do wonder if that's why it was photographed
If anyone can enlighten me as to who the OSL were, I'd be very grateful.
Unless, it's not OSL at all and it's OSLER, as in Catherine Osler?
Looking back, I now think what we've got is at least 2 layers of graffiti that may have been partially washed off and/or painted on top of eachother
Anyway, don't just take my word for it, go have a look at the original on the National Galleries site nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artist…
Another interpretation might be that "OSL Forever" either a reference to a Socialist League or perhaps less likely even just a gang name
Well *here's* something! I had a notion to check the ever wonderful @Scranlife and the graffiti was still clearly legible 40 years later!
@Scranlife There's another photo from the set that captures the adjacent building; nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artist…
@Scranlife "Hewat's Cash Store" still trades around the corner on Bristo Place as a specialist workwear shop
@Scranlife @oakroyd And check out all the jars of Hawick Balls, Berwick Cockles and Grannie Sookers available at W. A. Ruffell's
@Scranlife @oakroyd And looking the other way, @TalesOfOneCity also has a picture and again we can see the graffiti, this time in 1958 capitalcollections.org.uk/view-item?i=27…
@Scranlife @oakroyd @TalesOfOneCity No, it's not! Thanks to @angeallic for the reference to *William* Osler, who was a rector candidate for the University. So what it looks like now is there was a graffiti war between "Vote for Osler" and "Votes for Women", which would explain "Osler Forever" / "Down With Osler"
@Scranlife @oakroyd @TalesOfOneCity @angeallic And in comes @talkporty to clear things all up. Lindsay Place was the HQ for the Conservative candidate in the 1908 Edinburgh University rectorial election. Osler (an independent" was "not in favour of mixed classes... under existing conditions".
@Scranlife @oakroyd @TalesOfOneCity @angeallic @talkporty A "rectorial war" between the candidates' supporters took place, including daubing graffiti on the Conservative HQ, "Down with Wyndham. Osler forever". Wyndham was the Conservative candidate and won the election, (Winston) Churchill (Liberal) was 2nd, and Osler (Ind) 3rd.
@Scranlife @oakroyd @TalesOfOneCity @angeallic @talkporty So here's my final theory. The Conservative HQ is daubed with pro-Osler graffiti by Osler supporters. Osler's initials were WO. It gets washed off but is still legible. Someone takes the opportunity to challenge WO's views on coeducation by inserting a few extra letters
