Today's "as seen on an auction house site" picture is the handsome steam & sail ship SS Windsor out of Leith off of Flushing. She carries the house flag of George Gibson & Co. who were a big name in Leith shipping, principally serving the Low Countries trade ImageImage
Here's a rather nice service brochure from Gibsons in the 1960s. They continued a bulk liquids service from the Forth until the 1970s
I am here for this sort of graphic design (source = scran.ac.uk/database/image…) Image
Gibson-Rankine line combined the commercial shipping interests of Gibsons and Christian Salvesen in the Forth (Leith and Grangemouth), Rankines of Glasgow and Nicolls of Dundee. The Gibsons house flag is on the left, Rankines on the right (with Gibsons legend) Image
Nicoll's house flag was defaced with N.D. (for Nicoll, Dundee) Image
Christian Salvesen and its subsidiary The South Georgia Co. Ltd. used a house flag that many with longer memories of Leith might recall, with the flag of Salvesen's country of birth in the middle. Image
Christian Salvesen, who were mainly a whaling company, are the reason there's a Leith on South Georgia, it being the largest whaling station of those islands. Image
The *other* Leith is a long-abandoned, rusting industrial relic. Image
Salvesen's ships had a Norwegian inspired funnel colour. This one is "Southern Actor", a post-war whaler that is now a museum ship in Sandefjord, Norway. It is the only functional steam whaler in existence. Image
Whale catchers were little ships. Salvesen's whaling factory ships were anything but, the "Southern Venturer" was a 15,000 tonne vessel complete with a helicopter. We can now look back on this with the horror it deserves, but this was big business in the 1950s Image
Salvesens got out of the whaling business in 1963 and sold their assetts to Japanese firms. Leith Harbour in South Georgia was abandoned by 1965. flickr.com/photos/ericy20…
It was ever-diminishing returns that had caused the extreme modernisation and industrialisation of the Salvesen fleet into the 1950s. As whale populations were decimated, they had to hunt further and further from the island base, for more of the year.
Salvesens reinvented themselves as a distribution and storage company based in Leith and Edinburgh after they abandoned whaling and then commercial shipping. I can clearly recall their lorries around town when I was younger. flickr.com/photos/8873852…
Salvesens left their Leith headquarters on Bernard Street in the 1990s at some point (not sure when exactly), they left their flagpoles behind. This building also co-housed the Norwegian Consulate at one point too. Image
Salvesens are gone from Edinburgh and Leith now, but left a few reminders. Like the Penguins of Edinburgh Zoo who were first brought back from South Georgia by Salvesen's ships (in 1913 I think). Image
The Salvesen family lost a number of sons and nephews in WW1 and after the war built a small "Veterans Garden City" estate in Trinity for injured ex-servicemen. (Earl Haig Gardens. No comment on the name) Image
Plaques over the doors of some of the cottages commemorate the lost Salvesens and relatives of some of the other benefactors. ImageImageImage
After WW2, the Salvesens again financed the construction of ex-servicemens housing, this time in Muirhouse. Salvesen Gardens is a pleasant little housing scheme, again along Garden City sorts of lines. Again if you stroll around you will find commemorative plaques by most doors. ImageImageImage
And Salvesen Crescent, for ex-Lighthouse keepers. This is really one of *the* most charming little bits of social housing Edinburgh has to offer. Small but perfectly formed and with a style that evoques the NLB's housing style. ImageImage
(my Great Uncle lives down here and they really are lovely houses and a lovely little community, with really nice gardens)

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More from @cocteautriplets

May 11
The derailment by strikers of the Flying Scotsman on May 10th 1926 has meant a much more serious and fatal rail accident in Edinburgh later that same day which claimed 3 lives and injured many has been somewhat overlooked 🧵👇🚂
The 1:06PM train from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Edinburgh hit a goods train being shunted across its path at St. Margaret's Depot just west of the tunnel under London Road. Due to the General Strike, most signal boxes were unmanned and only a rudimentary signalling system was running
The busy but confined St. Margaret's depot was on both sides of the LNER East Coast Mainline as it approached Edinburgh, with Piershill Junction for Leith and north Edinburgh to its east and the 60 yard tunnel under London Road constraining it to the west. OS 1944/5 Town Survey of Edinburgh showing the mainline running through St. Margaret's Depot. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
Read 26 tweets
Apr 30
It's been hard to find time recently for any in-depth threading, but I think tonight we can sneak in the story of the lesser-known Leith shipyard of Ramage & Ferguson, builders of luxury steam mega-yachts to the Victorian and Edwardian elites. ⛵️🧵👇 The modelmakers loft at Ramage & Ferguson, 1906. © Edinburgh City Libraries
In its working life from 1877 to 1934, the Ramage & Ferguson yard built 269 ships: 80, almost 1/3 of the total, were luxury steam yachts, built mainly to the designs of the 3 most prominent yacht designers in the world. It became the go-to shipyard for the rich and famous Image
When I say yachts, don't think about those little plastic things bobbing around in marinas these days. We're talking about multi-hundred (up to two thousand!) ton wooden and steel palaces, fitted out to the standards of ocean liners Launch of a yacht for an American customer at Ramage & Ferguson, late 1890s or early 20th century.
Read 56 tweets
Apr 7
As promised / threatened, there now follows a thread about the origins and abolition of the Tawse as the instrument of discipline in Scottish teaching. So lets start off with the Tawse - what is it and how did it evolve? 🧵👇
"Tawis" or "tawes" is a Scots word going back to c. 16th c., a plural of a leather belt or strap. In turn this came from the Middle English "tawe", leather tanned so as to keep it supple. Such devices were long the favoured instrument of corporal punishment in Scottish education "The Dominie Functions",  George Harvey (1806–1876). © The Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum via ArtUK
In 1848, George Mckarsie sued Archibald Dickson, schoolmaster of Auchtermuchty, for assaulting his son without provocation with a tawse "severely on the head, face and arms to the effusion of his blood". He was awarded a shilling but had to pay all expenses!
Read 67 tweets
Jan 24
This pub has been in the news for the wrong reasons recently, but despite appearances it's a very important pub; a surviving example of only a handful of such interwar hostelries built in #Edinburgh - the Roadhouse. And these 9 pubs have a story to tell. Shall we unravel it?🧵👇 The Anchor Inn, West Granton Road.
The short version of the Roadhouse story is thus: a blend of 1930s architecture and glamour used by the licensed trade to attract a new generation of sophisticated, Holywood-inspired, car-driving drinkers. That's partly true, but not the full story here 1934 Dunlop Tyres advert showing cars arriving at an Art Deco Roadhouse. © Illustrated London News
To understand how Edinburgh got its roadhouses we have to go back to 1913 when the Temperance movement was at the peak of its power and the Temperance (Scotland) Act was passed. This was also known as the Local Veto Act as it allowed localities to force referendums on going "dry" British Women's Temperance Association banner of the, Scottish Christian Union. 1900. © Edinburgh City Libraries
Read 64 tweets
Jan 18
In 1839, Dr. Thomas Smith of 21 Duke (now Dublin) Street in #Edinburgh tried on himself a purified extract of "Indian Hemp" - Cannabis sativa. He "gave an interesting account of its physiological action!". He was most probably the first person in Scotland to get high. Dr Thomas Smith of T. & H. Smith. 1807-1893
The medicinal and psychoactive properties of "Indian Hemp" had only just been introduced to Western medicine that year by Irish doctor William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, so it's unlikely anyone had done so before.
Cannabis seeds were advertised for sale in Edinburgh in the Caledonian Mercury as far back as 1761 (apply to the Gardener at Hermitage House in Leith), but these probably refer to Hemp: Cannabis sativa. 🌱
Read 30 tweets
Dec 29, 2023
Between 1950 and 1973, #Edinburgh built 77 municipal, multi-storey housing blocks (of 7 storeys or more), containing 6,084 flats across 968 storeys. So as promised, I've gone and made a spreadsheet inventory of them all. Let's have a look at them chronologically 🧵👇 Screenshot - spreadsheet of Edinburgh's multi-storey municipal housing blocks.
1950-51 saw the first such building - the 8 storey Westfield Court with 88 flats (and a nursery on the roof!) Built by local builders Hepburn Bros, it was heavily inspired by London's Kensal House by Maxwell Fry. It was a bit of a 1-off though and is rather unique in the city. Westfield Court
There then followed a series of experimental mid-rise blocks, variations on a theme, as a rather conservative local administration (headed by the Progressive Party) tried to work out what it wanted to do regards high-rise housing post-war.
Read 45 tweets

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