'One of my favourite memories is the day I went to an air display'

Published on Saturday 29 September 2007 12:38

A SAFE and peaceful city is how pensioner John Sinclair remembers Edinburgh during his school days in the 1920s and 30s.

The 82-year-old, of Comely Bank, Edinburgh, went to St James School on Broughton Street where there were just three teachers.

Classrooms were also different to those that children would recognise today, with large class sizes not causing quite as much of a stir as they would now.

"My teacher Miss Crombie had four groups of primary children in one large classroom," John explains.

"And the playground was underneath the school and looked out on to Broughton Place Lane. The building is still there today."

Beyond the classroom, John was a huge fan of cinema and there was nothing he loved more than a trip to the New Victoria picture house at Surgeons' Hall.

"The first time I went was when my father took me just after it opened in 1930, when I was five," recalls John.

"The film was a hilarious comedy called The Ghost Train. We all loved it and I was rolling in the aisles with rest of the audience. The theatre was wonderful with its lit statues and private boxes."

John also remembers the Capital as a great place for outdoor entertainment.

"One of my favourite memories is of the day I went to Cramond to see an air display by Sir Alan Cobham's Flying Circus," he says. "It was spectacular to watch."

Another favourite sight for John was that of the airship sailing its lucky few passengers on a journey through the Capital's clouds.

"It was built at East Fortune near East Linton and it was great to see it flying over the North Bridge," reflects John.

It's clear that thrills were never far away for the young John Sinclair. He went on to become an aircrew engineer with the Halifax bombers during the Second World War and then an Edinburgh police officer.

And under North Bridge, the visiting carnival at Waverley Market provided the biggest thrills of all.

"The side shows held roundabouts, freak-shows and motorcyclists riding furiously round the wall of death," recalls John.

"You would stand on the rail above the action and look down into the pit where the men were risking their lives."