Your Memories: Community spirit showed

'APPARENTLY my sister was told to wait in the street. Someone eventually came out and told her she had a new brother."

James Lawless, 77, was born in his family home at 5 West Adam Street, just off the Pleasance.

Years later, his parents moved the family to Prestonfield, only to return 18 months later, deciding their hearts lay in the street.

"When they returned though, number five had been demolished," says Mr Lawless, who now lives in Davidson's Mains. "So they moved into another house and I lived there until I was 19."

He recalls a tight community spirit in the area, with families living side by side in small flats, sharing communal toilets and making the most of the endless independent shops that were packed into the neighbourhood.

Recalling them without hesitation, Mr Lawless remembers the St Cuthbert's, Adam Ogilvie and Willie Cunningham butchers; the Co-op and Dishington bakers; as well as Tony Romano's chip shop, to name only a few.

There was also a busy sweet shop packed with mouth-watering treats, a general store and McVey's the paper shop.

"I also remember a cobbler run by a man called Danny Mullen," he says. "He was disabled and he ran this shop, repairing shoes."

During war-time rationing, Mr Lawless would be sent by his family to the many shops to collect provisions, including small amounts of sugar, butter, bread, cheese and bacon they would use creatively to feed themselves for a week. "I was the message boy," he laughs.

Back at home, his flat was small but managed to house nine members of his family at one time, containing a kitchen with a bed recess, as well as a "big room" with a double bed where he would sit for hours listening to the radio and enjoying the open fire – it was the only room that was heated.

For many years he shared a room with his parents, eventually getting his own space when one of his older brothers moved away to join the forces.

Like the many friends he played with in his street, Mr Lawless was a pupil at St Patrick's School, before moving on to James Clark's, leaving aged 15 to eventually become an electrician.

Along with his friends, from the aged of seven to 12, he was a regular at the New Palace cinema, which was opposite John Knox House on the High Street.