Harking back to days when city welcomed cars

Thankfully, there are stacks of reference books, and now videos and DVDs, available detailing its changing look. I've been a fan of Malcolm Cant's books on Edinburgh for a few years now since I picked up my first copy of his journal documenting the history of Marchmont and Warrender. I bought it when I was living there, in the hope of catching a glimpse of my then flat's window decades previously, but sadly the top flat at 13 Marchmont Crescent didn't feature in any of the shots in the book.

I was up town earlier this week and noticed his latest book on the shelves. This time, having exhausted most of the best-known parts of Edinburgh, he has put together a fascinating journal of our city's shops, past and present. And there are a fair few blasts from the past in there to mull over!

There are loads of great pictures, some dating back more than 100 years, including adverts and posters from days gone by. The front cover is a 1953 shot of a queue of about 50 women standing outside Binns with every single one of them wearing the classic "old lady" big coat. At first I thought they were all hanging about waiting for their hot dates to arrive, but upon closer inspection it turns out they are all bargain hunters waiting for the first day of the sale to start.

Smaller shops in Gorgie, Leith, Portobello and Morningside also feature and although most of the buildings remain, the businesses and names have long since changed. You find yourself looking at the buildings and figuring out its exact location and what it is now.

A store which I used to go to when I was at school was Horberry's Store on Warrender Park Road. Until I read this book, I didn't know that the store, now Margiotta's, had been Horberry's since the turn of the century.

One of my favourite sections shows the arrival, and demolition, of Goldbergs in Tollcross. For me, if there is any store which instantly takes me back to my childhood, then Goldbergs is it. It really must have been a very trendy and modern addition to shopping in Edinburgh back then with its high fashion and low prices. There's even a small poster accompanying the pictures, detailing its opening hours and the store's closure on Saturdays due to the owner's Jewish faith, which would be unthinkable nowadays. When it first opened in 1960 it was certainly ahead of its time, advertising "parking spaces for 60 cars". Haud me back!

ANOTHER childhood haunt which is featured is Patrick Thomson's store on the North Bridge. Well, when I say, childhood haunt, I mean it was another store I was regularly dragged round by my Mum and Nana on a weekly basis. PT's was another massive department store which stood for years until it was closed and turned into the Carlton Highland Hotel.

It's quite fascinating looking at city life for our shoppers years ago, when everything was obviously black and white and hassle free. I say hassle free because when I discovered this book, I was in George Street stressed and frustrated.

If you ever think about nipping into town for a couple of bits and bobs these days, then you really should forget it. Roadworks, road closures and new dead ends mean getting from one part of town to the next involves a journey of maze-like proportions.

It's the people trying to run businesses I feel sorry for. How are they meant to attract people to come and shop, when you need to encounter obstacles James Bond would struggle with?

No doubt about it, compared to years ago, going to the shops in the capital city these days is a very different experience. I just wonder what it's going to be like in the future.

Perhaps 100 years from now, people will be buying books of Edinburgh in 2005, looking back to when vehicles were allowed in the centre of the city and find the whole idea rather quaint and amusing.

I only hope that the idea of having shops up town isn't thought to be quaint and amusing as well.