4 NEWS
Writer Diarmid Mogg delves into Edinburgh’s tenement life
Southside secrets
Criticism over licensing approval
By STEPHEN RAFFERTYTHE UPS AND downs of traditional tenement
life in Edinburgh is proving a huge social
media hit thanks to the research of writer
Diarmid Mogg.
Diarmid chronicles the colourful lives of
past residents of the city’s tenement buildings,
scouring newspaper articles and public records
archives to build up a picture of bygone days.
A Parliamentary Reporter at the Scottish
Parliament by day, Diarmid became curious
about the once grand tenement buildings that
he often passes when walking to his home in
the southside.
His threads on Twitter have proved hugely
popular and he now receives requests from
people eager to find out about events at specific
addresses which have childhood or family links.OLD AND NEGLECTED
Diarmid said: “Quite a lot of tenement
buildings look a bit neglected but some are over
200 years old and have been home to countless
people and families. There was one particular
door which was horribly bashed and covered in
graffiti, but it must have been a nice tenement
when it was built and it caught my eye.
“I took a picture of the door and started
doing some research, looking for the address in
the newspaper archives, and a few stories
instantly popped up, so I pulled them
altogether and put them on Twitter.
“You can get hundreds of results, most of
which are irrelevant or not very interesting, but
once you cut through all the chaff it’s like
panning for gold and you find little nuggets.”
An alarming number of Southside residents
appeared to have fallen out of windows,
causing severe injury or death, as was the case
at 59 Causewayside, one of a row of six
tenements built in the mid-19th century.
In 1945, George Dickinson was celebrating
the end of the war and had enjoyed a great deal
to drink when visiting his niece Janet Buckle,
he “fell to his death from a rear window just
after midnight on VJ Day”.
Diarmid said: “It sometimes seems like
falling out of windows was some sort of
Edinburgh tradition, like spitting on the Heart
of Midlothian.”
Another resident at number 59 was policeconstable Lewis Dallas, who died in his flat
aged only 39 from tuberculosis, but his 17 years
on the force ensured that the city police band
and pipers, along with 260 officers in full
uniform, walked four abreast as they
accompanied his funeral cortege to the
Grange Cemetery.
At 24 South Clerk Street, Diarmid tells the
story of grocer George Grieve who had a shop
on the ground floor and founded and ran a
friendly society for 54 years which had around
2,000 working class members investing any
pennies and shillings they could spare
each week.
When George developed senile dementia it
became apparent that for about 20 years he had
been fiddling the society’s books and the
savings fund was several thousand poundsshort. He was forced to sell his shop, stock and
furniture to repay the stolen money and
“moved to a flat in Morningside, where he lay in
bed for the next four years, until an infection in
his congested lungs killed him at the age of 75”.
Diarmid added: “Some of the tenements are
a bit tired looking now but they have got a
really interesting history from the generations
of people who lived there, and there is a big
contrast between these great domestic histories
and the shabbiness of the streets now.
If anything comes out of this, I’d really like
people to take a bit more care of the buildings
they live in and that they walk past, and stop
doing graffiti on them.”You can find more tenement stories on http://www.
tenementtown.com or Twitter @diarmidmoggBy OLIVIA THOMASSCOTTISH CONSERVATIVE Party Leader
Douglas Ross insists it would be
“inexcusable” if the coalition of SNP and
Greens refused to divert the funding of
£20 million set aside for the
independence referendum towards other
overstretched budgets.
Mr Ross says there is “absolutely no
justification” not to use this money to
support public services or tackle the
cost-of-living crisis.
Research from the Scottish
Conservatives has highlighted that the
money would fund more than 1,000 new
nurses, more than 650 police constables
or around 600 teachers for a year.STRIKING THE BALANCE
The money could also be used to help
prevent crippling public-sector strikes in
Scotland. Mr Ross said: “It was utterly
shameful that Nicola Sturgeon and her
government ever set aside this amount
of money to pursue their number one
obsession of breaking up the UK.
Nicola Sturgeon responded to the
Supreme Court verdict as SNP leader
rather than as First Minister. Why should
taxpayers be footing the bill for her
party-political campaigning when she
could not be bothered to answer
questions in Parliament?
“With the unequivocal ruling, there will
be no referendum next year. So there is
absolutely no justification for them failing
to reallocate every penny of their
referendum fund.
“This is millions of pounds’ worth of
funding that could support families and
businesses through the global cost-of-
living crisis or help our NHS through a
winter storm. It would be inexcusable if
Nationalist ministers refused to divert
money towards frontline services or those
who need it most. We constantly hear
ministers moaning about a lack of funds
for Scotland’s public services, but they
have always protected their referendum
slush fund.
“Ministers could also avoid crippling
strike action, which will cause disruption
for millions and be deeply damaging for
the economy, if they put this sum towards
pay deals.
“These are the issues Scots want the
SNP-Green government to be focused on
tackling. Enough is enough. A majority of
Scots do not want this referendum and
there is no legal basis for it.”Ross: say no to
indy spending
Diarmid MoggBY DONALD TURVILL
Local Democracy ReporterCLLR CHAS BOOTH criticised a
decision to “rubber stamp” alcohol
licences for two new bars in St
James Quarter, saying it makes
“a complete mockery” of the
council’s policy on over-provision
of alcohol in the city centre.
He argued that licences for acocktail bar and interactive football
experience about to open should
have been refused by the council
due to the impact of “excessive
availability of alcohol” on local
residents.The licensing board
approved the two applications
after a visit by councillors.
Cllr Cathy Fullerton said the
recent site visit was worthwhile and
added plans to open a ‘Botanist’premium bar are “very exciting”.
Cllr Booth said: ““We know that
excessive availability of alcohol has
a negative impact on public health;
can make the lives of local residents
a misery and often fuels crime and
disorder. If board members
continue to simply rubber-stamp
every new liquor application in this
area, then the policy clearly isn’t
worth the paper it’s written on.”Cllr Chas BoothEllen Jackson