After all the rain and winds of the previous days it was nice to meet on a reasonably sunny day for a walk round Morningside. Twenty eight Strollers met at Holy Corner to be entertained by our guides Karen and Helen.
Named Holy Corner because of the
churches at each street corner, we heard about the ‘disruption’ of the Church
of Scotland in 1843 when 450 ministers left and formed the Free Church. The new
moderator of this church, Thomas Chalmers, was appointed in Tanfield Hall long
before SLAC moved there. We moved on to the small area of John Livingstone’s
Tomb and from there to the old stop for the trams at the end of Strathearn
Road, then took in St Bennet’s Church and the Archbishop’s house where Popes
have stayed on their visits to Scotland.
Moving on to Morningside House, sometime home to author Susan Ferrier, we viewed the flats where the Woodcroft telephone exchange once stood. Passing Thomas Chalmer’s house, where he held services until a church was built, we visited the Churchill Theatre, previously a church, with its sculptures outside depicting the local areas and working life. From there we headed to Cuddy Lane, beside the old Schoolhouse, so called as that’s where the horses and ponies were tied up when dropping the children off at school. On the way we passed the site of Falcon House, now flats, where the impressive gate posts were taken away and are now at the entrance to the zoo.
Some people also reminisced about their time at the Plaza dance hall as we made our way to the ‘Wild West’, passing the site of the Spring Valley cinema which then became the Silver Slipper nightclub. The Wild West was built as an advertising feature for a nineties furniture store. The western facades include a trading station, saloon, jail and a cantina (which is actually the fire door for Morningside Library.)
We finished our walk in the car park of
the Merlin where Smithy's and other small businesses used to be.
Our thanks to Karen and Helen for all
the interesting facts, too many to put here.
Fingers crossed for similar weather for
the next walk in March.
