Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵
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threadinburgh.scot
Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵
@threadinburgh.scot
3.3K followers 880 following 3.9K posts
Overlooked tales of Edinburgh, Leith & Scottish local history. Expect the unexpected: people, buildings, transport, maps & occasional attempts to be funny. Stories also published at https://threadinburgh.scot 🐦 ex-Cocteautriplets
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threadinburgh.scot
I tried the 0800 232323 number the other day to report a temporary crossing showing green to pedestrians and vehicles at dame time. Hold message said "Welcome to East Dunbartonshire Council" and caller ID showed this! 🤦‍♂️
November 13, 2025 at 6:30 PM
threadinburgh.scot
ESPC bathroom of the day feels like cold baths
Estate agent's photo of a bathroom. The suite is in powder blue, the walls and window frame are in matching blue and partially tiled in a light green mottled pattern tiles, with avocado tiles placed in a semi-repeating pattern. There is an old rounded mirror vanity/medicine cabinet and a pull-switch infra-red heater. The bathtub has a hose extension to shower with, but no shower curtain or rail to hang the showerhead on.
November 12, 2025 at 10:04 AM
threadinburgh.scot
Am I doing this right?
November 8, 2025 at 10:41 PM
threadinburgh.scot
Just Liberton? Not niche enough.
November 7, 2025 at 6:40 PM
threadinburgh.scot
Looking closer I'll double down on Heriot bridge. Building and railings on corner still there, as are range on the opposite (north) side of Grassmarket to the left, but harder to place as those to the right of them now demolished. You can make out the White Hart if you squint.
November 6, 2025 at 9:45 AM
threadinburgh.scot
🔥 Bonfire in the Grassmarket, 1952.
Not for the 5th of November, but for Victoria Day, Edinburgh's discretionary local public holiday, traditionally held on the last Monday in May on or before her birthday on the 24th.
Black and white photo showing a crowd around a large bonfire on a street paved with setts. In the background are tall tenement flats.
November 5, 2025 at 2:51 PM
threadinburgh.scot
📣Caption competition!
❓What's going on here then. Wrong answers only.
Black and white photo, Edinburgh North Bridge looking towards the Register Office. Two rickety looking old trucks with tall and rickety wooden platforms on their backs are attended by workers in flatcaps.
November 4, 2025 at 11:46 AM
threadinburgh.scot
For reasons best known to Scotrail it costs you £4.45 more to buy a ticket from them on their app than a paper ticket from the LNER machine 🤷‍♂️
Scotrail mobile single ticket on the Scotrail app to North Berwick. "Cheapest £13.35" Paper ticket single to North Berwick. £8.90
November 1, 2025 at 3:36 PM
threadinburgh.scot
A not-too-dissimilar illustration by Walter Weir shows the family gathered around the fire. The old woman looks like she may be telling a scary story inbetween puffs at her pipe.
"Walter Weir, One of Two Illustrations to Hallowe'en", coloured illustration showing the interior of a Georgian cottage, an old couple in their chairs by the fire, a young girl in a dress with some sort of treat in her hand, three older boys and a ban stand in the alcove. The old woman is heavily draped in shawls, has a pipe in one hand and is pointing with the other as if telling some sort of tale. National Galleries Scotland collection.
October 31, 2025 at 5:18 PM
threadinburgh.scot
Halow'een in 18th century Scotland. "Guisers Performing in a Cottage" by Alexander Carse. In this case it is the adults who are dressed up and making merry, while the children watch on.
Georgian illustration, ink and grey was over brown chalk on paper. The interior of a late 18th or early 19th century cottage, with a crowd of guisers dancing to the music of a fiddle infront of the fire. National Galleries of Scotland collection.
October 31, 2025 at 5:14 PM
threadinburgh.scot
This article covers attempts to debunk many of the myths around witches, acknowledges "images of black hats, broomsticks and cackling over cauldrons" a a stereotype and then uses a stock illustration of a woman dressed as a "witch" in a black cloak and pointy hat strolling through the mist 🤦
BBC News web headline, "The witches of Dumbarton - tortured, executed and falsely accused", illustrated with a header stock image picture of a "witch" in a black cloak and pointy hat strolling through a misty forest".
October 30, 2025 at 9:45 AM
threadinburgh.scot
Thanks to a reader tip-off, I've added a previously unidentified Muirhouse multi-storey blocks to my chronological inventory of Edinburgh and Leith. The insipid and threateningly-named Thirteen Muirhouse Way. Completed in 1965 and demolished in 1988
threadinburgh.scot/2024/01/05/t...
The insipidly and threateningly named “13 Muirhouse Way” in the background of the Muirhouse Temporary Housing Area Phase II . Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archive
October 29, 2025 at 11:03 AM
threadinburgh.scot
There was a West Craigs and a Meadow Field, but no West Field. Not there anyway.
October 24, 2025 at 10:50 AM
threadinburgh.scot
The decline and fall of suburbia.
A play in three acts.
Act 1. 2008. A 1960s suburban bungalow in Edinburgh, with a neat garden and well trimmed hedges and bushes. An old couple sit on a bench out front. Act 2. 2012. The same suburban bungalow in Edinburgh. The garden has been dug up and covered in hardcore, the hedges removed and its wall removed and rebuilt. There are building materials in the front garden and a mini digger. Act 3. 2019. The same bungalow. It is almost unrecognisable. It has been extended to one side and the attic converted. It has been re-roofed in dark grey tiles, all the windows are new and smaller with dark grey frames. The brick and harling has been replaced with flat white render. The garden is largely a driveway with two black Range Rovers in it. There is a small patch of low-maintenance garden to one side.
October 24, 2025 at 8:47 AM
threadinburgh.scot
I see that and raise you
A little fishing boat called "feckin boat"
October 18, 2025 at 3:55 PM
threadinburgh.scot
The mind boggles about what scandals were going down in 1920s Edinburgh that could have triggered a letter to the editor of The Scotsman with a heading like this.
newspaper subheading. "THE POPE AND THE YMCA"
October 16, 2025 at 4:29 PM
threadinburgh.scot
Yep, that oughta hold it 👍
Edinburgh. Looking up the Mound towards New College. On the right is a temporary safety fence over collapsed coping and railings, with a steep drown below. The temporary fence is held up only by 2 chains and padlocks and is falling down the gap itself. The Mound, Edinburgh. On the right is a temporary safety fence over collapsed coping and railings, with a steep drown below. The temporary fence is held up only by 2 chains and padlocks and is falling down the gap itself. The Mound, Edinburgh. On the right is a temporary safety fence over collapsed coping and railings, with a steep drown below. The temporary fence is held up only by 2 chains and padlocks and is falling down the gap itself. The Mound, Edinburgh. Looking at collapsed coping and railings, with a steep drop down below.
October 16, 2025 at 4:22 PM
threadinburgh.scot
[Derek_Zoolander-what_is_this_a_Kirk_for_Ants.jpg]
Black and white photo of St. John's old Kirk in Lochwinnoch. set amongst an overgrown graveyard is a church which has been truncated down to a very shallow depth, effectively two mutually supporting gables with walls and roof inbetween.
October 16, 2025 at 11:04 AM
threadinburgh.scot
There's no new news in Edinburgh, exhibit for the prosecution #345. The Scotsman, 6th Mary 1996
Three short newspaper columns listing cuts to services in Edinburgh as a result of council budget cuts.
October 15, 2025 at 8:11 AM
threadinburgh.scot
You can the both of you take your minds out of the gutter for a visit to St Andrews
October 9, 2025 at 8:52 AM
threadinburgh.scot
As far as I'm aware, there isn't a magical local way to prounounce "Cockmylane" any other way than the funny one.
Green finger signposts for "Cockmylane"
October 9, 2025 at 8:51 AM
threadinburgh.scot
Can honestly say I've never wished a business more ill will than I have than with a "viral London morning roll pop-up" seeking to introduce morning rolls to Scotland via the medium of Stockbridge.
Fuck off all the way back to Angel and don't stop until you find yourselves in the sea.
Edinburgh Evening News headline "Auld Hag: Viral London shop selling Scottish produce announces first Edinburgh pop-up in Stockbridge"
October 7, 2025 at 10:25 PM
threadinburgh.scot
Good morning, please enjoy this beautiful Arts & Crafts style cottage interior. search.savills.com/property-det...
Estate agent's photo. Interior of an Arts & Crafts style bungalow, parlour in a largely original condition Estate agent's photo. Interior of an Arts & Crafts style bungalow, dining room in a largely original condition Estate agent's photo. Interior of an Arts & Crafts style bungalow, drawing room in a largely original condition Estate agent's photo. Interior of an Arts & Crafts style bungalow, stairwell in a largely original condition
October 7, 2025 at 8:10 AM
threadinburgh.scot
Cockburn a perfectly normal Scottish street name. Never understood the (mainly American )sniggering around this one either.
Butts Wynd street name sign
October 7, 2025 at 7:28 AM
threadinburgh.scot
Who amongst us can honestly say that deep down we aren't a Swiftie at heart
Postcard of HMS Swift, a painting dated 1914 showing her at high speed. Caption "A British Bulldog: HM Destroyer "Swift". Nothing too big for this chap to tackle".
October 3, 2025 at 3:04 PM