Lmst

Photo of the Day 9th October 2025.

G-TUIL, Boeing 787-9 DreamLiner, TUI, slowing down after landing on Runway 23 Right at Manchester Airport, 5th July 2018.

3 photos behind the link.
https://mancavgeek.co.uk/blog/photo-of-the-day-9th-october-2025/

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway23Right #SouthSide #Boeing #B787 #DreamLiner #TUI
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Tails Tuesday 8th October 2025.

C-GLRN, Boeing 737-8SH, Sunwing, operating a flight for TUI, lining up on Runway 23 Left for departure, 12th October 2019, as seen from one of the South Side mounds.

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway23Left #SouthSide #Boeing #B737 #Sunwing #TailsTuesday
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Close-up of the up- (and down-) turned wing tip of a twin engined jet airliner moving from right to left.
The plane is almost entirely white, with the last 2 letters "RN" of the registration on the upper rear fuselage, and grey text "Boeing 737-800" on the lower rear fuselage.
The wing-tips are bright orange, with white "Sunwing" titles under a stylised, child-like image of a sunburst.
The tail is the same bright orange.
Green grass lines both sides of a taxiway in the background, under the tail, with the rear of a yellow sign, and the front of a black sign with yellow letters "VA".
Grey sky with pale blue patches fill the rest of the frame.

Photo of the Day 5th October 2025.

UK-86575, Ilyushin IL-62M, Uzbekistan Airways, powering out of Runway 24 at Manchester Airport, 27th October 1995, as seen from near the old South Side hangars.
This spot no longer exists, having been buried under 23L/05R when that was built years ago.

3 photos behind the link
https://mancavgeek.co.uk/blog/photo-of-the-day-5th-october-2025/

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway24 #SouthSide #Ilyushin #IL62 #UzbekistanAirways
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a 4 engined jet airliner with the engines mounted in pairs on the rear fuselage, flying from left to right at a low altitude, with the undercarriage starting to rotate into the wings and fuselage, flaps extended from the rear of the wings, and the nose raised sharply, suggesting it has just taken off.
The plane is white on the top of the body, with a grey belly, and green and blue stripes running from running from front to the back.
There is a large Uzbek flag (equal blue, white, and green stripes) on the white tail.
The engines are almost hidden behind the wings, at the rear of the plane.
The top of the control tower peeks into the bottom of the frame, surrounded by grey cloudy skies.

Photo of the Day 3rd October 2025.

LN-NGV, Boeing 737-8JP, Norwegian Air Shuttle, powering out of Runway 23 Left at Manchester Airport, 13th march 2017, as seen from one of the South Side mounds.

3 photos behind the link.
https://mancavgeek.co.uk/blog/photo-of-the-day-3rd-october-2025/

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway23Left #SouthSide #Boeing #B737 #NorwegianAirShuttle
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a twin engined jet airliner flying from right to left at a very low altitude, with undercarriage extended, flaps extended from the rear of the wing, and the nose raised sharply, suggesting it has just taken off.
The plane's forward fuselage is red, with white "Norwegian.com" web address at the bottom.
A thin blue band around the body separated the forward fuselage from the rest of the plane, which is almost entirely white, marred only red up-turned wing-tips, a thick red stripe at the top of the tail, and the black registration "LN-NGV" on the upper rear fuselage.
Green grass fills the bottom of the frame, under the plane, with another couple of airliners, one white and orange, the other white and grey with yellow highlights on the left of the frame, next to a large terminal building in the background.
Jelly from the engine exhaust partially obscures this background.
Grey sky fills the rest of the frame.

The #Trump admin's #Energy Dept Wednesday said it would cancel nearly $8B for hundreds of energy projects in 16 #Democratic-led states, including #California & #NewYork.

The outgoing admin of President #Biden finalized a nearly $2B award in its final days to help extend the Red Line 5.5 miles to connect #Chicago Far #SouthSide to the L system. The Biden admin said the project would "address #inequalities in access & economic investment in predominantly #Black & disadvantaged neighborhoods."

On This Day 2nd October 2015.

YR-BAJ, Boeing 737-430, Blue Air, taxiing off Runway 05 Right after landing at Manchester Airport, 2nd October 2015, as seen from one of the South Side mounds.

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway05Right #SouthSide #Boeing #B737 #BlueAir #OnThisDay
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a twin engined jet airliner taxiing from left to right.
The plane is mostly white, with a blue belly at the front, although the rear is mostly blue with a white roof, with a light blue stripe separating the 2 sections.
There are blue "Blue Air" titles on the upper forward fuselage, above the passenger cabin windows, with smaller, darker "web.com" web address below the windows.
The white registration "YR-BAJ" is on the lower rear fuselage., just ahead of the aft cabin door.
The tail is mostly white, with a white leading edge, and white diagonal "Blue Air" titles and "Web.com" web address.
A grey runway and taxiway, lined with green grass, fills the foreground, while trees stretch across the background, under blue-grey sky.

Winglet Wednesday 1st October 2025.

EC-MLC, Canadair CRJ-1000, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, lining up on Runway 23 left at Manchester Airport, 5th July 2018, as seen from one of the South Side mounds.

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway23Left #SouthSide #Canadair #CRJ1000 #SAS #ScandinavianAirlines #WingletWednesday
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Close-up of the red up-turned wingtip of a twin engined jet airliner taxiing from right to left.
The plane is almost entirely white, with a stylised yellow crown and a small Spanish flag next to the blue registration "EC-MLC" on the lower rear fuselage, between the rear of the wing root and the white engine pods mounted on the upper rear fuselage.
There are blue "Scandinavian" titles on the sides of the engine pods.
Grass lines the sides of the grey runway, with the roof of a grey hangar visible over the top of the fuselage in the background, under blue-grey sky.

On This Day 1st October 2015.

D-COCA, Beech 1900D, Private Wings, taxiing out to Runway 05 left at Manchester Airport, 1st October 2015, as seen from one of the South Side mounds.

#Manchester #Man #EGCC #Runway05Left #SouthSide #Beech #B1900 #PrivateWings #OnThisDay
#Aveek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Slightly over-exposed side view of a twin propellor engined airliner taxiing from right to left.
The plane is white, with a thin black and gold stripe running along the body, and the golden registration "D-COCA" on the lower rear fuselage.
Green grass fills the foreground, lining both sides of a black runway.
Trees fill the background, with a grey house barely visible through the foliage.

Photo of the Day 26th September 2025.

9V-SML, Airbus A350-941, Singapore Airlines, rolling for take-off on Runway 23 left, at Manchester Airport, 15th May 2019, as seen from
one of the South Side mounds.

4 photos behind the link.
https://mancavgeek.co.uk/blog/photo-of-the-day-26th-september-2025/

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway23Left #SouthSide #Airbus #A350 #SingaporeAirlines
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Rear side view of a twin engined jet airliner moving from right to left along a dark grey runway.
The plane is mostly white, with purple "Singapore Airlines" titles on the upper forward fuselage, and a purple and gold stripe (with a single orange pinstripe) running along the body, covering the passenger cabin windows.
The black registration "9V-SML" is on the lower rear fuselage, below the rearmost cabin windows.
The tail is purple, with a stylised golden bird with outstretched wings, and an orange stripe at the rear.
The up-turned wingtips are also purple.
Green grass fills the foreground, lining the side of the runway, with more grass visible under the plane, on the far side of the runway.
Trees mark the airfield perimeter in the distance, under blue skies.

A White Sox cap at the Vatican? Chicago’s Pope Leo XIV is a fan https://www.rawchili.com/mlb/329873/ #AdamEverett #Baseball #Chicago #ChicagoWhiteSox #ChicagoWhiteSox #couple #FuturePope #game #kelly #Leo #MLB #OtherGuy #PopeLeoXIV #SouthSide #team #vatican #WhiteSox #WhiteSoxCap #WhiteSox #World #WorldSeries

Photo of the Day 19th September 2025.

D-ALCD, McDonnell Douglas MD-11F, Lufthansa Cargo, climbing out of Runway 23 Right at Manchester Airport, 24th August 2015, as seen from one of the South Side mounds.

3 photos behind the link.
https://mancavgeek.co.uk/blog/photo-of-the-day-19th-september-2025/

#Manchester #Man #EGCC #Runway23Right #SouthSide #McDonnellDouglas #MD11 #Lufthansa
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a 3 engined jet airliner flying from right to left at a low altitude, with undercarriage already tucked away, flaps extended from the rear of the wings, and the nose raised significantly, suggesting that it has just taken off.
The plane is mostly white, with a grey belly, and dark blue "Lufthansa Cargo" titles on the upper forward fuselage, and the black registration "D-ALCD" next to a small German flag on the lower rear.
The tail and centre engine pod are dark blue, with a yellow circle containing a stylised blue flying bird in the middle.
The engine pods mounted under the wings are grey, as are the up-turned wing-tips.
Pale blue sky with grey fluffs of cloud fill the rest of the frame.

Photo of the Day 18th September 2025.

ES-AEB, Embraer ERJ-170-100LR, Estonian Air, rotating off Runway 05 Left at Manchester Airport, 18th July 2014, as seen from one of the South Side mounds.

3 photos behind the link.
https://mancavgeek.co.uk/blog/photo-of-the-day-18th-september-2025/

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway05left #SouthSide #Embraer #ERJ170 #EstonianAir
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a twin engined jet airliner moving from left to right at high speed, with flaps extended from the rear of the wing and the nose-wheel raised sharply, suggesting it is in the middle of taking off.
The plane is almost entirely white, with plain red tail and engine pods, mounted under the wings.
There are small, blue, "Estonian Air" stickers un the first 2 passenger cabin windows, while the black registration "ES-AEB" is over the last 2.
The up-turned wingtips are also bright red.
Green grass lines taxiways in the foreground, while a selection of grey hangars line the background, under grey sky.

Tails Tuesday 16th September 2025.

TF-ISR, Boeing 757-256, IcelandAir, lining up on Runway 23 Left at Manchester Airport, 15th May 2019, as seen from of the South Side mounds.

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway23Right #SouthSide #Boeing #B757 #IcelandAir #TailsTuesday
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Close-up of the rear fuselage and tail if a jet airliner facing to the left.
The plane has a mostly white body, with a dark blue belly and a yellow pinstripe.
The plane's tail is the same dark blue, with a yellow, twisted double ribbon, and white "IcelandAir" text at the bottom.
Under the plane's tail, green grass in the background leads up to a boxy, green metal structure in the distance, with a pair of grey hangars beyond.
Pale blue sky fills the rest of the frame.

Manchester Monday 15th September 2025.

OO-SSA, Airbus A319-111, Brussels Airlines, turning on to Runway 23 left at Manchester Airport, 12th October 2019.

3 photos behind the link.
https://mancavgeek.co.uk/blog/manchester-monday-15th-september-2025/

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway23Right #SouthSide #Airbus #A319 #BrusselsAirlines #ManchesterMonday
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a twin engined jet airliner taxiing from right to left, turning onto a grey runway.
The plane is largely white, with a grey belly, and black Brussels Airlines titles on the upper forward fuselage, next to a series of red dots arranged to form a lower-case letter "b".
The rear fuselage and tail are dark blue, with more of those red dots forming
a larger letter "b".
A black web address, "BrusselsAirlines.com"is on the upper rear fuselage, next to the white registration "OO-SSA".
A grey taxiway lined with green grass fills the foreground, leading off to a terminal building in the distance on the right, with several planes parked in front.
A tall grey tower with a heavily glazed, black top piece stretches into the sky.
Blue sky with large patches of white and grey cloud fill the rest of the frame.

The thread about Causewayside School, the epicentre of a very Edinburgh and very sectarian Southside scandal

Preamble. The schools of the “School Board” era of public education (1872-1918) have for some reason a particular fascination for me, one which is more profound where they are either no longer in use as schools or have disappeared entirely. This thread began as a couple of lines for my own notes about each of the “Lost Board Schools of Edinburgh” but rapidly snowballed into an intention to cover each, in alphabetical order, on its own and in rather more detail, but not so much that they can’t be posted quite frequently.

The fourth chapter of our series looking at the “Lost Board Schools of Edinburgh” investigates Causewayside School. In 1875 Edinburgh School Board purchased the house of Grange Villa at 140 Causewayside for £3,218 13s 11d with the intention of erecting a new school. This half acre plot was a parallelogram in shape on account of its northern boundary being defined by an old drainage ditch that cut diagonally relative to the main road. Prior to this, schooling in the district was conducted at a school run by the United Presbyterian Church on Duncan Street, which moved with that church to the corner of Salisbury Place in 1864.

An overlay of the 1876 Ordnance Survey town plan of Edinburgh (Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland) and modern Google Earth aerial imagery showing the location of Causewayside School. Note the parallelogram shape of the building plot. The UP Church can be seen to the top of the map, its school building to the rear being marked as a Sunday School. Move the slider to compare

The Board had already held a competition in 1874 to find architects for its first batch of new schools and divided the work between the most successful applicants. Causewayside was awarded to Robert Rowand Anderson, who would rise to become one of Victorian Scotland’s most notable architects. He was also awarded the work for schools at West Fountainbridge and Stockbridge and the three shared a number of design and style features (“the dimensions of the various rooms repeat to within a few inches… and the ventilating and playground arrangements are also precisely similar“) but with significant variation in the layouts to make use of three very different sites, all of which had significant constraints.

Front elevation by Robert Rowand Anderson of the Causewayside School, dated 1875. University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections, Coll-31/2/EC.74

Anderson set Causewayside back from the main road and spread it across two storeys, each with a large central school room with two smaller classrooms on either side at the rear, giving a roughly cruciform footprint. There was a single large gable projecting forwards whereas at Stockbridge (below) there was one on each flank. His early work designing churches translated easily to the Collegiate Gothic style much in favour at the time for schools except now the “steeples” did not contain bells, but hid an Archimedes screw ventilator to promote good air circulation through the buildings.

Stockbridge Primary School by Robert Rowand Anderson, sharing many design features with Causewayside. CC-by-SA 4.0, Drnoble via Wikimedia

The construction contract was worth £7,974 11s 0d and work commenced in late June 1875. Progress by January 1876 was reported as “slow” but by June was “well advanced“. Although it was to be completed for 1st December that year opening did not happen until 9th January 1877. The chairman of the School Board, Professor Calderwood, performed the honours and at this time already 500 of its 600 spaces had been subscribed to.

Rear (left) and north side (right) elevations of Causewayside School, dated 1875. The pair of blocks to the back housed stairs, toilets and offices on intermediate floors, hence the extra sets of windows. University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections, Coll-31/2/EC.74

An inspection in its second year of operation reported favourably on the quality of teaching at the school:

Report of HM Inspectors on the Edinburgh Board Schools for Session 1878-79.
Causewayside School.
Mixed School. — An extremely good tone pervaded this School, and the class movements were very orderly. As regards the work of the three lower Standards, some weakness appeared in the spelling and intelligence of the third Standard, but everything else was most satisfactory. Of the upper Standards, the fourth might have done rather better in arithmetic, and the fifth in composition, while both the fifth and sixth Standards answered unequally in history and geography. On the other hand, for grammar, general intelligence, and acquaintance with their specific subjects, all three Standards deserve praise. In judging of the School, it must, of course, be remembered that the staff is strong. Needlework and music are both carefully taught.
Infants’ School. — Discipline and instruction in this Department both deserve the highest praise. It is evident that the Mistress and her Staff exercise a most beneficial influence alike in quickening the intelligence and in regulating the behaviour of their young pupils.

A subsequent inspection in February 1885 by the local Superintendent, Colonel Campbell, “complained strongly” about the drawing examination at the school; the children were using their pencils as a measuring gauge when doing freehand work and that they were placing lined pages beneath their drawing paper as a further guide. The teacher protested that this was how she had been taught to draw but the Colonel demanded that the exam be cancelled: the matter was not dropped until representations in defence from both the Headmaster and Flora Stevenson of the School Board.

Flora Stevenson, a redoubtable figure on the Edinburgh School Board and in the Suffrage movement. 1895 photograph by G. Watson, from the Edinburgh & Scottish Collection of Edinburgh City Libraries.

In common with the first wave of schools that the Board built, Causewayside was really too small to cope with demand and already by October 1878 it was over capacity, with 638 pupils. By 1883 it was so oversubscribed that an extension for 200 further children was authorised, widening the front of the building to the same width as the rear to add additional classrooms. In 1894 a further extension was approved but by the following year there were 250 vacant spaces on account of the recent opening in the district of Sciennes School. By 1901 the school was once again reported to be suffering form overcrowding – this was still a time of urban population growth.

1893 Ordnance Survey town plan centred on Causewayside School, with the original footprint (orange) drawn over the extended footprint which added additional classrooms either side at the front. The wall across the playground was to separate girls from boys, the structures with dotted outlines on the left (west) side being open play sheds. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

Located as it was between the Grange and Newington, you could be forgiven for thinking this school as being in a middle-class catchment. However, like most Board schools at this time, it drew its intake largely from the working classes and its pupils were subject to a life in the harsh social environment of Edinburgh at this time. In a court case in February 1884 Helen Dick, or Taylor, was brought before Sheriff Rutherfurd and charged with “failing to provide elementary education for her children and also with failing to secure their regular attendance at school“. She told the court that “she could not do more than she had done” for her two children – Jessie (10) and George (8) – her husband had abandoned the family 6 years prior and to support them she worked anti-social hours at a laundry. She had to leave early in the morning and was not allowed to return home to wake her children and get them ready for school, so they inevitably did not go. The Sheriff ordered that they be made to go to school at Causewayside. Another example comes from an 1896 meeting of the School Board which heard that of the 722 children at the school only 21 had baths in their homes. 71 boys and six girls reported that they went – occasionally – to the Corporation baths to wash. In 1901, it was estimated in 1901 that 15 percent of the juvenile department of the school were working after their school day to help support their families.

Causewayside children, 1927, at Grange Court. The tall building with the Gothic window in the background is the UP Church where the Causewayside School was located prior to the opening of the Board school. Photograph by John Smith, via Edinburgh City Libraries.

In 1905 the headmaster, Robert Mathewson, retired owing to ill health after 20 years in service. He was briefly replaced by James Clark, promoted from St Leonard’s School, who soon returned to the latter institution as its head to be replaced in turn by Thomas W. Paterson of North Canongate. Paterson had begun his career in 1879 at Causewayside and remained there until retiring in 1922 after 51 years in the profession, the pupils and parents presenting him with the gift of a typewriter for the occasion.

On October 1st 1913, pupils from Causewayside joined their compatriots from Davie Street, St Leonard’s and South Bridge in a spontaneous protest march through the district, a rumour having spread through the streets that they were to begin attending school on Saturday Mornings.

Evening schooling began at Causewayside only a month after it opened, when the Edinburgh School of Cookery was allowed by the School Board to run courses here which were open to the general public. This became known as Continuation Schooling; continuation of education for those who had left school (at 14) but had not qualified for a Higher Grade school (or could not afford to go to one). Causewayside became the principal such school for young women and girls in the city, offering both basic academic subjects and practical classes focussing on employable skills – cookery, millinery, laundrywork, dressmaking and needlework. While these classes were not free, in 1915 a term cost 5 shillings, an excellent attendance record could result in the fees being reimbursed. Completion of these classes could qualify women for the Edinburgh School of Cookery and Domestic Economy, where employers provided bursaries. In 1915, 177 pupils earned the return of their fees and forty qualified for the School of Cookery. Headmaster Paterson of Causewayside wrote to the editor of the Scotsman in 1917 that continuation classes were “to the better equipment for life’s battle for those children who leave school at 14 years of age without passing the qualifying examination.”

Advert for Edinburgh School Board’s Continuation Classes, including Causewayside, Musselburgh News, 21st September 1906

An almighty brouhaha erupted at Causewayside in 1925 when the Education Authority announced plans to close the school, transfer its pupils to other nearby schools, and re-open it as a Roman Catholic school. The background is complex but stemmed from the fact that R. C. schooling in Scotland was not transferred from that church to the state until 1918 at which point the newly formed Education Authorities inherited a rather poor portfolio of school premises. Few, if any, of these had been purpose-built and almost none were really fit for purpose; St. Columba’s R. C. School, which served the Southside, was teaching 291 children (with a waiting list of 27) in a totally inadequate converted town house at 81 Newington Road. Causewayside’s school roll had slumped after WW1 due to urban depopulation and with only 321 children was at under half its capacity. The authorities bean-counters were convinced that Sciennes, Preston Street and Bristo schools could comfortably accommodate them, as they too had falling rolls and that nobody would have a problem with them making the most economical use of their buildings.

81 Newington Road, former St Columba’s R. C. School.

How wrong they were! Edinburgh, in case you didn’t know, was a hot-bed of radical, anti-Catholic political Protestantism in the first half of the 20th century and the nascent Scottish Protestant League, led by the rabble-rouser Alexander Ratcliffe, went all in on trying to use the school proposal as a wedge issue in their efforts to repeal the provisions of the Education (Scotland) Act 1918 that saw the state obliged to provide non-secular R. C. schooling. You can read the full details of the vitriolic campaign that they orchestrated to oppose this change in the thread about the Sciennes School Strike of 1925. Suffice to say, the Education Authority was unmoved by the accusations it was handing over a “Protestant school to the Roman Catholics” and “putting Rome on the Rates” in “the city of Knox“. It maintained its position that it had a legal obligation to meet and that its only other option was to build a new school in its entirety – which would add even further to the tax burden of the local rates! And so it was that Causewayside School closed at the end of the 1923-24 term and re-opened after the summer holidays as St Columba’s R. C. The Continuation School was unaffected by all this, a matter quietly and conveniently overlooked by those claiming the school was being “given” to the Catholic Church!

Pupils – and teacher Nun – of St. Columba’s R. C. School in 1925, the year after they moved – controversially – to Causewayside

The Scottish Protestant League were still publicly and vocally agitating against St Columba’s, well into 1925 – until the focus of their ire was drawn to the opening of a Carmelite Convent in Merchiston in September. St. Columba’s closed around 1940, most probably on account of wartime depopulation as a result of evacuation, and was converted into an emergency cooking centre by John Kelly & Son (Kitchen Engineers) Ltd of Rose Street. What became “the largest kitchen in Edinburgh“, capable of cooking 10,000 meals at a time, was intended to help feed the populace in the event of a catastrophic air raid. Fortunately it was never required for this purpose and so was transferred to the Education Committee in 1942 as a central kitchen for producing school meals. Together with the existing centre at the former West Fountainbridge School, together they could produce 9,000 two course lunches daily, sufficient for every child in the city who wanted one. Its official opening took place on Friday 11th September, when Thomas Johnston MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, made a speech imploring the nation to double its consumption of home-grown oatmeal and potatoes. He also announced that school cookery classes would now focus on these ingredients and local and national schools competitions for their use.

Thomas Johnston in 1955 when chairman of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, by Sir Herbert James Gunn. © artist’s estate, via National Galleries Scotland.

Closure of the Causewayside centre was proposed in 1952, both as an economy measure and also reflecting the fact that most schools now had their own kitchen facilities. Newspaper adverts from 1955 record the disposal of its cooking equipment to the highest bidders.

Adverts for staff at the Causewayside Cooking Centre. Edinburgh Evening News, 25th May 1943

After this it lay vacant for a decade until in 1965 the newly formed Scottish Certificate of Education Examination Board (SCEEB) acquired and demolished it as a location for its new headquarters. A modern, three storey, brutalist office block by Alan Reiach & Eric Hall was built in its place, the only notable feature of an otherwise unremarkable building being an abstract concrete panel over the entrance by Charles Anderson. This includes the crest of the Board and their motto In Trutina Ponentur Eadem which, according to the Dictionary of Foreign Quotations, translates from Latin as “These Matters are to be Weighed in the Balance“. The SCEEB moved in during 1967 but lasted less than a decade, moving in 1975 to Dalkeith on account of needing more space. They were replaced in turn by the Scottish Law Commission but their coat of arms remained, the motto perhaps equally appropriate for both institutions.

Anderson’s relief above the entrance to the SCEEB building

No trace of the old school was and as of the time of writing (September 2025), the redevelopment in turn has been empty for a number of years and a full planning application for its demolition and replacement has been submitted to the Council. A previous plan for the site in 2023 was asked to consider the re-use of the sculptured panel but I understand that the spiritual successor of the SCEEB at Dalkeith are also interested in acquiring it.

The previous chapter of this series looked at Castlehill School. The next chapter examines the Davie Street Schools.

If you have found this useful, informative or amusing, perhaps you would like to help contribute towards the running costs of this site – including keeping it ad-free and my book-buying budget to find further stories to bring you – by supporting me on ko-fi. Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends.

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#AlexanderRatcliffe #Brutalism #Catholic #Causewayside #EdinburghSchoolBoard #Education #Food #LostBoardSchoolsOfEdinburgh #School #Schools #ScottishProtestantLeague #Southside

Pupils - and teacher Nun - of St. Columba's R. C. School in 1925, the year after they moved - controversially - to Causewayside School

Front elevation by Robert Rowand Anderson of the Causewayside School, dated 1875. University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections, Coll-31/2/EC.74

Stockbridge Primary School by Robert Rowand Anderson, an almost identical elevation to that at Causewayside. CC-by-SA 4.0, Drnoble via Wikimedia

Rear (left) and north side (right) elevations of Causewayside School, dated 1875. The pair of blocks to the back housed stairs, toilets and offices on intermediate floors, hence the extra sets of windows. University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections, Coll-31/2/EC.74

Photo of the Day 6th September 2025.

A6-EDI, Airbus A380-861, Emirates, deploying thrust reversers to slow down after landing on Runway 23 Right at Manchester Airport, 5th July 2018, as seen from one of the South Side mounds.

3 photos behind the link.
https://mancavgeek.co.uk/blog/photo-of-the-day-6th-september-2025/

#Manchester #MAN #EGCC #Runway23Right #SouthSide #Airbus #A380 #Emirates
#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a very large, 4 engined jet airliner moving from right to left along a runway with the rear panel of one of the engines slid back, exposing the thrust reversers, suggesting it has just landed.
The plane is mostly white, with large gold "Emirates" titles in English on the upper forward fuselage, between the 2 rows of passenger windows, and smaller titles in an Arabic script a bit further back, over the wings.
A waving United Arab Emirates flag (red vertical bar on the left, with equal green, white, and black stripes on the right) covers the tail and part of the rear fuselage.
Golden calligraphic art made up of the characters that make up the airlines Arabic name adorns the engine pods, the cowling of the inner engines split as the rear portion has moved backwards to expose the thrust reversers.
Another runway stretches across the foreground, lined by green grass, while a pair of large grey hangars dominate the background, under pale blue-grey sky.

Job opportunity #glasgow #southside

Roots and Repairs is a new helath and wellbeing pilot project designed to support ethnic minority men to socialise, reduce isolation and rediscover a sense of purpose. Through meaningful activities, practical skill sharing and a space for connection, conversation, and improved wellbeing, the project will help men reconnect with their community.

https://www.bootsandbeards.co.uk/recruitment-roles/roots-and-repairs

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The thread about Bristo Public School, from “one of the worst” in the city to further and higher education (by way of a car park)

Preamble. The schools of the “School Board” era of public education (1872-1918) have for some reason a particular fascination for me, one which is more profound where they are either no longer in use as schools or have disappeared entirely. This thread began as a couple of lines for my own notes about each of the “Lost Board Schools of Edinburgh” but rapidly snowballed into an intention to cover each, in alphabetical order, on its own and in rather more detail, but not so much that they can’t be posted quite frequently.

Bristo Public School was located on Marshall Street in that old district of the city known as Easter Portsburgh. It opened in 1877 with a capacity for 600 children at a time when the Edinburgh School Board was rapidly trying to expand education provision in the city at the same time as dealing with a legacy of inherited and substandard properties. The School Board was formed as a result of the Education (Scotland) Act 1872 which made education compulsory for children aged between 5 and 13 in Scotland (but not free). The school occupied a site where once had stood the General’s Entry lodgings of Robert Burns’ paramour Clarinda – Agnes Maclehose – and took its name from the adjacent Bristo Street, itself an old Edinburgh place name dating back to the early 16th century.

1893 Ordnance Survey town plan overlaid on a modern Google Earth satellite image, centered on the location of Bristo School. General’s Entry is the small lane to the south of the school. Move the slider to compare.

The land was acquired from the Edinburgh Improvement Trust as part of an early civic improvement and slum clearance scheme that swept away some older closes and built a westward extension of of Marshall Street between the Potterrow and Bristo Street. Construction was intended to begin in 1875 but was delayed on account of the original cost estimate of £8,760 being far in excess of what the Board had budgeted per capita. The final cost, including purchasing the land, ended up at £26 10s per head, a huge sum for the time compared to other new schools. In the meantime, the School Board leased premises at 4 Nicolson Square to open a temporary school. The purpose-built Bristo School was designed by the architect to the Board, William Lambie Moffat, in the Collegiate Gothic style that was then in favour for schools and was extremely similar to his Leith Walk School.

Leith Walk Public School, 1887 engraving. Note the similarity in the design of the tower, the primary gable end and the ornamental buttresses with the photo below of Bristo School.

Serving a densely populated neighbourhood, in its early days Bristo School was frequently overcrowded. Just three years after opening it had 840 pupils, some 40% more than it was designed to take, and the adjacent Marshall Street Halls had to be taken over in 1885 as an annexe and a new school was begun at South Bridge to provide additional capacity. Matters came to a head in 1896 when the school suffered a negative inspection on the grounds of the overcrowding and the substandard nature of the annexe and the Scotch Education Department cut its grant. On investigation the School Board found that almost half of the pupils actually lived closer to another of their schools than Bristo and so by redistributing them closer to home it was possible to both deal with the overcrowding and close the annexe.

Bristo School, looking wesr down Marshall Street west towards Edinburgh University’s “New Buildings” off Teviot Place. © Edinburgh City Libraries

The capacity crisis may have been solved but the school continued to cause the Board problems. On account of its north facing position, cramped plot and being surrounded all around by tall tenements, it was particularly dark inside and had a very small playground which was also very dark. The lack of natural light and ventilation – very important to Edinburgh’s Victorian school designers – soon saw it labelled as “insanitary“. Furthermore it lacked any hall and the arrangements of its classrooms were unsuitable to cope with class sizes; there were too many small spaces. As early as 1900 the School Board were exploring options to replace it and an extension was added to the rear as an interim solution at a cost of £4,350, further decreasing the playground space. In 1909 it was reported that as a result of the poor lighting within the building that it had the highest proportion of children with “defective eyesight” in the city. A special experiment was carried out from 1930 onwards whereby entire year groups were transported to Liberton Playing Fields by tramcar, one day per week in the spring and summer, to have their education outside, far removed from their usual oppressive and dark surroundings.

Five-year-old children of the infant department of Bristo School, dressed for a mock coronation portrait photo in June 1911 to mark the occasion of King George V’s coronation.

In 1925 the school found itself caught up in the Sciennes School Strike saga and it was observed at this time that it was under capacity. By 1927 its roll was in steady decline on account of slum clearance in the district which transferred much of the populace to new housing schemes in the southeast of the city. By 1933 the population of school age children in the Southside was declining at 10% per annum and there were 1,228 vacant places in its schools. As a result Bristo, described by Edinburgh Corporation’s Education Committee as “one of the worst” of its schools, was closed in 1934. The remaining scholars were transferred to Sciennes and South Bridge. In 1935 it was proposed to re-open the school by transferring pupils from the condemned St Ignatius’s Roman Catholic (RC) school in Glen Street and St Columba’s RC – the former Causewayside School – into a new Intermediate RC school for the district. Nothing came of these plans except sectarian controversy until final approval in 1939 but war quickly intervened and put them on hiatus again, this time permanently. Instead, after closure it was used for a variety of purposes including evening classes, a day centre for the long-term unemployed and hosting community groups such as the Boys’ Brigade.

1951 aerial photo showing Bristo School on Marshall Street, running from bottom right to middle of shot. In the top left corner is the Teviot Union of the Edinburgh University. Note the 1900 extension at the rear of the school which served to make its already small playground even smaller and darker. Photo SAW039077 via Britain from Above.

In 1938 the Clarinda Club – a local appreciation society of the poet Robert Burns – marked the school being built upon the site of her lodgings by unveiling a commemorative bronze plaque on its walls. During WW2 it served as training centre and headquarters for First Aid and Air Raid Precautions. Another more unusual purpose was established which was the Nursery Equipment Centre. This had first been established by the WVS (Women’s Voluntary Service) at Castlehill School and was set up to produce soft and wooden toys, clothing and playthings for young children at the public nurseries that had been set up to allow their mothers to undertake war work. These items were largely no longer being produced by industry during wartime. In 1941 part of the school also became a British Restaurant – a municipal wartime canteen – operating under the name Clarinda’s.

Unveiling the Clarinda plaque at Bristo School. Speaking is Councillor Wilson Mclaren and to his left is George Mathers MP. Inset is Dr John Trotter of the Clarinda Club. The plaque read “Near this spot resided ‘CLARINDA’. Friend of Robert Burns 1787-1791”.

The Nursery Equipment Centre attracted a significant number of volunteers with disabilities which prevented them from undertaking war work and became something of a specialist centre in helping people adapt their lives to work. Such was the success of the scheme that it – and the school – was taken over by the government’s new Disabled Persons Employment Corporation as a work training centre for the disabled – a Remploy Factory – until purpose-built premises were completed at Sighthill.

Men at work at the Bristo Remploy centre. The man on the left is John Collister, in the centre is the instructor Thomas Williams (holding the hammer) and to the right his pupil, Robert Lennie.

When Remploy vacated the school in 1949 it was taken back by the Education Department and repurposed as the Bristo Technical Institute. This was a training centre for apprentices in engineering trades, either on day release from their workplaces or taken as evening classes. It taught specialist skills that could not gained on the job such as technical drawing, physics and chemistry and also basic certificates in maths and English to bring candidates up to standard. After 1959, much of this part of the city was threatened by the comprehensive redevelopment plans of Edinburgh University, which wanted wholesale demolition of the area but the old school survived where much did not. The institute closed in 1966 after the opening of the new Napier Technical College at a purpose-built campus in Merchiston, with most of the city’s pre-existing hodgepodge of technical further education being transferred to it. The building was then leased by Heriot-Watt College, which was at this time on nearby Chambers Street and about to gain university status, as its Department of Industrial Administration. Heriot-Watt University began its move to its new Riccarton campus in 1969 and left its Bristo Building around 1974. By this time the old school was the last remaining building on the western portion of Marshall Street and it was quickly and one old educational institution was unceremoniously demolished by another just shy of its centenary; Edinburgh University replaced it with a windswept car park that was perennially covered in puddles.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/georgeupstairs/6004096117/in/photolist-2kv1F4n-QgTH16-2jVXWem-a9yyAz-ai75jg-ai9SE1-25VNJbP-ai75ac-44cRz1-6aZhqo-4aECh1-2jvFhCR

The car park was meant to be a temporary measure, but I clearly remember parking there in the 1990s when my Dad would take me to the Museum on Chambers Street; the University scheme for which it had been cleared never came to fruition. This most wantonly destructive of Edinburgh institutions would not finally build upon the gap site until the 21st century. The final part of the development – the School of Informatics’ Bayes Centre – was opened on the site of Bristo School as recently as 2019. It was perhaps some small consolation that the site was at last returned to educational use again.

Want to read more about Edinburgh’s Lost Board Schools? The next instalment covers Canonmills Public School; where thrift and self-denial were taught

#Depopulation #Disability #Edinburgh #EdinburghSchoolBoard #EdinburghUniversity #Education #HeriotWattUniversity #LostBoardSchoolsOfEdinburgh #MarshallStreet #NapierUniversity #RobertBurns #School #Schools #Southside #WW2

Bristo School, looking wesr down Marshall Street west towards Edinburgh University's "New Buildings" off Teviot Place. © Edinburgh City Libraries

Leith Walk Public School, 1887 engraving. Note the similarity in the design of the tower, the primary gable end and the ornamental buttresses with the photo below of Bristo School.

Five-year-old hildren of the infant department of Bristo School, dressed for a mock coronation portrait photo in June 1911 to mark the occasion of King George V's coronation.

1951 aerial photo showing Bristo School on Marshall Street, running from bottom right to middle of shot. In the top left corner is the Teviot Union of the Edinburgh University. Note the 1900 extension at the rear of the school which served to make its already small playground even smaller and darker. Photo SAW039077 via Britain from Above.

Photo of the Day 31st August 2025.

9V-SML, Airbus A350-941, Singapore Airlines, lining up on Runway 23 Left for departure at Manchester Airport, 15th May 2019, as seen from one of the South Side mounds.

4 photos behind the link.
https://mancavgeek.co.uk/blog/photo-of-the-day-31st-august-2025/

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#AvGeek #aviation #planespotting #photography

Side view of a twin engined jet airliner taxiing from right to left on a grey runway.
The plane is largely white, with a purple, orange, and gold stripe running along the body from just behind the cockpit, with the gold section at the bottom getting slightly wider as it moves backwards, running under the rear fuselage.
There are purple "Singapore Airlines" titles on the upper forward fuselage, next to a large Singapore" flag.
The tail is purple, with a stylised golden flying bird with wings extended, and an orange stripe on the rear of the tail.
Green grass fills the foreground, lining the side of the runway, with a large terminal building in the background, visible under the plane, with several planes parked next to it.
Pale blue sky with grey smears of thin cloud fill the top half of the frame.

Photo of the Day 23rd August 2025.

EI-FMJ, ATR72-600, in FlyBe livery but operated by Stobart Air, lining up on Runway 23 Left at Manchester Airport, 5th July 2018, as seen from one of the South Side mounds.

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#SouthSide

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