Marchmont

It’s not just the New Town in Edinburgh that boasts sweeping terraces of handsome flats, Marchmont has its fair share too and here is one which I admire in Warrender Park Road, especially in the sunshine with Arthur’s Seat just visible above. The roadway is still cobbled and a challenge to cycle along with its uneven surface although it does cut the speed of cars about as successfully as the new 20 mph speed enforcement.

His Lordship and I walked along it’s length this morning bringing back memories of a happy childhood spent playing in one of the surrounding streets, and walking back and forth to my first school situated then at the Bruntsfield Links end of the Road.

These where the days in the dark ages when children could play outside all day on roads devoid of cars, although the Co-op milk horse had to be avoided at all costs, so big and so lumbering was he.

With no TV or electronic gadgets to engage us indoors, we children had a wonderful time of street activity, only being summoned in by our mothers at bedtime or when it got dark.

When my family eventually moved to a house with a garden half a mile away, there was never the same camaraderie of street friendships as before.