Walking up South Bridge in Edinburgh I couldn’t help noticing these fantastic old ads for long gone tradesmen (and their long gone trades). On the ground floor was a sorting office (sorting what exactly I’m not sure) there was a working jeweller in the second floor flat (as opposed to an unemployed jeweller?)
And in the top flat Mr Wright advertised his presence as a straw & felt hatter. The signs are in a pretty bed state, if I lived on that stair today I’d be trying to persuade my fellow residents to preserve these tiny bits of social history, but somehow I suspect they won’t be around much longer. Pity.

This is my favourite building in Soho. Tucked away in a lane off Wardour Street you’ll find this fantastic reminder of a time when the country made its money making things. Clearly that was a while ago because you just don’t see gentlemen in bowlers and top hats anymore, even in the city of London. Still at least someone had the sense to preserve the building. Hats off to the developer.

A lot of people believe that provenance is a very important thing. No more so than in the food and drink sector. That’s why other countries fight so hard to stop rivals stealing their unique food and drink heritage. Put simply their argument is ”if it’s not made here its not the genuine article”. So what a spectacularly sad day it was when Scottish & Newcastle announced yesterday that it is shifting production to Tadcaster, North Yorkshire.
Some drinkers have already vowed to boycott the world-famous brand. I think I’ll just get some in while I still know it’s the real thing.