Dear Spurtle Team
The lamppost featured in the May Spurtle is in Forth Street.
It's interesting that you should intend running an article on these lampposts because in early 2005 I wrote to the Spurtle after two of them on Forth Street were removed by the Council.
One of them was damaged [...] but the street name could clearly be seen on the cross piece. The other was complete and stood on the corner of Forth Street and Union Street just along from the one shown in your photo.
Unfortunately I no longer have a copy of the relevant 2005 Spurtle but I recollect that you contacted the Council (or street lighting department) asking what was to become of the removed posts. They responded by saying that they were being stored in some council facility outside Edinburgh, awaiting refurbishment, and (if my memory serves me well) would be reinstalled within a year. That was the last that was heard of them!
I feel it a shame that the Council can't see the value in these unique and interesting pieces of street furniture, and allows them to deteriorate and, ultimately, disappear. It's these little things that give the city its character.
Yours sincerely,
Jake King
(East Broughton Place)
[Spurtle is investigating ...]