Scottish boxing legend Ken Buchanan is to be commemorated with a new statue at the foot of Little King Street
Sculptor Alan Herriot’s work depicting the former WBA lightweight world champion has been known about for some time. But its location, until now, has been uncertain.
Dear Spurtle,
I'm a little late to the party ('Private cars – a problem shared'), but this is an important subject and deserves thought and debate.
My starting point is that private cars solve a number of problems for the individual car user – even in a densely populated city – while impacting negatively on all citizens. The trick is to ensure that there are as many good, economically viable and well-integrated alternatives to private car use as possible, while disincentivising the negative effects. Shared cars can be part of a portfolio of such measures.
Are fewer cars and more journeys better than the same number of total journeys made with more cars? Most definitely, yes. A larger number of parked cars for longer periods – in the case of Spurtleshire mostly on public streets – reduces space for other beneficial activities and uses; to name a few: wider pavements, more efficient public transport and city logistics, more attractive, greener cityscapes. Which in turn may encourage more walking (and cycling). In other words: a virtuous cycle.
Harald Tobermann
Pilrig Street
The sixth Edinburgh Climate Festival will take place next Saturday (14 August) from noon till 7pm in Leith Links East.
It’s a free, family-friendly event which aims to ‘educate, entertain and inspire the people of Edinburgh to take action against climate change’.
You can expect a market-style event with around 50 stalls hosting ‘interactive activities’. Highlights will include:
Police issued the following press release this morning. We reproduce it unedited and in full.
Police are appealing for information after a 58-year-old male cyclist was knocked from his bike by a vehicle that failed to stop on Mansfield Place, Edinburgh, on Wednesday, 4 August, 2021.
The incident happened about 7.30 am. The cyclist was taken by ambulance to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where he remains for treatment. His injuries, at this time, do not appear serious.
Constable Alexander Marshall, Edinburgh Road Policing Unit, said:
Local basketball players are crowdfunding to upgrade the popular court in the grounds of Drummond Community High School.
They’re motivated in part by a desire to upgrade dated hoops (currently at the wrong height) and replace concrete with tarmac.
The following correspondence appeared in the pages of the Edinburgh Evening Courant in 1852 and 1856.
Some details may have changed in the years since, but the general problem and particular tone are unmistakably familiar to students of New Town waste disposal.
As you read this, advance copies of the August Spurtle are already brightening the barony like sunbeams on gull-proof sacks.
We begin on Page 1, as is our style, with a soggy outlook, a moggy on a bicycle, and foggy prospects for an architectural gem.
As usual, we continue with Page 2, where you can find out how much better or worse you’re doing than average, catch up on the latest Jacobite news, and learn about the nitty gritty of Broughton’s collapsing bridges, beauty, bookshops, and B-listed conversions.
The condition of East London St seems to be deteriorating fast now that, post-lockdown, more heavy vehicles are using the route to avoid tramworks and northbound closures on Leith Walk.
Associated problems of noise and vibration prompted one resident to contact Lothian Buses, asking whether it had strayed from an agreement reached in November to limit the number of not-in-service vehicles using East London Street to 20 westbound and 5 eastbound between 7am and 7pm.
Spurtle has recently been contacted by Hiyacar. The ‘peer to peer’ car club operator has just introduced 15 vehicles to Edinburgh, five of them in Spurtleshire and one just the other side of Leith Walk.
The idea is that you book a car online, and then go to a private address near you to pick it up. Each one comes with a Quickstart interface, meaning you don’t have to deal with a troublesome or disease-ridden human being.