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Lime Legacy Documenting heritage, craft, and historic places — one region at a time. Scotland first. Europe later. https://www.limelegacy.co.uk

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Leith once had a place where a swimming trip meant flumes, a fast river run and an afternoon you didn’t want to end. Who...
15/10/2026

Leith once had a place where a swimming trip meant flumes, a fast river run and an afternoon you didn’t want to end. Who remembers Leith Waterworld?

Opened in 1992, Waterworld offered something different from swimming lengths in an ordinary pool. For children, it was an adventure. For parents, it was a day out that didn’t require leaving Edinburgh. A birthday treat, a weekend outing or a trip with your pals—everyone will have their own version of what made it special.

But the site had a very different story before the swimmers arrived. Waterworld was built on the site of the former Leith Central railway station. Where passengers once began journeys by train, another generation came through the doors with swimming bags and towels. Two very different chapters in the history of the same corner of Leith.

It wasn’t a straightforward twenty years. The pool temporarily closed in November 1999 following problems with the building, and its future later became the subject of a campaign to keep it open. Waterworld finally closed in January 2012, as funding was directed towards the refurbishment and reopening of the Royal Commonwealth Pool.

For the people who grew up going there, though, the story isn’t just about budgets, buildings or closure dates. It’s about the excitement of getting there, heading for the flumes and being told it was time to leave when you were convinced you’d only just arrived.

Were you a Waterworld regular? Did you go for birthdays, with your family or with your pals? And what’s the first thing you picture when someone mentions it—the flumes, the river run or something else entirely?

Share your memories below, and follow Lime Legacy for more Edinburgh history, lost places and the stories that bring them back.

“Meet me under the clock at Binns.”Before mobile phones and “Where are you?” messages, those words were enough to arrang...
14/10/2026

“Meet me under the clock at Binns.”

Before mobile phones and “Where are you?” messages, those words were enough to arrange a meeting in Edinburgh’s West End. For some, it was the start of a shopping trip. For others, a night out—or a first date. The clock on the corner of Princes Street and Hope Street became a familiar meeting place, particularly for couples.

Binns began trading here in 1931, taking over the former Robert Maule & Son department store. It offered clothes, household goods and a popular restaurant, making it another of the grand Edinburgh shops where a visit could be an occasion in itself.
Then, in 1960, came the feature that would outlast the store’s name: its projecting clock, with painted pipers that marched on the hour and half-hour. It wasn’t simply somewhere to check the time—it became somewhere to wait for someone who mattered.

The store became Frasers in 1976, but “Binns’ clock” remained part of the city’s vocabulary. After falling into disrepair, the clock was restored by the Cumbria Clock Company as part of the building’s transformation into Johnnie Walker Princes Street, with the restoration announced in 2021.

Did you ever arrange to meet under Binns’ clock? Was it a shopping day with your mum, a night out with friends—or the beginning of a relationship? And what did your family call the shop: Binns or Frasers?
Share your memories below.

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A restaurant with its own orchestra. Sixty departments. And a Santa who climbed down a 60-foot golden ladder. This wasn’...
13/10/2026

A restaurant with its own orchestra. Sixty departments. And a Santa who climbed down a 60-foot golden ladder. This wasn’t just shopping—this was PT’s, the Edinburgh department store that knew how to put on a show.

Patrick Thomson’s began in 1889 as a small haberdashery and drapery shop on South Bridge. In 1906, it moved to the imposing building at the southern end of North Bridge, giving it room to grow into what it proudly advertised as “The Shopping Centre of Scotland.” For generations, shopping “up the bridges” meant a visit to PT’s.

Across its 60 departments, customers could browse everything from the latest fashions and shoes to furniture, carpets and toys. Then there was the Palm Court restaurant, where you could enjoy views across Edinburgh while the in-house orchestra played. It was somewhere to shop, meet friends and make an occasion of an ordinary day.

But Christmas was when PT’s really came alive. In 1955, a crowd estimated at up to 5,000 gathered to watch Santa descend a 60-foot golden ladder, heralded by two trumpeters. Above the entrance, the sign promised “the store of a thousand gifts.” Imagine being a child in that crowd, looking up and waiting for Father Christmas.

The name changed to Arnotts in 1976, but many Edinburgh shoppers continued calling it PT’s until it closed in 1982. The building became the Carlton Hotel in 1984. The counters and departments disappeared, but the memories stayed with the people who shopped, worked and grew up with it.

Did you visit PT’s—or know someone who worked there? Do you remember the Palm Court, the Christmas displays or a favourite department? Share your memories below.

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Imagine being taken shopping in Edinburgh—and the bit you couldn’t wait for was the exotic birds on the roof. At Goldber...
12/10/2026

Imagine being taken shopping in Edinburgh—and the bit you couldn’t wait for was the exotic birds on the roof. At Goldbergs, a trip to buy a new coat could become a whole day out. Who remembers being taken there?

Opened in 1960 at High Riggs in Tollcross, the five-storey department store brought together shopping, a nursery, a rooftop café and a menagerie. You could eat with views towards Edinburgh Castle, then visit the rooftop aviary. For children, that was a very different experience from simply following their parents around the shops.

The building itself made an impression: huge glass windows, escalators and copper sculptures flanking the entrance at the top of the stairs. It was designed to be the showpiece of a proposed new city-centre road system—but the road scheme never happened. Goldbergs became a landmark in its own right.

Its story had begun in Glasgow in 1908, when Abraham Goldberg established the business that would grow into a chain of more than 100 outlets. The Edinburgh store was also unusual for initially closing on Saturdays in observance of the Jewish Sabbath.

Goldbergs closed in 1990, and the Tollcross building was demolished in 1996. But a vanished building can still hold a thousand personal memories: the escalators, the rooftop birds, lunch with your mum, or the colleagues you worked beside.

What’s the first thing you remember about Goldbergs? Did you visit the rooftop, shop there with your family, or work behind the counters? Tell us below.

follow Lime Legacy for more Edinburgh history, lost landmarks and the memories that keep them alive.

Before Little France. Before Lauriston Place. Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary began with just four beds.In August 1729, the ...
09/10/2026

Before Little France. Before Lauriston Place. Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary began with just four beds.

In August 1729, the first Edinburgh Infirmary opened in a small house at the head of Robertson’s Close in the Old Town. Paid for through a public appeal, it was a modest beginning for a hospital that would touch generations of Edinburgh lives.

A Royal Charter from King George II followed in 1736. By 1741, the hospital had moved to a new building designed by William Adam on what became Infirmary Street—with 228 beds instead of four.

But as Edinburgh grew, so did the need for care.
In 1879, the Royal Infirmary moved again, this time to Lauriston Place. Architect David Bryce designed the new hospital around the “pavilion” principles championed by Florence Nightingale. It was described at the time as “probably the best planned hospital” in Britain.

Beneath its imposing clock tower, wooden panels in the entrance hall recorded the names of the benefactors whose donations helped make it possible—a reminder that Edinburgh’s people were part of its story from the beginning.
Then came another name woven into the city’s memories: Simpson’s.

The Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion opened beside the main hospital in 1939, named after anaesthesia pioneer Sir James Young Simpson. For generations, “I was born at Simpson’s” became a familiar Edinburgh phrase.

For some, Lauriston Place means the start of a nursing career. For others, a hospital visit, a new baby, or someone they will never forget.

The Royal Infirmary has occupied four sites across its history. Its home is now at Little France, but the old hospital remains part of Edinburgh’s personal history—not just its architectural one.

Were you born at Simpson’s? Did you work, train or visit someone at the old Royal Infirmary? Share your memories below.

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Two towers. Two different centuries. One palace at the heart of Scotland’s history.Look closely at Holyroodhouse’s entra...
08/10/2026

Two towers. Two different centuries. One palace at the heart of Scotland’s history.

Look closely at Holyroodhouse’s entrance front. Its apparent symmetry hides a story: the north-west tower was built for James V in the sixteenth century. The matching south-west tower came much later, when architect Sir William Bruce transformed the palace for Charles II in the 1670s. What looks like one design is an architectural conversation across generations.

The story began with Holyrood Abbey, founded by David I in 1128. James IV developed a palace beside it in the early 1500s, and James V expanded the royal residence. At the foot of the Royal Mile, Holyrood became a setting for royal life, political ambition and some of Scotland’s most turbulent events.

Mary, Queen of Scots lived here between 1561 and 1567. On 9 March 1566, she was dining in the small supper room beside her bedchamber when her husband, Lord Darnley, and a group of Scottish lords intervened in the murder of her secretary, David Rizzio. The surviving rooms connect visitors directly to that violent chapter of her reign.

Between 1671 and 1679, Bruce’s rebuilding gave Holyroodhouse much of the appearance we recognise today, carefully incorporating the older tower into a new courtyard palace. In 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie established his court here for six weeks. Centuries later, it remains a working royal palace, used by the King for official engagements in Scotland.

For generations of Edinburgh residents and visitors, these gates have marked a familiar stop at the end of the Royal Mile. Behind them stands not a building frozen in one period, but a palace shaped by successive rulers, architects and craftspeople

Have you been inside Holyroodhouse—or is it a place you’ve always admired from the gates? Follow Lime Legacy for the stories behind Scotland’s historic places.

Before the houses, there were floodlights, flying shale and the roar of the Edinburgh Monarchs. Who remembers Powderhall...
07/10/2026

Before the houses, there were floodlights, flying shale and the roar of the Edinburgh Monarchs. Who remembers Powderhall?

Overlooking the Water of Leith on Beaverhall Road, Powderhall Stadium opened in January 1870. Long before speedway bikes and greyhounds became its familiar sights, it hosted athletics, cycling, football, boxing and international rugby. Hearts, Hibs and other Edinburgh clubs played there, while local cup finals brought rival supporters to the same ground.
For a century, it hosted the famous Powderhall Sprint—a professional handicap race where runners started from different positions to give competitors a more equal chance. Scotland also played two rugby internationals there: an 8–3 victory over Ireland in February 1897 and a 3–3 draw with England in March 1898. This was not simply a neighbourhood stadium; it was a stage for Scottish sporting history.

Converted into a greyhound stadium in the 1920s, Powderhall hosted the Scottish Grand National for more than 65 years. Then came the speedway nights: engines roaring, bikes sliding through the bends and supporters cheering on the Edinburgh Monarchs. For those who went, the memories are not just of results—they are of the noise, the atmosphere and the people beside them.

Powderhall closed in 1995, and housing now occupies the site. The track and terraces have gone, but its place in Edinburgh’s memory remains.

Did you go to Powderhall—for the speedway, the greyhounds or the athletics? Tell us who you went with.
Follow Lime Legacy for more of Edinburgh’s lost places and the stories they leave behind.

They were told Scottish football was not for Irishmen. Hibernian’s answer became a history stretching over 150 years.Fou...
06/10/2026

They were told Scottish football was not for Irishmen. Hibernian’s answer became a history stretching over 150 years.

Founded on 6 August 1875 by Edinburgh’s Irish community as an offshoot of the Catholic Young Men’s Society, Hibernian took their name from Hibernia, the Roman name for Ireland. Their beginnings were rooted in the Cowgate, with St Patrick’s Church providing meeting facilities and early match proceeds supporting local community projects. Initially rejected by football authorities, they played their first recorded match against Hearts on Christmas Day 1875—the beginning of a rivalry that would become part of Edinburgh’s identity.

From those modest beginnings came silverware: victory over Hearts in the Edinburgh Association Cup in 1879, followed by a first Scottish Cup in 1887, beating Dumbarton 2–1 at Cathkin Park. Another followed in 1902. But for many supporters, the golden memories belong to the Famous Five: Gordon Smith, Bobby Johnstone, Lawrie Reilly, Eddie Turnbull and Willie Ormond. Their era brought three league championships between 1948 and 1952, before Hibs became the first British club to enter the European Cup in 1955, reaching the semi-finals.

Then came Turnbull’s Tornadoes, the 1972 League Cup triumph, and generations who watched Easter Road change from old terraces into the stadium we know today. A 5–1 victory over Kilmarnock brought another League Cup in 2007. And in 2016, a 3–2 win over Rangers finally ended a 114-year wait for the Scottish Cup—a moment that connected living supporters with generations who had never seen it happen.

From the Cowgate to Easter Road, this is more than a football story. It is a story of belonging, resilience and memories handed down through families.

Follow Lime Legacy for more of Scotland’s history and the places that hold it.

Before Tynecastle became one of Scotland’s most famous football grounds, Hearts had already outgrown their first home ac...
05/10/2026

Before Tynecastle became one of Scotland’s most famous football grounds, Hearts had already outgrown their first home across Gorgie Road.

Hearts played at the original Tynecastle from 1881, on ground around today’s Wardlaw Street and Wardlaw Place. But as Gorgie changed and tenements rose around the old pitch, the club moved to the site we know today.

On 10 April 1886, more than 5,000 people watched Hearts open the new Tynecastle with a 4–1 win over Bolton Wanderers. The pitch itself had cost just £200 to lay. No towering stands. No modern concourses. Just a growing club, a new ground and a community beginning to make it its own.

Tynecastle expanded with Hearts. Terracing and a cycling track were added in the 1890s as crowds grew. By the early twentieth century, it had become one of the great homes of Scottish football—close to the streets, close to the supporters, and unmistakably Gorgie.

Then came 1914. Architect Archibald Leitch was commissioned to design a new Main Stand, replacing the earlier east-side pavilion and stands. It stood for more than a century before being replaced in 2017—but its importance was never just the structure. It was the sound, the squeeze of the old terraces, the walk down Gorgie Road, and the generations who made Tynecastle feel like home.

A football ground built in 1886. A home shaped by the people who filled it.

Follow Lime Legacy for the real stories behind Scotland’s places.

04/10/2026

The Royal Mile, brought back to life.
For a moment, Edinburgh moves again: footsteps on the cobbles, figures passing through the Old Town, and St Giles’ Cathedral watching over the street as it has for centuries.
A glimpse of the city as it once was—busy, lived-in, and unmistakably Edinburgh.

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