Edinburgh is still lovely.... I used to live there in 1986 as a wild and fun loving 21 year old. I'll be 60 in January 2025 and my wife is taking me there for a wee city break to celebrate. It means a lot to me that grand old city. I can't wait to see it again.
Streets of Edinburgh by The Proclaimers is a great song paying tribute to the city. It is heartfelt and moving, like many of their other songs. It is fifteen years since I last went but hearing it and seeing the video makes me want to go. Have a great time when you visit!
Wow look how smart and respectable people were, people dressed in their finest to go into town. Beautiful city and of course kudos to the film restorer.👏👍🏴
@@ewenmac3127 using Ai to make it all smoothed out and crisp is fabby. Seen few from WW2 and they’re insightful .. tragic to see so many young scared faces .
There are some amazing scenes being shown here; an aeroplane gliding over the train bridge, grand scenes of castles/buildings in the horizon, children mingling in the frontdoor alleyways, the old women with her wicker basket, soldiers making the rounds in the courtyard, cannon fire in the castle rims, even the man feeding birds in the park is a rare thing to see in film like this. So much about everyday life of the average Scott that isn't just walking down streets. This videographer had quite the weekend touring around Scotland, making film of the commonwealth that we all get to see here in the 21 Century. Such a gift.
@@scotlandtheinsane3359 Agreed. I am a *Scot* ... Hopefully a wee slip of the keyboard? Whatever, a beautiful recollection of Auld Reekie. Stay free. Rab
Auld Reekie at its best! This brings back fond memories - my family left Edinburgh for Australia when I was 13, in 1961. I paid my respects to the city the day before we left by climbing Scott Monument to the top. I return as frequently as I can via videos such as this. Thanks so much.
My family also nearly went to Oz, but chickened out. My mother wouldn't have coped with the snakes & deadly spiders & the heat. When you got there, you didn't get that well treated really & looked down being a pom.
Happy to say Edinburgh still looks like this! Apart from everyone being dressed so elegant and those amazing stylish cars and trams but in general you can still see the same views❤
The buildings are much cleaner! Much of the beautiful sandstone was stained black by smoke. There was a reason why Edinburgh was known as "Auld Reekie"!
I was there last year for my niece's wedding. A lot still looks the same. Edinburgh was fortunate to not get many buildings bombed in WW 2. That is why a visit there will allow you to see most of what is in this wonderful restored piece. Many thanks from Canada!
@seltaeb9691 "In comparison to other Scottish cities, Edinburgh had a fairly quiet war with only 47 high explosive 'missiles' dropped in 14 raids by the Luftwaffe. The fourteenth raid, at 11.20pm on 6th July 1942, saw four 500lb bombs dropped on 35 Loaning Crescent, the junction of Loaning Road and Crescent and Craigentinny House, along with the vacant ground nearby. Several people, including the caretaker at Craigentinny Castle, were killed."
I was born and grew up here. It's fascinating how little it has changed. There are so many iconic, historic buildings in the city centre so it hasn't had the transformation of other cities. Only the beautiful cars and the way people dressed is different, blending in much more with the aesthetic of the environment around them. It's like the Edinburgh you imagine...
Totally agree. My gdad said worst thing was getting rid of the trams. I think he’s right. Look at bother we had to live with getting trams back. ( if your on the train lines ) My auntie worked in James Ritchie clock makers all her life. We d go to the gardens and see the flower clock and wee bird . Her shop maintained many big clocks in edin , garden being one. Such lovely memories
@@lynnstevenson11 The trams look great, so much better than what we have now. Seems much more practical too. You can see how well the Garden was looked after back then, I can imagine the clock would have been well maintained.
@@davidwilliammusic beautifully said , we love our city . I’m looking for a wee house jn fife now. Perhaps a wee change jn my older years 🫨 can come back and be a tourist when I visit my son.
@@lynnstevenson11 My grannie worked on the trams in the 50s. The trams died off because they're impractical, having to lay tracks etc. It's a pity the council didn't learn from this fact, and chose instead to put dozens of people out of business by closing roads for years for a vanity project to create new trams, for double the estimated cost. This is what above-the-law criminality looks like.
@@davidwilliammusic The company that still maintains the Floral Clock today is the same one that created it in 1903 (when it only had one hand for the hour). The minute hand was added in 1904.
This is just breathtaking! The way you’ve added color and restored the video truly brings Edinburgh to life! Thanks for sharing this amazing look into Edinburgh’s history-it really feels like a mini time travel journey! 💖
Amazingly well done! You did an excellent job of adding the sound, and the video quality has been beautifully restored and possibly even improved. There are so many little gems of daily life, at the time, to spot as you watch. Edinburgh is easily recognizable, and looks very much the same today. Thank you for doing this!
Beautiful footage!!... I was on a tour of Scotland back in 2011!!...Looks like I can just walk through the screen.. Dressed beautifully, & clean streets too!... Beautiful flowers &:lovely parks.. What a great joy to see this!. Thanks for posting of You Tube! 🙏🤗
You say clean streets.. this was because there were still a lot of horses about and the muck they produced had to be cleared up quickly. My father said that the city stank in the summer!
@@felixthecat265 The dung used to be collected and piled near the canal basin to be transported out of the city by barge, the piles of dung would attract swarms of flies bringing disease - my great grandfather lived near the canal basin - two of his teenage siblings , and his 50 year-old father died from typhoid fever
@@kingofdubb2133 Yes, although originally all the drains and sewers went down to a marsh that was in the Lochend area. The slaughter houses were were Waverley station now stands and drained to the East. When the canal came, most trade and industry was in the wedge from Fountainbridge out to Gorgie which was also the route taken by the railways from the West with huge goods yards at Haymarket and opposite the Usher Hall.
my great aunt used to visit her relatives in edinburgh for 5 weeks during summer school holidays around 1905 to 1920 ........i still have the little suitcase she used to travel with......its in immaculate condition............she lived to the grand old age of 98.
WOW!!!!! Thanks so much! Incredible footage, beautifully restored to almost make me feel like I was there, then ----- and what a city it was! When looking at structures like the great castle on the hilltop, with the cliffs all around, I also find myself amazed at the incredible amount of manpower and energy it must have taken to create such massive fortifications!
Really enjoyed that! My grandparents bought their first house in 1930s in Edinburgh, he said he was the first person in his street to own a car! Glad to say alot of Edinburgh hasn't changed, alot of buildings still there!
I’m from Edinburgh. Most of the centre of the city has been retained, architecturally-speaking, but my God, did they ruin Princes Street. Just a couple of decades after this was filmed they bulldozed a good chunk of this once-glorious street (particularly the most Western/Central bits) and built utter crud. The biggest stain is that brutal, horrendous grey scar at the bottom of the Mound. Wtf _were_ they thinking? It’s like Grotbags the witch just pitched up at the Miss World pageant.🤦♂️ They bulldoze glorious old classic Edinburgh sandstone stuff (beautifully modelled on Venetian palaces) and built something that wouldn’t look out of place in the grottiest bit of downtown Bucharest! Further West and there’s more pointless destruction and replacing it with architecture just not in keeping with most of the rest of the city. The commercial imperative probably. Whatever it is/was, beginning about 1960, they ruined what was once the centrepiece jewel in Edinburgh’s crown. All that remains is to stand on Princes Street, turn your back on the scabby shops, grim 60s/70s/80s architecture and gum-spattered pavements and drink in the Castle and view of the Old Town to the left.
This is beautifully and sensitively colorised, and done with great respect to the original material. It's very evocative of the city before the war, I think.The cityscapes seem not so different to the Edinburgh of today but it's interesting to see the road traffic, trams and trains. The clothing fashions of the time, too, even the hairstyles. I notice there were a lot fewer overweight people 90 years back than now.
It's hard to express how much I enjoyed this short film, except to say that I simply loved it !! ❤ Taken 25 years before my birth, it nevertheless showed my beautiful hometown in all its glory and with the addition of colour brought it to life in a way that seemed very familiar to me and that was joyous. Thank you. ❤
Fascinating. I live in the Old Town (Grass Market), and I work just off the east end of Princes Street. So, I walk past many of these sites every day- down Milne's Court or sometimes down the News Steps. Much has changed, obviously, but so much looks the same.
Great colour video of Edinburgh. Brought back lots of memories from when I was a soldier in the 1st Battalion Royal Scots. I remember guarding Edinburgh Castle in the 70s. Marching up and down the High Street from Castle to Palace (on thoes slippery cobbles). Then when we had day off, it would be down to the pubs in Rose Street. 😀
Tremendous. Great quality. Thanks for posting. Makes you realise not a lot has changed over the years. I remember going to Edinburgh for the first time in 1999. While there, I remarked to my wife that it reminded me of London in the 1960's. After the 60's, London changed beyond recognition. But Edinburgh still remains a lovely place.
@CatchersCatch In the 1980s if you had spoken to older people they would have told you how much Princes St had already deteriorated! They would probably have said that it had been going downhill since the early 1960s. There were still some decent shops left in the 1980s but it certainly wasn't part of its Golden Age.
can't wait to go back up to Edinburgh, was there early 2024 and it still looks like this, aside from modern vehicles, fashion, and businesses, the architecture is intact, beautiful city.
I was in Edinburgh years ago. As a visitor of the “New World” where everything is modern lacking any history. Edinburgh is still one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited.
Edinburgh is a great city for tourists, but not such a great city to live in. This video shows that the city is stuck 100 years - or perhaps 900 years - in the past. 🫤
Simply Amazing! I live in Edinburgh and watching this and all these places that are familiar to me was like stepping into a time machine! Thank you for sharing!
Stepping back in time! Beautiful job on the colorization - the shades and tints are just perfect, nothing too vivid so you get the atmosphere of the time. Soundscape super as well.
Several segments brought me to tears as this was the era my mother lived in Edinburgh. It is possible I even recognized someone! Congratulations. You did a wonderful and sensitive restoration. Topaz (I assume?) could use your results to sell their product!
@@chrisinnes2128 I think you replied to the wrong person. When this film was shot it would have been quite a long journey from Kirkaldy (a town, not a village) to Edinburgh. As the crow flies if might be about 10-12 miles, but that is over the sea! The road journey would have been about 30 miles and those would have been along small twisty roads. Even by train, which I did several times, it was well over an hour because it had so many stops. I think it is more likely that your greatgrandparents only visited the capital once or twice a year for a big day out.
It is very nice that you have preserved your history, culture and nature as they are and brought them to this day without changing them. Nothing has changed except the buses, cars and clothes. Another beautiful, natural and historical city. Edinburgh, I love you so much.❤
Apart from the retail buildings on Princes Street, virtually every building and view in this film is still there! The whole centre of Edinburgh, both the Old Town and the New Town, is a World Heritage site and can’t be, and won’t be, significantly altered.
Wonderful to see my home town almost 100 years ago. Made me think of my late gran & grandad walking along Princes st. & strolling through the gardens back in those years!
I was amazed at how scruffy Ramsay Garden looked. The city has cleaned up beautifully and we are lucky that there have been so few desecrations. Loved seeing the styles of clothes and men in caps and hats ( ever a top hat). The city had a delightful buzz about it.
I have seen this video before but in black and white. The colour really adds an extra dimension. One thing to remember is that Edinburgh encompassed a comparatively small area back in the 1930s. I know this is slightly earlier but when Murrayfield rugby stadium was opened in 1925, it was in a semi-rural location, albeit that there was ribbon development to the north to Corstorphine and Barnton, and to the south to Gorgie and Slateford. The big post-war council estates in Pilton, Wester Hailes, Craigmillar etc vastly increased the footprint of Edinburgh. Similarly, residents shopped more in Princes Street and nearby, because the shopping centres like those at Cameron Toll, the Gyle and Fort Kinnaird didn't exist. There is a short sequence of one of the closes off the High Street, where life was probably pretty grim back then, right in the city centre, with several families sharing one toilet and bathroom. However, most of this film looks as if it was produced to show the better side of Auld Reekie. As someone who grew up in Edinburgh, I need to remember that most viewers of this video won't know Edinburgh as well as I do and are more interested in seeing the touristy bits. It was curious to see the junction of Queensferry Street, Hope Street and Shandwick Place just next to Frasers department store (formerly Binns), which was completely freeflow since before I remember in the 1960s, whereas for decades traffic was prevented from going from Hope Street or Queensferry Street onto Shandwick Place. More recently, access has been returned there, albeit with a bit of extra traffic management. Also, George Street seems unbelievably wide without all the cars parked down the middle.
My home town!! Believe it or not I’m lying in bed catching up on TH-cam and this amazing video recommendation just popped up out of nowhere. 1:40 - I walked up these same “Playfair Steps” about 4 hours ago. I’ve just checked the b & w original (in the link) and I can see what a fantastic job the person has done to colourise, increase the sharpness and add fitting ambient sounds. 👏👏👏Well done. 👏👏👏Seriously, it’s 92 years later and I feel so nostalgic. I yearn for these simpler ages when Edinburgh was authentic and amazing. I really wish we could return to these days when everyone dressed so well and my city wasn’t overrun with the effects of mass tourism. Too much architecture has sadly been replaced by ugly, brutal ‘modern’ monstrosities and nowadays we have the equivalent of a full-size railway train running through the main thoroughfare, Princes Street. It’s what passes as a modern tram. The olden days trams were so elegant in comparison.😢😢
What a beautiful city I live in... more locals in the 1930s...daein yer knitting walking up the stairs! They were the days... BRILLIANT video!!! Thank you ❤
Great Footage!!... So very beautiful; I visited Scotland back in 2011!.. Stunning buildings, - look how beautifully the people dressed!.. Like going back in a time machine; I can just step in... Looks clean - crisp..😊
Had the chance to visit Edinburgh back in 2006 for my work. Stayed at a hotel on Princes Street right across from the Scott Monument. A really beautiful city.
I'm in Edinburgh right now for a Xmas wkend. So beautiful to see Princes St how it used to be & the lovely trams & cars. Even how classy people dressed. I wish there was a time machine😔
It was no42 princess street where tk max is now unfortunately the block of flats that his shop was under burnt down you could probably find some info on Google it was called Robert Tait tobacconist
One of those little girls in uniform could be my late mother, though she went to school in Polmont she was often in Edinburgh for music and public speaking exams. Was at school myself in Edinburgh in the late 60s/ 70s. Happy memories. (Mostly)
Yea, a society that was a few short years away from a war that killed millions. Every time one of these videos goes up someone pops up to say how much better things were then. They weren’t.
Excellent film.. even some shots of my old school! It is very much as I remember it as a child in the 1950s.. The shot of the Newhaven fish wife climbing the close steps is particularly fine. They would come up from Newhaven on the coast to the top of Leith Walk on the back of a lorry and then get a bus or tram to parts of the city. They carried whole fish in the lower basket (known as a creel) and dump it on your front door (Never the back door!). She would then lift the top basket and you chose your fish which she would then gut and fillet on a board in the top basket. You did not cross a Fishwife and it is said nobody ever won an argument with one! My Great Aunt ran a "Fishwives Choir" in Leith and they were a scary lot! Some of the colouration is not quite right.. the City trams and buses were all maroon and cream and the school uniforms are not correct, but you would have to be good at badge spotting to see the difference.
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Everything looked so very clean and well-tended; they had a pride in the environment in which they lived (sadly missing nowadays).
The fact that pretty much all of this is recognisable in 2024, as someone who grew up in Edinburgh, throws up a conundrum. The architecture is spectacular but it also conveys the feeling that, in some ways, it is a city that is stuck in the past. While there are affluent areas like Morningside and Barnton, outside the city centre, Edinburgh is not particularly different from other places in Scotland but of course the tourists tend not to wander too much out of the centre, unless it is to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith Docks.
Aye. Scots are conservative with a very wee 'c'. The rule is, if it isna broke dinna fix it, My home in Kirriemuir is older than New Zealand where our daughter lives.
Why change it, its better than the ugly brutalist buildings lauded elsewhere. Many cities look the same depressing concrete, and you could be anywhere. Edinburgh has uniqueness, character and beautiful architecture. I am Glaswegian but lived in Edinburgh for 3 years. Loved wandering around, particularly the Old Town. As you say, if you want to feel you are anywhere else, there is always the rest of the city.
It may appear to be clean but it really wasn't! The clean air legislation had to be brought in due to the levels of ill health. When open fires were eventually phased out they finally started to clean up the stone of many of the old buildings (from the 1970s onwards). Edinburgh was known as Auld Reekie for a reason. In those days if you had washing drying outside on a line and it started to rain everyone would panic and run to bring it in as quick as possible ... not because it would get wet but because it would become stained with soot smuts and have to be washed again.
I know this film is of Edinburgh, but it got me thinking about my Scottish dad. My late dad was born in Govan Glasgow in 1931. He would have been 1 year old when these pictures were taken. He passed away aged 91 in 2022.
How are people supposed to look 'healthy'? This was the era when many died from tuberculosis, died or were maimed by polio. The poor lived with flees and bed bugs. Life expectancy was far shorter than today. Living conditions for many were far worse than today and no antibiotics to fight diseases. My grandfather's brother Harry died in 1932 at the age of 40 because there was no treatment for a simple heart condition.
@@nevillemason6791 ...and the air quality was dreadful! Steam locomotives in the middle of the city ... every property with open fires ... traffic ... more people smoking ... many of the buildings were black so imagine the state of people's lungs!
Thats because there wasnt. The audio was designed synthetically by person who restored it. The cameras did not record audio back then. Thats why you had silent movies
@@SpekulantossThis was filmed after ww1 in the early 30s & talkies had started by then. This tho is a private cine camera without sound & has had street noise added today.
The statue of the soldier is absolutely incredible. Hearing the pipe band from so long ago. The auld wifie climbing the steps while knitting. And how stylish the clothing was. Great video.
Amazing! Thank you, guys. A fantastic restoration job. (Cannon-blast & snare drum sounds would have made it 👌🏻 perfect.) Lovely to know that Auld Reekie is almost unchanged to this day...the trams were better back then 😆
I miss what I thought was an uncomplicated time when we just met in the park and had a lovely time together. Without the damn smartphone without constantly showing or taking any cell phone photos. Just chatting about normal things. Nowadays you get yelled at if you ask someone if you want to do something. Even going to the cinema is no longer relevant for some people these days. In my opinion, cinema is a cool thing. I don't speak for everyone, but a lot of things have unfortunately been forgotten these days.. :(
What a great little film and what a wonderful city was (still is?) Edinburgh ....Britain was the great country which colonised half the planet and brought the modern world to many people in no measure thanks to the brains and brawn of Scottish men and women. Now look at the mess we are in.....P.S... what was that old lady with a basket on her back carrying and how fit she must have been to get up all those steps ?!
The tram down Princes St is ironic considering one has just been re-installed at a cost of many millions. It’s a great shame most cities removed them and the tracks.
The old trams went everywhere around the city and suburbs ... it was a true tram network, unlike what was more recently installed at great cost and disruption, which is really just a single route into the city from the direction of the airport.
@@eightiesmusic1984 A stupid comment is complaining about people wearing hoodies, trainers and denim. Thank god they didn’t film in the poorer parts of Edinburgh, you lot might have a heart attack!
Greetings from Scotland! Fascinating that the things that have changed the most are the way people dress, the modes of transport! Princes Street looks just as busy as it is today, definitely a lot less one-way systems and traffic lights though! 😊😊
Everything looks remarkably similar to how it is today. Edinbugh is fortunate that it escaped WW2 largely unscathed unlike many other cities in the UK.
I run everyday in Edinburgh and take about 20 photos each time, plus a ton of video. I imagine in 92 years my great grandchildren will look at them and be fascinated as history as I am looking at this. (This is of course rather a leap considering I don’t even think I’ll have kids given my non-existent love life, and of course assuming Edinburgh isn’t carpet bombed by then)
I think the colourisation of the Forth Bridge isn't quite right. My understanding is that it's always been the same red oxide colour that it is today. Unless they really let it get into a mess in the 1930s, it's not the grey colour shown here. I know colourisation is a bit hit and miss though, it must be difficult to effectively invent colour information not present in the original footage.
in which city in the world do you want to live in 1930s???
@@NASS_0 although cities in Germany and Italy were beautiful I am not sure I would like to have been there then due to the politics
@@Grant-f2d Germany and Italy cool!
Chicago with Al Capone 😀👍.
I think a US city would have been most exciting!
@@celticberts3207 i love chicago!
Edinburgh is still lovely....
I used to live there in 1986 as a wild and fun loving 21 year old. I'll be 60 in January 2025 and my wife is taking me there for a wee city break to celebrate.
It means a lot to me that grand old city.
I can't wait to see it again.
Have a wonderful time! Doesn't '86 seem like last week?
Streets of Edinburgh by The Proclaimers is a great song paying tribute to the city. It is heartfelt and moving, like many of their other songs. It is fifteen years since I last went but hearing it and seeing the video makes me want to go. Have a great time when you visit!
I hope it still lives up to your expectations! 👌🏻
I was born in Edinburgh in 86… you in the prime of your life and me just starting mine
@@titteryenot4524 In '86 he was starting tho'
Wow look how smart and respectable people were, people dressed in their finest to go into town. Beautiful city and of course kudos to the film restorer.👏👍🏴
These remastered 60fps films are mesmerizing. The nearest we'll get to time travel.
Thanks ^^
That's what you think. Soon, you'll be able to time travel back to now and post cryptic comments on TH-cam. Trust me. 😉
@@ewenmac3127 using Ai to make it all smoothed out and crisp is fabby. Seen few from WW2 and they’re insightful .. tragic to see so many young scared faces .
@@NASS_0 great videos
Neil DeGrasse Tyson said many years ago that AI is the nearest we will ever get to time travel. He's right again 😊
Loved the woman carrying that basket up the steps and knitting at the same time.
That was very impressive.
The women used to carry heavy peat loads on their backs and knit socks at the same time. The socks and other handknits were sold for extra income.
Were they not the Newhaven fishwife sellers?
She was probably 38 years old.
@@BurmaEK yes i remember them from the 1950s
There are some amazing scenes being shown here; an aeroplane gliding over the train bridge, grand scenes of castles/buildings in the horizon, children mingling in the frontdoor alleyways, the old women with her wicker basket, soldiers making the rounds in the courtyard, cannon fire in the castle rims, even the man feeding birds in the park is a rare thing to see in film like this. So much about everyday life of the average Scott that isn't just walking down streets. This videographer had quite the weekend touring around Scotland, making film of the commonwealth that we all get to see here in the 21 Century. Such a gift.
You forgot the wee boy picking his nose 4:44.
@WullieBoy-c7f digging for gold realy is a time honored tradition.
'The average Scott'...
@@scotlandtheinsane3359 Agreed. I am a *Scot* ... Hopefully a wee slip of the keyboard?
Whatever, a beautiful recollection of Auld Reekie.
Stay free. Rab
@@RHR-221b
I dunno.
I see this phenomena a LOT...
Auld Reekie at its best! This brings back fond memories - my family left Edinburgh for Australia when I was 13, in 1961. I paid my respects to the city the day before we left by climbing Scott Monument to the top. I return as frequently as I can via videos such as this. Thanks so much.
Thx!
My family also nearly went to Oz, but chickened out. My mother wouldn't have coped with the snakes & deadly spiders & the heat. When you got there, you didn't get that well treated really & looked down being a pom.
Little did thes soldiers know that they would soon be marching to wardrums
It's funny how recognisable a lot of these places still are nearly 100 years later. The main things that have changed are the clothing and the cars.
Nobody back then would have ever uttered "it's shite being Scottish!"
These Graffitis as well. It has made the whole city like a slum.
No fat people.
@@Voeloksasdiversity is our strength!
@@christinah7716good point, no ethnic here, no coincidence the place looks clean
Happy to say Edinburgh still looks like this! Apart from everyone being dressed so elegant and those amazing stylish cars and trams but in general you can still see the same views❤
The shops are not the same
@@colinjames2469 Originally it was purely residential. Shops began appearing in the early 1800s.
The buildings are much cleaner! Much of the beautiful sandstone was stained black by smoke. There was a reason why Edinburgh was known as "Auld Reekie"!
The sound effects are all wrong unfortunately pipes playing over brass bands and modern traffic sounds. Nice work otherwise though.
Like hell it does...
I was there last year for my niece's wedding. A lot still looks the same. Edinburgh was fortunate to not get many buildings bombed in WW 2. That is why a visit there will allow you to see most of what is in this wonderful restored piece. Many thanks from Canada!
There wasn't any bombing of Edinburgh bar the Forth Estuary.
@seltaeb9691
"In comparison to other Scottish cities, Edinburgh had a fairly quiet war with only 47 high explosive 'missiles' dropped in 14 raids by the Luftwaffe. The fourteenth raid, at 11.20pm on 6th July 1942, saw four 500lb bombs dropped on 35 Loaning Crescent, the junction of Loaning Road and Crescent and Craigentinny House, along with the vacant ground nearby. Several people, including the caretaker at Craigentinny Castle, were killed."
thank you very much
Edinburgh's now full of pakkies, Indians, Chinese and illegal immigrants.
The Industrial Revolution did far more damage to British architecture than the Blitz. to be honest.
I was born and grew up here. It's fascinating how little it has changed. There are so many iconic, historic buildings in the city centre so it hasn't had the transformation of other cities. Only the beautiful cars and the way people dressed is different, blending in much more with the aesthetic of the environment around them. It's like the Edinburgh you imagine...
Totally agree. My gdad said worst thing was getting rid of the trams. I think he’s right. Look at bother we had to live with getting trams back. ( if your on the train lines )
My auntie worked in James Ritchie clock makers all her life. We d go to the gardens and see the flower clock and wee bird . Her shop maintained many big clocks in edin , garden being one. Such lovely memories
@@lynnstevenson11 The trams look great, so much better than what we have now. Seems much more practical too. You can see how well the Garden was looked after back then, I can imagine the clock would have been well maintained.
@@davidwilliammusic beautifully said , we love our city . I’m looking for a wee house jn fife now. Perhaps a wee change jn my older years 🫨 can come back and be a tourist when I visit my son.
@@lynnstevenson11 My grannie worked on the trams in the 50s. The trams died off because they're impractical, having to lay tracks etc. It's a pity the council didn't learn from this fact, and chose instead to put dozens of people out of business by closing roads for years for a vanity project to create new trams, for double the estimated cost. This is what above-the-law criminality looks like.
@@davidwilliammusic The company that still maintains the Floral Clock today is the same one that created it in 1903 (when it only had one hand for the hour). The minute hand was added in 1904.
This is just breathtaking! The way you’ve added color and restored the video truly brings Edinburgh to life! Thanks for sharing this amazing look into Edinburgh’s history-it really feels like a mini time travel journey! 💖
oh Thx!!!^^
I was born and raised (and still living) in Edinburgh. This is so amazing! Seeing my home city from 90 years ago. This is stunning work!
Amazingly well done! You did an excellent job of adding the sound, and the video quality has been beautifully restored and possibly even improved. There are so many little gems of daily life, at the time, to spot as you watch. Edinburgh is easily recognizable, and looks very much the same today. Thank you for doing this!
oh! Thanks!! ^^
Imagining Miss Jean Brodie amongst the Princess Street crowd. 😉Wonderfully restored film. 👏
thank you very much
Hah, that’s who I was thinking of too. Walking with her head up, like Sybil Thorndike. 😂
Great city, great times and great video restoration effort!
thank you very much
Beautiful footage!!...
I was on a tour of Scotland back in 2011!!...Looks like I can just walk through the screen..
Dressed beautifully, & clean streets too!...
Beautiful flowers &:lovely parks..
What a great joy to see this!.
Thanks for posting of You Tube!
🙏🤗
Thanks
You say clean streets.. this was because there were still a lot of horses about and the muck they produced had to be cleared up quickly. My father said that the city stank in the summer!
@@felixthecat265 The dung used to be collected and piled near the canal basin to be transported out of the city by barge, the piles of dung would attract swarms of flies bringing disease - my great grandfather lived near the canal basin - two of his teenage siblings , and his 50 year-old father died from typhoid fever
@@kingofdubb2133 Yes, although originally all the drains and sewers went down to a marsh that was in the Lochend area. The slaughter houses were were Waverley station now stands and drained to the East. When the canal came, most trade and industry was in the wedge from Fountainbridge out to Gorgie which was also the route taken by the railways from the West with huge goods yards at Haymarket and opposite the Usher Hall.
my great aunt used to visit her relatives in edinburgh for 5 weeks during summer school holidays around 1905 to 1920 ........i still have the little suitcase she used to travel with......its in immaculate condition............she lived to the grand old age of 98.
Another amazing restoration. Thanks for saving history, NASS!
thank you very much
NASS🍆
Thank you🏰
Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities in the world l. ❤
yes!! ^^
It was once, sadly no more! 😢
Wanna become my l0ver?
@@pussycats456 still is
WOW!!!!! Thanks so much! Incredible footage, beautifully restored to almost make me feel like I was there, then ----- and what a city it was! When looking at structures like the great castle on the hilltop, with the cliffs all around, I also find myself amazed at the incredible amount of manpower and energy it must have taken to create such massive fortifications!
thank you very much
Really enjoyed that! My grandparents bought their first house in 1930s in Edinburgh, he said he was the first person in his street to own a car! Glad to say alot of Edinburgh hasn't changed, alot of buildings still there!
Truly wonderful what a beautiful trip back in time .
Amazing; great job and looks like it’s been shot yesterday.
thank you very much
I was in Edinburgh yesterday. You would be disappointed.
Amazing footage it looks so much nicer than today thank you for sharing ❤️
Thx!!
Seriously? Picturesque poverty?
@@davidpanton3192at least people looked after each other compared to the mess we are in today on our way to poverty
@@davidpanton3192 It's no good if there are no grooming gangs
I’m from Edinburgh. Most of the centre of the city has been retained, architecturally-speaking, but my God, did they ruin Princes Street. Just a couple of decades after this was filmed they bulldozed a good chunk of this once-glorious street (particularly the most Western/Central bits) and built utter crud. The biggest stain is that brutal, horrendous grey scar at the bottom of the Mound. Wtf _were_ they thinking? It’s like Grotbags the witch just pitched up at the Miss World pageant.🤦♂️ They bulldoze glorious old classic Edinburgh sandstone stuff (beautifully modelled on Venetian palaces) and built something that wouldn’t look out of place in the grottiest bit of downtown Bucharest! Further West and there’s more pointless destruction and replacing it with architecture just not in keeping with most of the rest of the city. The commercial imperative probably. Whatever it is/was, beginning about 1960, they ruined what was once the centrepiece jewel in Edinburgh’s crown. All that remains is to stand on Princes Street, turn your back on the scabby shops, grim 60s/70s/80s architecture and gum-spattered pavements and drink in the Castle and view of the Old Town to the left.
This is beautifully and sensitively colorised, and done with great respect to the original material. It's very evocative of the city before the war, I think.The cityscapes seem not so different to the Edinburgh of today but it's interesting to see the road traffic, trams and trains. The clothing fashions of the time, too, even the hairstyles. I notice there were a lot fewer overweight people 90 years back than now.
This is during the depression
It's hard to express how much I enjoyed this short film, except to say that I simply loved it !! ❤ Taken 25 years before my birth, it nevertheless showed my beautiful hometown in all its glory and with the addition of colour brought it to life in a way that seemed very familiar to me and that was joyous. Thank you. ❤
welcome ;)
Fascinating. I live in the Old Town (Grass Market), and I work just off the east end of Princes Street. So, I walk past many of these sites every day- down Milne's Court or sometimes down the News Steps. Much has changed, obviously, but so much looks the same.
Great colour video of Edinburgh. Brought back lots of memories from when I was a soldier in the 1st Battalion Royal Scots. I remember guarding Edinburgh Castle in the 70s. Marching up and down the High Street from Castle to Palace (on thoes slippery cobbles). Then when we had day off, it would be down to the pubs in Rose Street. 😀
Great restored footage so well done!
Thanks ;)
@@NASS_0 loved it, but Edinburgh is so much more. water of leith, the meadows, could go on. thanks
Tremendous. Great quality. Thanks for posting.
Makes you realise not a lot has changed over the years.
I remember going to Edinburgh for the first time in 1999. While there, I remarked to my wife that it reminded me of London in the 1960's.
After the 60's, London changed beyond recognition. But Edinburgh still remains a lovely place.
Auld Reekie, my home town, views still the same, Princes St a shadow of itself with tat tourist shops. Best bus service in the world.
Princess St is a tacky shithole now sadly
True. Princes Street looks shabby now. Edinburgh was THE city back in the 1980s.
@ it looked great back then. It’s went downhill fast. Travesty that it’s been allowed to happen
I'm glad I'm not the only one to feel this way.
@CatchersCatch In the 1980s if you had spoken to older people they would have told you how much Princes St had already deteriorated! They would probably have said that it had been going downhill since the early 1960s. There were still some decent shops left in the 1980s but it certainly wasn't part of its Golden Age.
My dad was Scottish born and bred. He popped up in 1932. He passed in 2018.
can't wait to go back up to Edinburgh, was there early 2024 and it still looks like this, aside from modern vehicles, fashion, and businesses, the architecture is intact, beautiful city.
I was in Edinburgh years ago. As a visitor of the “New World” where everything is modern lacking any history. Edinburgh is still one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited.
To be honest most of us end up taking it for granted until we travel to other cities and we're like wtf is this hellhole.
Edinburgh is a great city for tourists, but not such a great city to live in.
This video shows that the city is stuck 100 years - or perhaps 900 years - in the past. 🫤
Edinburgh's a hell hole? @@fozzy20
@@andrewmay1299It's a great city to live in if you have the money.
@@lorddaver5729 He was talking about ‘other cities’ he travels to and compares them to Edinburgh. The other cities are the ‘hell holes’.
Simply Amazing! I live in Edinburgh and watching this and all these places that are familiar to me was like stepping into a time machine! Thank you for sharing!
I love this. I’m very much acquainted with the areas shown here. It’s fabulous how little has actually changed. Thank you.
welcome
I love this. My Dad and my grandparents were alive in the 30s.
Wonderful, this City looks like out of a fairy tale, realy splendid.
It still,looks almost exactly the same, but the stonework is a bit cleaned up!
Fantastic work - well done. Really enjoyed it. Incredible how little has changed in some of those camera angles.
Fantastic video!! Thanks very much! from Chile best regards!
Thanks
Stepping back in time! Beautiful job on the colorization - the shades and tints are just perfect, nothing too vivid so you get the atmosphere of the time. Soundscape super as well.
oh Thx!!!
Several segments brought me to tears as this was the era my mother lived in Edinburgh. It is possible I even recognized someone!
Congratulations. You did a wonderful and sensitive restoration. Topaz (I assume?) could use your results to sell their product!
thank you very much
My grandparents and greatgrandparents could be in this this too as they lived only 9 miles away
@@chrisinnes2128 where abouts did they stay.. do you know the name of the village,,,?
@@jackccharity its a town called Kirkcaldy
@@chrisinnes2128 I think you replied to the wrong person.
When this film was shot it would have been quite a long journey from Kirkaldy (a town, not a village) to Edinburgh. As the crow flies if might be about 10-12 miles, but that is over the sea! The road journey would have been about 30 miles and those would have been along small twisty roads. Even by train, which I did several times, it was well over an hour because it had so many stops. I think it is more likely that your greatgrandparents only visited the capital once or twice a year for a big day out.
It is very nice that you have preserved your history, culture and nature as they are and brought them to this day without changing them. Nothing has changed except the buses, cars and clothes. Another beautiful, natural and historical city. Edinburgh, I love you so much.❤
Apart from the retail buildings on Princes Street, virtually every building and view in this film is still there! The whole centre of Edinburgh, both the Old Town and the New Town, is a World Heritage site and can’t be, and won’t be, significantly altered.
th-cam.com/video/Nmlr1yayJo8/w-d-xo.html
Indeed ; Edinburgh is one of the few cities that have not Completly declined
Real shame about Princes street though...
Looks way nicer back then..
Wonderful to see my home town almost 100 years ago. Made me think of my late gran & grandad walking along Princes st. & strolling through the gardens back in those years!
Without all the traffic, overhead lights and wires,
Edinburgh was art 🩵
I was amazed at how scruffy Ramsay Garden looked. The city has cleaned up beautifully and we are lucky that there have been so few desecrations. Loved seeing the styles of clothes and men in caps and hats ( ever a top hat). The city had a delightful buzz about it.
I have seen this video before but in black and white. The colour really adds an extra dimension. One thing to remember is that Edinburgh encompassed a comparatively small area back in the 1930s. I know this is slightly earlier but when Murrayfield rugby stadium was opened in 1925, it was in a semi-rural location, albeit that there was ribbon development to the north to Corstorphine and Barnton, and to the south to Gorgie and Slateford. The big post-war council estates in Pilton, Wester Hailes, Craigmillar etc vastly increased the footprint of Edinburgh. Similarly, residents shopped more in Princes Street and nearby, because the shopping centres like those at Cameron Toll, the Gyle and Fort Kinnaird didn't exist.
There is a short sequence of one of the closes off the High Street, where life was probably pretty grim back then, right in the city centre, with several families sharing one toilet and bathroom. However, most of this film looks as if it was produced to show the better side of Auld Reekie. As someone who grew up in Edinburgh, I need to remember that most viewers of this video won't know Edinburgh as well as I do and are more interested in seeing the touristy bits.
It was curious to see the junction of Queensferry Street, Hope Street and Shandwick Place just next to Frasers department store (formerly Binns), which was completely freeflow since before I remember in the 1960s, whereas for decades traffic was prevented from going from Hope Street or Queensferry Street onto Shandwick Place. More recently, access has been returned there, albeit with a bit of extra traffic management.
Also, George Street seems unbelievably wide without all the cars parked down the middle.
Beautifully put together film footage. Thank you for sharing 💞
thank you very much
My home town!! Believe it or not I’m lying in bed catching up on TH-cam and this amazing video recommendation just popped up out of nowhere. 1:40 - I walked up these same “Playfair Steps” about 4 hours ago. I’ve just checked the b & w original (in the link) and I can see what a fantastic job the person has done to colourise, increase the sharpness and add fitting ambient sounds. 👏👏👏Well done. 👏👏👏Seriously, it’s 92 years later and I feel so nostalgic. I yearn for these simpler ages when Edinburgh was authentic and amazing. I really wish we could return to these days when everyone dressed so well and my city wasn’t overrun with the effects of mass tourism. Too much architecture has sadly been replaced by ugly, brutal ‘modern’ monstrosities and nowadays we have the equivalent of a full-size railway train running through the main thoroughfare, Princes Street. It’s what passes as a modern tram. The olden days trams were so elegant in comparison.😢😢
thank you very much
Exactly ruined beyond.. But it's fighting back love Edinburgh.. ❤
What a beautiful city I live in... more locals in the 1930s...daein yer knitting walking up the stairs! They were the days... BRILLIANT video!!! Thank you ❤
Thank you ❤
Like And Share Please!
Will share to Facebook
@@6326893 oh Thx!!!
Great Footage!!...
So very beautiful; I visited Scotland back in 2011!..
Stunning buildings, - look how beautifully the people dressed!..
Like going back in a time machine; I can just step in...
Looks clean - crisp..😊
Sunderland maybe.
Pre polytechnic freebie architect degree, concrete cancer and cancer of Thatcherism used by Tories, Blair and red Tory starmer
It would be amazing to walk round that city for a day during that era. This beautiful video is as close as it gets.
Had the chance to visit Edinburgh back in 2006 for my work. Stayed at a hotel on Princes Street right across from the Scott Monument. A really beautiful city.
I'm in Edinburgh right now for a Xmas wkend. So beautiful to see Princes St how it used to be & the lovely trams & cars. Even how classy people dressed. I wish there was a time machine😔
Glasgow Scotland here 🏴. Wow fascinating video my Grandparents time 🙂👍.
Aye , shes a beauty . Thank you for posting , makes me homesick
My great grandfathers tobacconist shop is in this video nice to see it in colour, before I only had one photo of it
where about was the shop?
It was no42 princess street where tk max is now unfortunately the block of flats that his shop was under burnt down you could probably find some info on Google it was called Robert Tait tobacconist
One of those little girls in uniform could be my late mother, though she went to school in Polmont she was often in Edinburgh for music and public speaking exams. Was at school myself in Edinburgh in the late 60s/ 70s. Happy memories. (Mostly)
what a lovely society we used to have
Yea, a society that was a few short years away from a war that killed millions. Every time one of these videos goes up someone pops up to say how much better things were then. They weren’t.
Absolutely stunning!!! I am born and bred in Edinburgh and never seen it look so beautiful and clean thank you for this how it used to be video ❤
Thanks ;)
Excellent film.. even some shots of my old school! It is very much as I remember it as a child in the 1950s..
The shot of the Newhaven fish wife climbing the close steps is particularly fine. They would come up from Newhaven on the coast to the top of Leith Walk on the back of a lorry and then get a bus or tram to parts of the city. They carried whole fish in the lower basket (known as a creel) and dump it on your front door (Never the back door!). She would then lift the top basket and you chose your fish which she would then gut and fillet on a board in the top basket. You did not cross a Fishwife and it is said nobody ever won an argument with one! My Great Aunt ran a "Fishwives Choir" in Leith and they were a scary lot!
Some of the colouration is not quite right.. the City trams and buses were all maroon and cream and the school uniforms are not correct, but you would have to be good at badge spotting to see the difference.
Thx! ^^
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Everything looked so very clean and well-tended; they had a pride in the environment in which they lived (sadly missing nowadays).
So nice and everyone happy before the dark days of devolution.
Hmmm, your name has been noted for future expulsion!
The fact that pretty much all of this is recognisable in 2024, as someone who grew up in Edinburgh, throws up a conundrum. The architecture is spectacular but it also conveys the feeling that, in some ways, it is a city that is stuck in the past. While there are affluent areas like Morningside and Barnton, outside the city centre, Edinburgh is not particularly different from other places in Scotland but of course the tourists tend not to wander too much out of the centre, unless it is to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith Docks.
Aye. Scots are conservative with a very wee 'c'. The rule is, if it isna broke dinna fix it, My home in Kirriemuir is older than New Zealand where our daughter lives.
Why change it, its better than the ugly brutalist buildings lauded elsewhere. Many cities look the same depressing concrete, and you could be anywhere. Edinburgh has uniqueness, character and beautiful architecture. I am Glaswegian but lived in Edinburgh for 3 years. Loved wandering around, particularly the Old Town. As you say, if you want to feel you are anywhere else, there is always the rest of the city.
*Thank you, NASS. Subscribed.*
_All the best to yours and you._
Rab 🍻😎
It's all so clean and not a single wee ned kicking about in many ways the past was the best
It may appear to be clean but it really wasn't! The clean air legislation had to be brought in due to the levels of ill health. When open fires were eventually phased out they finally started to clean up the stone of many of the old buildings (from the 1970s onwards). Edinburgh was known as Auld Reekie for a reason. In those days if you had washing drying outside on a line and it started to rain everyone would panic and run to bring it in as quick as possible ... not because it would get wet but because it would become stained with soot smuts and have to be washed again.
I know this film is of Edinburgh, but it got me thinking about my Scottish dad. My late dad was born in Govan Glasgow in 1931. He would have been 1 year old when these pictures were taken. He passed away aged 91 in 2022.
The sad part about these old films? Everybody shown in them is long gone. 💔
Well some of the kids might still be alive.
What an amazing video- thank you so much for sharing this
Дуже якісно👍🦾Це,ще схоже на залишки працивілізації,така потужна архітектура і дуже гарний міст☝️🙋♂️Дякую,за чергову подорож
Thanks
It’s amazing to see these vids remastered from other country’s but to see it in my capital city is breathtaking
Look how healthy people look, Look at the well organized and clean streets. They tell us we live in better times now.
How are people supposed to look 'healthy'? This was the era when many died from tuberculosis, died or were maimed by polio. The poor lived with flees and bed bugs. Life expectancy was far shorter than today. Living conditions for many were far worse than today and no antibiotics to fight diseases.
My grandfather's brother Harry died in 1932 at the age of 40 because there was no treatment for a simple heart condition.
@@nevillemason6791 ...and the air quality was dreadful! Steam locomotives in the middle of the city ... every property with open fires ... traffic ... more people smoking ... many of the buildings were black so imagine the state of people's lungs!
Amazing Film, beautifully restored, showing a beautiful city, i am proud to call home.
Edinburgh is a dump now
Thanks ;))
Great video super NASS Edinburg was great in 1932 great history city big supprt from Croatia
thx bro
How beautiful was this, lovely Nass 👍
It's hard to believe that in that time and place there was such ambient noise
Thats because there wasnt. The audio was designed synthetically by person who restored it. The cameras did not record audio back then. Thats why you had silent movies
@@SpekulantossThis was filmed after ww1 in the early 30s & talkies had started by then. This tho is a private cine camera without sound & has had street noise added today.
The statue of the soldier is absolutely incredible.
Hearing the pipe band from so long ago.
The auld wifie climbing the steps while knitting.
And how stylish the clothing was.
Great video.
THX!
The panoramic views at least have hardly changed at all (except that the buildings are cleaner!)
My home town ❤️ amazing how much has both changed and stayed the same!
I love you Scotland, Ireland...
🙏
Somewhere out there in a pram is a young Sean Connery, and my grandparents as children.
I would love to meet Sean as a young lad, just need a time machine
Amazing! Thank you, guys. A fantastic restoration job. (Cannon-blast & snare drum sounds would have made it 👌🏻 perfect.) Lovely to know that Auld Reekie is almost unchanged to this day...the trams were better back then 😆
Thank you
I miss what I thought was an uncomplicated time when we just met in the park and had a lovely time together.
Without the damn smartphone without constantly showing or taking any cell phone photos.
Just chatting about normal things.
Nowadays you get yelled at if you ask someone if you want to do something.
Even going to the cinema is no longer relevant for some people these days. In my opinion, cinema is a cool thing.
I don't speak for everyone, but a lot of things have unfortunately been forgotten these days.. :(
What a great little film and what a wonderful city was (still is?) Edinburgh ....Britain was the great country which colonised half the planet and brought the modern world to many people in no measure thanks to the brains and brawn of Scottish men and women. Now look at the mess we are in.....P.S... what was that old lady with a basket on her back carrying and how fit she must have been to get up all those steps ?!
The tram down Princes St is ironic considering one has just been re-installed at a cost of many millions. It’s a great shame most cities removed them and the tracks.
The old trams went everywhere around the city and suburbs ... it was a true tram network, unlike what was more recently installed at great cost and disruption, which is really just a single route into the city from the direction of the airport.
The trams now are dangerous & so confusing if in a car where you should be. A mess really. Thank god for Lothian buses.
That March / April birdsong in Edinburgh is captured magnificently here
Everyone dressed so well in those days. Men in suits, women in dresses. No trainers, denims or hoodies!
No one’s stopping you from wearing a suit everyday. Let’s see how long you want to keep that up 😂
@@somanytakennames Idioto
@@somanytakennames No-one is stopping you from making a stupid comment. It is a fair observation.
@@eightiesmusic1984
A stupid comment is complaining about people wearing hoodies, trainers and denim. Thank god they didn’t film in the poorer parts of Edinburgh, you lot might have a heart attack!
@@somanytakennames Well done for checking in with a stupid comment. Be proud. Pat yourself on the back.
Absolutely wonderful footage. Thanks
Thanks
Great job creating the soundtrack.
The architecture 90 years ago was so much better than today... kinda sad.
Edinburgh still looks much the same
Most of the architecture is hundreds of years old. The castle is 900 years old.
The architecture has not changed much, but people have. Graffiti, which is drawn everywhere, is also the reason why it does not look good.
Most of old school architecture was far superior, and stronger too.
@@Voeloksas Compared to other cities there is not much graffiti.
Greetings from Scotland! Fascinating that the things that have changed the most are the way people dress, the modes of transport! Princes Street looks just as busy as it is today, definitely a lot less one-way systems and traffic lights though! 😊😊
Thanks ;)
Everything looks remarkably similar to how it is today. Edinbugh is fortunate that it escaped WW2 largely unscathed unlike many other cities in the UK.
A beautiful piece of recorded living history. Thank you. 👍🏻
oh! welcome!
I run everyday in Edinburgh and take about 20 photos each time, plus a ton of video. I imagine in 92 years my great grandchildren will look at them and be fascinated as history as I am looking at this.
(This is of course rather a leap considering I don’t even think I’ll have kids given my non-existent love life, and of course assuming Edinburgh isn’t carpet bombed by then)
WHAT WONDERFUL CLARITY, AND NATURAL COLOURING. EXCELLENT.
Nice to see Edinburgh without neds and annoying teenage clones in tracksuits. Can we please bring back stylish and classy fashion!?
Great video Nass nice to see one on Scotland lovely colour too loved the opening scene plane flying over the Forth bridge
hi! Thx!! ^^
I think the colourisation of the Forth Bridge isn't quite right. My understanding is that it's always been the same red oxide colour that it is today. Unless they really let it get into a mess in the 1930s, it's not the grey colour shown here. I know colourisation is a bit hit and miss though, it must be difficult to effectively invent colour information not present in the original footage.
When you see how black and filthy the buildings were you begin to realise how much pollution ended up inside people's lungs.