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Maroon Sailor

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Maroon Sailor

No roadworks or a traffic cone in sight - rare picture indeed of this area

 

 

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Maroon Sailor
14 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

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12 minutes ago, Stuart Lyon said:

Comely Banlk/Learmonth 

 

 

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SectionDJambo
23 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

No roadworks or a traffic cone in sight - rare picture indeed of this area

 

 

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That, so called, Kinetic Sculpture that was thought a great idea by Edinburgh council, on the roundabout.

 If I remember right, it was supposed to light up, with different colours, when the wind whistled through it. Did it ever work?

 

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Maroon Sailor
2 minutes ago, SectionDJambo said:

That, so called, Kinetic Sculpture that was thought a great idea by Edinburgh council, on the roundabout.

 If I remember right, it was supposed to light up, with different colours, when the wind whistled through it. Did it ever work?

 

 

Not sure if it worked - looks  like an anemometer at the top though

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Maroon Sailor

Depot Leith and not Leith Depot

 

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How many Tram Depots did Edinburgh have ?

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39 minutes ago, SectionDJambo said:

That, so called, Kinetic Sculpture that was thought a great idea by Edinburgh council, on the roundabout.

 If I remember right, it was supposed to light up, with different colours, when the wind whistled through it. Did it ever work?

 

It did work (I remember seeing it) but I can't remember if it was a one off event or whether it was bogged down with persistent problems and then abandoned. 

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Doctor FinnBarr
12 hours ago, NANOJAMBO said:

In the left foreground - is that some kind of stockade ?

 

It was, worked very well to keep them damn Injuns oot

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On 14/04/2019 at 11:08, Maroon Sailor said:

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High Street, around where the Scandic Crown was built?

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On 14/04/2019 at 12:21, NANOJAMBO said:

It did work (I remember seeing it) but I can't remember if it was a one off event or whether it was bogged down with persistent problems and then abandoned. 

 

It was well before my time but I've known about it for a while. Didn't know it was meant to light up or anything but just found this online: 

 

THE KINETIC SCULPTURE 

In September 1973, the most spectacular part of Edinburgh's Christmas decorations was announced as being a permanent 80-feet high 'spiral of kinetic art on a traffic roundabout at Picardy Place'. 

The sculpture was designed by Roger Dainton. It was a metal tower on which were fixed 96 coloured light tubes linked to electrical circuits which were controlled by a wind vane. The idea was that the intensity, variation and rate of change of the lights would be determined by wind speed and direction, and that this would result in 'more than a million light pattern combinations'. 

The switching-on ceremony on December 22, was attended by Mr Dainton, the designer, some council officials and a few bedraggled rain-soaked Christmas shoppers; but this was the era of the three day week and power restrictions - the infamous "winter of discontent" - and Government approval was given for only a sixty-second display of the flashing neon tubes. A permanent switch-on was delayed until April 1974. 

The sculpture was less than enthusiastically received. Almost as soon as it was completed a campaign started to have it removed. It was described as a "tangled and twisted monument to a drunken scaffolder" and became popularly known as the "drunken pylon". Others considered it a "unique work of art". Debate raged, but the fates seem to have conspired with its detractors from the outset. The lighting system rarely operated properly for any length of time, and attempts to repair the complicated electronic mechanism were unsuccessful and abandoned each time. The only person that might have been able to shed light on the problem - Dainton himself - had it seems moved to Australia. 

The kinetic sculpture survived ten years, during which time it almost never worked, and was finally removed in 1983. 

 

Link: http://gillonj.tripod.com/edinburghskineticsculpture/

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On 14/04/2019 at 10:56, Maroon Sailor said:

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Could that be Dumbiedykes?  There was a Waterston Avenue there and I found a reference to a Miss Yardley's shop in the area.

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14 minutes ago, Lemongrab said:

Could that be Dumbiedykes?  There was a Waterston Avenue there and I found a reference to a Miss Yardley's shop in the area.

 

Correct I think. 

 

This looks like it from another angle, same photographer.

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/83957/dumbiedykes-edinburgh?artists[27332]=27332&search_set_offset=8

 

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Edited by gjcc
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Potentially posted before, but a lovely painting of Holyrood/Edinburgh in 1759. 

 

Holyrood Abbey in the centre. 

Holyrood palace with the bluish roof. 

 

 

 

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Edited by gjcc
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1 hour ago, gjcc said:

Potentially posted before, but a lovely painting of Holyrood/Edinburgh in 1759. 

 

Holyrood Abbey in the centre. 

Holyrood palace with the bluish roof. 

 

 

 

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 Its a wee bit weird to think that 200 years later you were running around these exact hills where the artist sat to do that scene.

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6 hours ago, gjcc said:

Potentially posted before, but a lovely painting of Holyrood/Edinburgh in 1759. 

 

Holyrood Abbey in the centre. 

Holyrood palace with the bluish roof. 

 

 

 

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I was trying to work out where the artist might have painted that from. To have, what must be Tron Kirk and St Giles', in those positions and to the left of the castle, and framed by Salisbury Crags and Calton hill, the abbey would have to be viewed from somewhere in the direction of Meadowbank and the water would have to be Lochend Loch. (Sorry for being so anal. Oooer madam.)

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3fingersreid
1 hour ago, Lemongrab said:

I was trying to work out where the artist might have painted that from. To have, what must be Tron Kirk and St Giles', in those positions and to the left of the castle, and framed by Salisbury Crags and Calton hill, the abbey would have to be viewed from somewhere in the direction of Meadowbank and the water would have to be Lochend Loch. (Sorry for being so anal. Oooer madam.)

Could it not be more of a case that he/she has used a bit artistic license to put in well known landmarks of the period ?

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13 minutes ago, 3fingersreid said:

Could it not be more of a case that he/she has used a bit artistic license to put in well known landmarks of the period ?

You're probably right.  I was wondering if one of the buildings to the left of the palace was Queensberry House. 

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34 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

Unusual for a bus to be turning right there

 

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It's a 44 turning into Picardy Place. Before the roundabout, Picardy Place was a continuation of York Place.

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