Haddington Old & New

Haddington Old

Haddington New

          AULD KIRK. The East United Presbyterian Church, which stands behind John Brown's manse off narrow Market Street, was built in 1806. Owing to the  various splits and secessions which plagued our Kirks in the 19th century its congregation was dissolved in  1903, and the building has had a chequered history. When I photographed it in 1953 it had been used for many years as a store, by Brown & Murray the ironmongers of 7 Market Street.

          NOW FLATS. Between times, it was used as part of the Conservative Club, but more recently it has been subdivided and re-roofed and now houses the 6 flats of John Brown Court.

          CUSTOM STANE 1. This 1953 slide was used as the frontispiece in a town guide of the mid-Fifties, and has always been one of my favourites. You can just make out the pattern of the setts which, a few months later, were to be covered by tarmac. On the right plain, the sun is streaming through the gapsite left after the Grand Fish Restaurant was gutted by fire in 1936.

          CUSTOM STANE 2. A recent view shows that all the shop names have changed, as well as some roof coverings. The gapsite was filled, originally by the Edinburgh Savings Bank, now the Alliance & Leicester, and of course tarmac rules (which makes life easier for a cyclist!)

          OLD HARDGATE. In 1955 a climb to the roof of 
11 Hardgate (Woodlea Dairy) was rewarded with this view, which had been unchanged since 1941 when Pringle the upholsterer's was removed by a well-placed 50kg bomb. But major changes were planned, and the entire West side of Hardgate, from Adam Bisset's to Spoutwell Brae, was soon to vanish.

           OPEN HARDGATE. Less than 6 years later a repeat climb yielded a very different view. The bomb site has become a filling station, work is in progress on the modernization of Kinloch House (which in those days we called the Dower House). Jean King's chip shop has a new home in the Garleton Cafe, and in the distance Artillery Park has been filled with houses.

          ROSS’S CLOSE 1. I photographed 33 High Street in 1954 when the single-storey buildings on the right (East) side of the rigg housed the plumbers workshop which belonged to the Rosses, but was now probably being used by Jimmy Davie, also a plumber.

          ROSS'S CLOSE 2. In 1963 all was to be changed; the area which had contained the workshop was now paved to provide a link from High Street to the new housing in the area christened Langriggs. The garden area was transformed into a row of two-storey flats, designed by Campbell & Arnott.