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Partly out of interest in other people’s excavations, and partly spurred by Vonny Moyes’s recent article on the bitter-sweet pleasures of Brutalism (Issue 250), Spurtle wandered about the St James Centre this afternoon in search of scenes which will soon be gone forever.
We shan’t inflict all of them on you in one go. Instead, we start with some aerial views around Leith Street.
The deadline for candidates in the Scottish Parliamentary Election to submit their nomination forms was on Friday last week.
Voters in Spurtleshire may choose one constituency candidate and one list candidate from the following on 5 May 2016.
Edinburgh Central
BETTSWORTH, Hannah (Lib-Dem), BOYACK, Sarah (Lab), DAVIDSON, Ruth (Con), DICKIE, Alison (SNP), JOHNSTONE, Alison (Grn), LAIRD, Tom (Scottish Libertarian Party).
We initially intended to post this piece on Friday, but given the date and the oddity of the subject matter, we soon thought better of it.
In actual fact, the video attached here is perfectly genuine and is by local filmmaker and Spurtle team member Rhys Fullerton.
We find it strangely compelling, and hope that with local enthusiasm and online shares it may soon become a cult classic.
The new Community Cinema in the middle of Broughton continues this coming Friday with two screenings.
One is aimed at children and families in the afternoon, the other at adults in the evening.
Below, programmers Rory Bonass and James Mooney preview what’s in store.
Kirikou and the Sorceress (1998), 71 minutes, Certificate U
BELLEVUE TRANSFORMED
This morning, exclusively, Spurtle can reveal that a major new sports and hotel complex could be coming to Broughton if City of Edinburgh Council grants outline planning consent.
We’ve found no official pre-application trace of the scheme.
However, we understand an undisclosed US businessman – whose international sports-venue portfolio alone is valued at over $600 million – is in talks to purchase, demolish and redevelop the Lothian Buses Depot/HQ area around Annandale Street.
27 OCTOBER 1929–10 MARCH 2016
Neil Cameron McLeod was born in London, the only child of David McLeod, a boilermaker’s manager, and Helen McLeod (née Gordon). Living in Carshalton, he had a happy childhood until the age of 10, when his father died due to heart problems caused by smoking.
As you read this, advanced copies of the April Spurtle are already trickling out across the barony.
Issue 250 kicks off with word of more woes for the Royal Bank of Scotland, and fresh misery for residents on Hopetoun Street.
We also have a front-page celebrity hug, a lovely close-up of a lorry, and exclusive news of the date of our Holyrood hustings on 14 April.
Inside
Edinburgh World Heritage is suggesting that a new public statue be raised to commemorate Scottish women put to death as supposed witches.
They say the Castle Esplanade would be a good spot, since only a comparatively inconspicuous memorial exists there now, where 300+ women were burned during the 16th and 17th centuries.
PLANNING CASE NOW 'A POLITICAL FOOTBALL'
An important new development emerged last week in the process to decide the future of the old Royal High School.
As first reported here on 17 March, Duddingston House Properties and Urbanist Hotels have appealed the Council’s refusal to grant listed building consent for their hotel scheme on Regent Road (Ref. PPA-230-2178).
POLICE CALL FOR INFORMATION
Police have appealed for information after a man was found with a serious neck injury in Leith early this morning.
Officers responded to a call and found the 30-year old in Smith’s Place at around 6.00am. He was taken to hospital and is now described as being in a ‘serious, but stable’ condition.
A police spokesperson says they believe the man was in Leith Walk business premises near the junction with Balfour Street at around 5.00am, and was injured between 5.30am and 6.00am.