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PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIES 9

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NEW TOWN GOTHIC

—By David Hill  

If New Town streets, resplendently enigmatic in their hues and mysteries, are sometimes minded to reveal a little more of themselves, the familiar yet less discovered country of that most personal of local terrain – our own homes – can feel unyielding to our enquiries, even hostile to our aims.

WHITEN BRIGHTENS WINDY WALL

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Hard at work and battling the elements on Dalmeny Street this morning was artist Kirsty Whiten

She was putting the finishing touches to her public mural (between Buchanan Street and Out of the Blue), which forms part of an exhibition for LeithLate15.

Whiten’s mural has been turning heads these past couple of days, but in a good way. Locals have been delighted that a dull wall has been brightened up, and feedback has been extremely positive.  

LEE MILLER AND PICASSO

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REVIEWED BY RHYS FULLERTON 

He’s one of the most famous artists of all time and he created a body of work which seems to be endless.

There have been films about him, documentaries, books, retrospective shows and blockbuster exhibitions. You would have thought we already know everything that there is to know about Pablo Picasso.

And yet more than 40 years after his death, Picasso is still in the spotlight. So what is there left to discover? 

SMASHING, NOT SMASHED

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I eavesdropped the following snippet of conversation whilst waiting for a tram the other day.

‘You should have seen the amount of bottles that chap from No 27 put out for recycling. He must have had quite a party ... or a drinking problem!’

There was a time in Broughton where we would stand at the bus stop chatting casually about the weather. Now we stand at a tram stop discussing the contents of other people's recycling. 

HOW LOCALS SHAPED HOPETOUN

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George Reiss, former Broughton resident and community worker, has been researching changes in the area. An exhibition of his photographs is now on show in McDonald Road Library, and he's looking for residents to share their thoughts.

Last month I went down memory lane, he told Spurtle. Two decades back, to be precise. I revisited the very spots where I had stood with my camera in the mid-1990s, and tried to align my lens on the same sites where snooker halls, elm trees, taxi firms and the Neighbours bar once stood. The differences were dramatic.

TOP MARKS FOR BAGS OF EFFORT

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A team of volunteers from the 11th Edinburgh North East (Broughton St Mary’s) Scouts were included in the Edinburgh Marathon Finish Area Crew on 31 May, writes Karen Todd.

They were assigned the task of organising one of the many baggage trucks used to reunite the runners with their belongings after completing the 26.2 miles of the Marathon.

BATTLE FOR THE BANK RESUMES

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Residents are fighting a new plan to develop the 2,660 sq.m. bank behind 32–62 Broughton Road (Ref. 15/02335/FUL). 

The proposal is for eight 4-bedroom, semi-detached townhouses, 14 parking spaces, and ‘associated access improvements’.

Sir Frank Mears Associates (SFMA) is behind the designs for the Virgin Islands-based Provincial Property Holding Ltd.

BASEMENT BLUES

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An exhibition of work by Charly Murray and Javier Ternero provides a delicious contrast to the noise and vibration of Haddington Place.

Quiet City lives up to its title with understated calm in both colour and composition.

This reviewer liked Ternero's curiously blue study of Calton Road, which perfectly captures the depths of that street's shabby, shame-faced disappointment (right). I also liked the composite diagonals of 'Kelvin Bridge' (below).