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POPPY FACTORY'S PAST IN PRINT

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The Lady Haig Poppy Factory seeks planning permission/listed building consent for a major programme of refurbishment and repair to the leaking roofs at 68 Logie Green Road (Ref. 19/04027/LBC). 

Attached to its application is a Design Statement outlining the works. This includes interesting details of the site’s history, which we summarise and elaborate upon below. 

HEALTH, SHELF, AND HAPPINESS

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Who knows where this is? 

Clue: it’s a ground-floor commercial property at the core of Spurtleshire, with superabundant original shelving more usually stocked with products to clean, heal, de-pong, beautify, polish, and preserve. 

That’s right: it’s the south-east corner of the Apple Pharmacy at 105 Broughton Street.

Staff here are establishing a small informal library (along the lines of the one on Scotland Street) where customers can lend, borrow, and exchange books in addition to all the other more mundane things they normally do at a chemist’s.

FATAL ROAD COLLISION, FOOT OF THE WALK

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Police Scotland issued the following press release today, which we reproduce unedited and in full. 

Police in Edinburgh are appealing for witnesses following a fatal collision in the Leith Walk area. 

The incident happened around 1.10pm on Tuesday 3rd September at Newkirkgate.

inquiries are continuing to establish the full circumstances, however, it appears a Vauxhall Astra car and an HGV have been involved and as a result a 62-year-old male pedestrian sustained serious injuries.

ISSUE 288 – OUT TOMORROW!

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As you read this, copies of the latest September Spurtle are fanning out across the barony like millionaire MPs’ contingency funds towards offshore tax havens. 

Page 1 begins with a ding-dong on loud things done in EH1. It continues with new news (more of the same) on the major development in EH3, and concludes with a wish and a promise on EH7’s enduring appeal. All this with a brief detour into 19th-century Persian politics. So far, so Broughton.

EDNA MILLER (1931–2019)

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  A CELEBRATION 

Edna Miller (Glen, née Haggart), was well known on Bellevue Road, working in her beautiful front garden or sitting outside her door and chatting with all who passed, waving from her window in the last few years.

DELIGHTED BY PAINTED LADIES

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While having coffee with a companion in a Drummond Place back garden earlier this week, I was surprised by a pale orange and black speckled butterfly which landed on our table.
 
Then suddenly, the air was alive with swirls of this butterfly, together with Cabbage Whites. Could this be one of the c.10 million Painted Ladies migrating to the UK, highlighted recently by naturalist Chris Packham in national media?
 

STYLE AND SUBSTANCE

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This eye-catching combination of curves, chrome, and dents has been turning heads across Bellevue and beyond over recent days. 

At first glance, it appears to be part of a hearts-and-minds campaign by some tin-pot dictator. 

At second glance, it becomes clear that the antique vehicle is promoting Dead Equal, a new opera performing at Venue 210 – the Drill Hall on East Claremont Street.

ISSUE 287 – OUT SOON!

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As you read this, copies of the August Spurtle are already bouncing out of the presses like waves over a flood prevention scheme.

Page 1 babbles playfully about balloons, bins, and bars … and a big bare boy bashing the bejesus out of something with a mallet.

GHAZALA PEENA FAROOQ (1940–2019)

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Friday 26 July, 2019 was a day of great sadness for the Edinburgh-South Asian Community, writes Nahid Aslam. Mrs Ghazala Peena Farooq, a stalwart of the community, passed away.

Ghazala was born on 14 August 1940 in Muree, at that time in India but in now in Pakistan. She arrived in Edinburgh with her family, from Lahore, in 1968. In Lahore, she had been the headteacher of a girls’ high school. She firmly believed in the importance of girls’ education and empowerment, and thus set about to use her talents to work towards this.