map of Tollcross circa 1825. 'Cowfeeder Row' is now High Riggs; 'Wellington Street' is now Earl Grey Street
'Toddle' : to walk with short steps, with uncertain balance, like a child learning to walk
'Tollcross' : A district of Edinburgh, south of Princes Street. As with most Edinburgh districts, the boundaries of Tollcross are not easily defined: roughly speaking, starting North and moving clockwise, Tollcross is surrounded by Princes Street, Grassmarket and the Old Town, Bruntsfield and the Meadows, Merchiston, and Fountainbridge.
You may be forgiven for thinking that the name ‘Tollcross’ means that there was a crossroads with a toll charge; especially with the knowledge that this was a major trading route for farmers and merchants. But that is probably not true. This is because the name ‘Tolcors’ appears in documents from 1439, a time when there was no crossroads here. It is more likely that the word ‘cors’ or ‘cros’ is derived from the Old Welsh word meaning a boggy place; you can see this word in other place names such as ‘Glencorse’ in MidLothian, Corse Castle in Aberdeenshire, Corse in Gloucestershire. The land here would certainly have been boggy, owing to the low ground surrounding the Lochrin Burn, which ran between the higher Burghmuir and the Grassmarket. The word ‘tol’ means a hole.
A charter of Charles II dated 1649 talks about ‘The Lands of Tolcros’. In 1771 an Act of George III mentions that a suburb outside of Edinburgh was to be named Toll-Cross, and in 1814 it is referred to as being the south part of the village of Portsburgh owned by Major James Weir.
Portsburgh was a village outside of the city walls, named after the West Port. The name survives only at Portsburgh Square, which marked the city boundary.
This explains why ‘Tollcross’ is a district in its own right, not just a street name although it does get linked together with Fountainbridge for the administrative purposes of the Community Council.
As a general overview, up till the 18th and early 19th centuries, this was a place where where farmers brought livestock to be sold in the Grassmarket; (notice the old streetnames), and later, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it became a busy trading route dominated by industrial production. There was a distillery, a brewery, an ironworks and a rope works. These were dependent upon water from the Lochrin Burn which is now underground (it runs through a tunnel underneath the Kings Theatre). Nowadays, it's at the centre of Edinburgh’s financial industry, and home of entertainment, with 3 theatres, a concert hall and 3 cinemas all close together. There are many pubs, restaurants and shops.
Nowadays Tollcross is dominated by a very busy intersection of 5 roads : Earl Gray Street, Lauriston Place, Brougham Street, Home Street and West Tollcross.
We shall walk around some of the important places.
NOTE: I realise that some of the answers can be found on google and streetview, do so with my blessing, but do please take the tour as well, you won't be disappointed!
You can visit each waypoint in any order you like; I recommend leaving the Lyceum waypoint till last, because there are benches there to sit down to do your workings.
There are twelve southside local history caches, and 2 bonus mystery caches:
First series: Gambol Through the Grange Second series: Sally into the Southside
Meander Through Marchmont Knocking around Newington
Saunter Through Sciennes Toddle Around Tollcross
Bimble Through Blackford Footerin' Aboot in Fountainbridge
Birl Through Bruntsfield Perambulate through Prestonfield
Mosey Through the Meadows Stravaiging around St Leonard's
There is a bonus mystery cache for the first series: Jig Through Half a Dozen History Multis
There is a bonus mystery cache for the second series: Jig Through another Half a Dozen multicaches
Waypoint 1 USHER HALL N 55° 56.827' W 3° 12.328'
Built by the Edinburgh Council using a gift of £100,000 from Andrew Usher ‘the father of Scottish whisky’. That would be worth about £9 million today! He never saw the finished building because he died in 1898. It was his widow who performed the grand opening in 1914.
The site chosen already had a primary school on it; so it was vacated and a new Tollcross Primary school built in Fountainbridge, on the site of the old City slaughterhouses.
In 1911, with building in progress, King George V and Queen Mary laid two memorial stones and a lead casket containing one of each coin of the realm, a copy of the Scotsman newspaper, and a copy of Andrew Usher’s deed of gift.
Peedieduchess has many memories. As an undergraduate, in 1972, she actually played on stage in the 2nd violins of the University of Edinburgh Orchestra. What an amazing experience!
Throughout her undergraduate years, being penniless most of the time (and often hungry), she would go to the Usher Hall every Friday night when students were allowed in for free after the interval if there were empty seats up in the ‘gods’.
Best of all was the time when Peedieduchess and Sir Peedieduke went along to the box office during the Edinburgh International Festival in the hope of getting ‘returned’ tickets to hear the great Korean violinist Kyung Wha Chung. There were none. Standing forlornly outside, a black limo drew up and the occupant came out and asked if we were looking for tickets; yes; and he thrust 2 tickets into our hands and drove off. No charge. Imagine our delight to see they were conductor's seats, the best in the house, and after her performance the star herself came and occupied the empty seat next to us.
Nowadays Peedie and the Duke can enjoy better seats, but never the stalls: they like to see the whole orchestra from above.
Don't forget to take a look at the Traverse Theatre, round to the left as you face the front of the Usher Hall; and the Royal Lyceum Theatre, round to the right.
QUESTION TO ANSWER: stand at the given coordinates. (i)There is a line of metal barrier posts, curving round the back towards the Lyceum Theatre. How many are there?
(ii) Look on the ground for a utility cover. Find the first digit of the class number.
Add these two numbers together to get A
Waypoint 2 LOTHIAN HOUSE N55 56.734 W003 12.336
You'll get a better look at this building from the other side of the road, but you need to go to the waypoint coordinates to answer the question.
It is built on the site of Port Hopetoun, which was closed in 1922 when the Union canal was drained at that point, in 1936 as a tax office, modelled after Kodak House in London, one of the earliest examples of a ‘purpose built’ office block. The ‘art deco’ style includes some interesting cast-iron reliefs making a frieze around the windows. Each panel depicts a tree, or a worker. For example, try to find a builder, a brewer, a printer, and a mill worker, and mention in your log if you spot those or any others. Above the entrance at no.134 is a relief showing a horse-drawn canal barge with the coat of arms Edinburgh on the left, and Glasgow on the right: this is in honour of the workers who built the canal. Two of those workers were the (in)famous Messrs. Burke and Hare.......
In the 1980s it was converted into flats: the lucky residents have a swimming pool and gymnasium.
QUESTION TO ANSWER: There is a carved inscription in the stone, low down, concerning the opening of the building.
How many letters are there in the Lady's name?
This will give you B
Waypoint 3 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE N55 56.697 W003 12.300
This was previously a branch of the Trustee Savings Bank and is now a Japanese restaurant. The beautiful mosaic over the entrance is still there. It shows 2 cornucopia ‘horns of plenty’ with gold coins pouring out of them. It’s part of a ‘B’ listed 4-storey tenement built in 1825. Note also the Ionic columns and Doric pilasters.
The quotation comes from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock the moneylender tries to defend his moneylending business by saying: “This was a way to thrive, and he was blest: And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not.”
QUESTION TO ANSWER: (i) How many letters are there in the last word BELOW the mosaic?
(ii) Look across to an impressive modern financial building. How many letters in the name of the animal?
Now add these two answers together to get C
Waypoint 4 CENTRAL HALL N55 56.625 W003 12.251
Built by the Methodist church in 1901 then in 2011 was purchased by Morningside Baptist Church. The halls and meeting rooms also provide facilities for concerts and so on. During 2022, the hall will be hosting parts of the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
QUESTION TO ANSWER: how many ‘pine cone’ shaped decorations are there on the gates? This gives you D
Waypoint 5 PUTRID SMELLS, BEER, WHISKY AND PANTOMIME N55 56.514 W003 12.211
Nicknamed ‘The Grand Old Lady of Leven Street’, here is the King's Theatre.
It was built in 1905 on a site previously occupied by Drumdryan Brewery. The first show put on was Cinderella, and indeed the King’s is still known as the best venue for pantomime and variety shows. The foundation stone was laid by Andrew Carnegie, from Fife, one of the wealthiest men in the world. Many wonderful performers have entertained us here, including Harry Lauder, Laurence Olivier, Maria Callas, Anna Pavlova, Ian McKellen, Penelope Keith…. The list is very long. And of course Sir Sean Connery, who worked backstage as a young man. Peedieduchess says her very favourite was Stanley Baxter and Jack Milroy in their elaborate costumes playing the Ugly Sisters.
The Lochrin Burn now runs underneath the theatre. The water was used for the making of beer when the brewery was here; the land was owned by architect Alexander Ponton. Apparently he left the area largely because of the nauseous smell from the highly polluted, putrid water. He sold it to Alexander Reid in 1772, who converted the brewery into a distillery, still using the water from the Lochrin Burn. It again changed hands in 1784 to a Mr Haig, who continued the distillery. A complex legal case from 1792 concerns a complaint from a landowner in Leith who alleged that the putrid water from the distillery was contaminating his fields. (at the time, sewage from George Square, Potterrow, Nicolson St and Sciennes, was directed into the Boroughloch, which is now the Meadows; water from the Boroughloch drained into the Lochrin Burn. It also received effluent from the dyers works and cowsheds of Bruntsfield. The smell was awful. The Lochrin Burn then drained into the Water of Leith). The washerwomen of Leith also objected to the quality of the water, and blamed the distillery. A chemist analysed the water and declared it to be smelly but not poisonous!
QUESTION TO ANSWER:
Stand at the main door. How many flat round lights are there on the underside of the canopy?
This answer gives you E
NOTE: This waypoint is not visible during renovation work, please use the answer 34.
Waypoint 6 PORTSBURGH N 55° 56.791' W 3° 11.920
note: if walking to here from the King's Theatre, I suggest walking along Tarvit St to Melville Drive, turn L and cross over into Panmure Place, where you will find a narrow lane next to St Michael and All Saints Church; turn R into Lauriston Place, L into Lauriston Street, and you are in the West Port.
You should be standing across the road from a pretty little housing estate, built as model housing in 1900, set back from the West Port and guarded by railings and gates. This marks the original boundary of the city and of Tolcros. Portsburgh was a little village in its own right, a ‘burgh of barony’ from 1649 till 1856. The ‘port’ part of the name does not come from the ports at the canal, but from West Port, meaning the west gate of the city. It was the only western exit from the city through the Flodden Wall. It was quite a large burgh in its day, and had a ‘Wester’ part extending to Lochrin, and an ‘Easter’ part extending to Bristo Square. It lay outside of the city walls. (by the way: you are standing very close to where Tanner’s Close used to be, where Burke and Hare plotted their evil murders). Imagine, if you will, herds of sheep, pigs and cattle being herded past here from the barges from the Union Canal to the Grassmarket, then back again to the slaughterhouses of Fountainbridge.
Some famous events that happened here:
1633: King Charles III entered Edinburgh by the West Port for his coronation.
1650: many of the houses were demolished by order of the magistrates so that gunfire and cannons shooting from the castle could better reach an anticipated English invasion.
1736: The Porteous Riots started here. John Porteous, captain of the City Guard, was lynched by a mob of rioters protesting about the killing of innocent civilians who had been watching a public hanging in the Grassmarket. (a popular form of entertainment in those days). There’s a plaque about it in the Grassmarket.
QUESTION TO ANSWER:
(i) Stand on the pavement on the other side of the road to admire Portsburgh Square. If you look above its rooftops, you can see another, very famous, building. Identify the part of it on your right, with the curved wall; it has 3 words in its name (not counting 'The'). You should be able to see this easily from the waypoint coordinates unless it's very foggy, in which case it is named on google maps. The word you need is a 4- letter word that is an arithmetical instruction.
(ii) Look at the building behind you. It is residential, but was previously a workhouse. Find the date above the door. Add the first 2 digits together.
(iii) Take the word from answer (i) and apply it to answer (ii) to get the value for F
Waypoint 7 THE BLUE BLAZER N55 56.751 W003 12.191
Well: is it 'a cocktail made of ignited Scotch whiskey and boiling water with sweetening and lemon peel added.'?
Or, is it something to do with Cambridge University rowers, or is it connected with the Cambridge Footlights comedy group?
Who knows; it is, certainly, a popular local pub with a history of its own, detailed on the brass plaque.
QUESTION TO ANSWER: Read the plaque. How much profit was made when the premises were sold in 1889? Take the first digit. This gives you G
Waypoint 8 THE ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE N 55° 56.853' W 3° 12.176
Your waypoint coordinates are not for the theatre itself, but you need to go there to answer the question. Sitting right next door to the Usher Hall, this very popular theatre puts on productions of both classical plays and modern ones too. The victorian building was built in 1883 and has hosted a multitude of famous actors. Its first production was 'Much Ado about Nothing' by William Shakespeare. The interior is quite beautiful with ornate 'boxes' and ceilings, and an interesting construction in 3 parts: the auditorium, box office and bar are separated from the stage by a brick wall at the back and an iron safety curtain at the front of the stage, and the performers dressing rooms and workshops outside both of those. Sir Peedieduke and Peedieduchess hold season tickets for the front row: and once were surprised when a werewolf jumped off the stage into their laps.
QUESTION TO ANSWER: The memorial seat honours a past manager of the Lyceum Theatre, Charles Taylor Tripp.. How long did he do that for?
This is your answer H
You can have a seat here to work out the location of the cache.
The cache can be found at N55 56.PQR W003 12.STU
P = F+G
Q = (H-A)/2
R = B+D+G
S = (H-A)/3
T = E-C-A
U = B+G
Would you like a check sum? OK:
Your northings should add up to 18, your westings should add up to 8,
But here's a checker with some more info to help you find the final location of the cache.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CHEMIES: FTF!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I'd like to thank Devious_Dwarferkev who is very supportive of my local history caches and suggested a couple of the waypoints in this one.
I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of Tollcross. Please keep your answers safe: no promises, but you never know, I may get around to making a bonus some time. A note for wheelchair users and the less able: The route is all on city pavements, but you will have to cross busy roads several times. Not all of the pavements have dropped kerbs, but the final location is accessible to you. Peedieduchess takes less than an hour to walk the 8 waypoints in the order given.