FACTORIES belching out smoke, noxious smells and thousands of workers at clocking-off time, a stinking rat-infested stagnant canal and tenement homes barely large enough to swing a cat in.
Ruby Norman moved to the edge of Fountainbridge into a first floor, two-bedroom flat bought for the princely sum of £2000 and reckoned she would just have to make do.
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Click here to see PDF picture of the areaFive children and eight grandchildren later, 41 years on and it's still home for her and husband Jack. And never before has she witnessed change on such a dramatic scale as she is seeing now.
Today the first floor flat in Viewforth Square which the couple bought in 1967 is reckoned to be worth around £190,000. Its value might soar even higher as the area around morphs from an industrial heartland – at one time producing everything from whisky to Wellington boots – into offices, townhouses, tree-lined boulevards and leisure attractions.
"It's happening so quickly," says Ruby, 71. "Is it all for the better? I suppose we'll just have to wait and see."
Indeed, the scale of what is happening at Fountainbridge is stunning – from the commercial and residential quayside at the Tollcross end, along the Union Canal towards the rapidly disappearing brewery sites on Dundee Street.
Gone are many familiar landmarks from the area's industrial past, replaced by rubble and a patchwork of shiny new buildings.
Today, five cranes tower over the skeletons of new buildings on the former site of Scottish & Newcastle's bottling and distribution plant, site of what will become "Springside", dubbed by its developers as a new "urban village".
On the opposite side of Dundee Street, where brewery workers' haunt the Tartan Club once stood, hoardings declare the imminent arrival of a Buredi development of homes and offices.
Further down, the familiar McEwan's symbol – a cheerful "cavalier" character supping from his pint – still stands guard over the entrance to the former S&N brewery. Beyond the gates many of the towering buildings remain. Their days, however, are numbered.
Progress, mapped out in the city council's 2004 masterplan, is unstoppable. Yet even now the fine detail of how the area will appear seems to change from week to week.
Most recently it emerged HBoS had "gazumped" a string of other developers to snap up the 12-acre former S&N brewery site, reportedly for more than £100 million. Its plan is to turn the land into a single base for its 6000 Edinburgh finance workers, and instantly, it seems, scuppers hopes part of the site might house a rebuilt Boroughmuir High School.
News of that came just days after councillors approved plans for a four-storey office block on Dundee Street, and confirmation that a third of the 58 flats at Springside had been reserved on the first day of going on sale.
Change is rapid – perhaps too rapid for residents like Ruby.
"I don't really want them to take everything away," she says, sitting in her home on the edge of Fountainbridge and Bruntsfield. "These new buildings all look the same to me. I don't like everything the same, I'd like something of the area's heritage to be kept – just to give it some kind of identity.
"Look at the McEwan's brewery sign. Once that is gone, then part of the area's history is gone.
"It's like the North British Rubber Mill," she continues, referring to a once bustling factory which employed hundreds, making anything from Wellington boots for First World War soldiers to golf balls. "Over the main door it said North British Rubber Mill. It goes and part of the area's history goes too, a place that employed so many people will be forgotten."
Even the most prominent reminder of one of the area's most famous sons has disappeared.
A plaque marking Sir Sean Connery's birthplace has gone for now, although the developers plan to replace it on the side of an office block set to rise on the site once occupied by his family home.
Unlike the hundreds of incomers expected to snap up the new homes, Ruby's links with the area are anchored in the past. She lived in Springwell Place just off Dalry Road – a stone's throw from the bustling breweries – with Jack until they sold their tiny room and kitchen flat for a mere £300.
They ended up at Viewforth Square with its one bedroom and boxroom – a far cry from the townhouses with underground parking planned for the Tartan Club site.
The area, she recalls, was steeped in industry – the distilleries and breweries, MacKay's sweet factory, and the rubber mill – their presence creating a pungent blend of aromas.
"The smells in this area were very distinctive – some days you had to keep the windows shut because the smell would be sickly," Ruby says. "There were brewery lorries up and down Viewforth, every hour of the day. The telephone exchange had just opened, the place was bustling. It's certainly going to be different."
That's something Sir Sean is on record as agreeing with. He lived at 176 Fountainbridge in the shadow of the rubber factory. His home was demolished in the 1960s, to make way for the expanding brewery.
The new Springside district will be a world away from the working-class neighbourhood where the screen icon grew up.
"Growing up in Fountainbridge played a major part in my early experiences of Edinburgh," he said recently. "Its industrial legacy left an important imprint on my life. I am pleased now the walls are coming down, and the area will be opened up to be part of the city.
"I remember the community spirit and that will now have a place to thrive. I hope that the better housing and open spaces will improve the quality of life there and give the community, and the rest of the city, a neighbourhood it can be proud of."
Over the canal in Grove Street at the one-time brewery workers' doss house which is now the Herald House Hotel, manager David Knox also relishes the changes.
He says: "It's all going to do a lot of good for the community around here," he says. "There's a lot happening, it gets busy with lorries and there's a lot of dust just now, but the changes are going to make a huge difference
."
As well as laying claim to the birthplace of Sir Sean Connery, Fountainbridge also boasts the foundation site of the Co-operative movement at St Cuthbert's, where the dairy horses continued to work until the 1990s.
Long gone too are Asa Wass, the rag and bone man, whose scrap business operated from around 161 Fountainbridge; Tom Boni who ran an ice cream shop at 134 Fountainbridge; Aitken's home bakery and Murdoch's paper shop, where in years long gone locals would visit to recharge wireless batteries and buy mantles for gas lights.
Antique furniture restorer Tom Donaldson, 60, set up his business, Siller & Donaldson, in Grove Street some 30 years ago, when the scene over Fountainbridge was dramatically different from the one he sees unfolding today.
"It used to be nice to see the horses and cart from the dairy – and you could always pick up some useful fertiliser for the garden," he laughs. "The St Cuthbert's bakery was along where Marco's is now, and of course the breweries were at the centre of everything in the area.
"I suppose it's good to see it changing, although my worry is that all these new buildings tend to just look the same. But nothing can stay the same forever."
His son, Douglas, 39, joined the family firm 23 years ago – and he too remembers a busy area where day to day life revolved around the hub of industry.
"When I joined the business, this area was just like a little village, even though it is in the centre of Edinburgh it had a community feel of its own.
"It was a bustling place. Not everyone likes the smell of the hops but it didn't bother me – I like a pint!
He welcomes progress, but adds: "It would be nice if something is kept to reflect the brewery history – such as the old McEwan's clock.
"I do feel a bit sorry that Edinburgh did have such a strong brewery history but it's almost completely gone now."
Old Tartan Club: Buredi has earmarked the southeast area around the former Tartan Club for an £80m development of 171 homes, underground parking and 8500 square metres of office space.
There will be a mixture of two and three-bedroom flats, duplexes and penthouses, built on the former brewery social club site.
A tree-lined boulevard dubbed New Freer Street is envisaged at the heart of the scheme, and a mini canal basin is planned for the centre of a courtyard area.
Springside: A £200m, 32-hectare "urban village" spanning the north side of Fountainbridge stretching from Grove Street to FountainPark which will feature 600 homes, offices, shops and an underground car park.
New roads will link the area to the West Approach Road and south towards the rejuvenated Union Canal and around a third of the area is earmarked for green space. Artwork and fountains are included in the landscaping plans.
Also included within Springside is an £8.5m project, already underway, to construct a 314-room, seven-storey high student residence, expected to be completed this September.
Edinburgh Quay: Phase one of this development has already been completed, with new offices, restaurants and luxury apartments transforming the canal basin area.
The second phase, of 55,000sq ft of offices and 6000sq ft of retail along with 60 apartments is already partially occupied.
Homes developer Mactaggart & Mickel has started work around what will be an extended canal basin, with around 130 new high quality apartments at Lochrin Place.
Nearby, the former Fat Sam's restaurant and meat market is being transformed into offices and restaurants in a £50 million scheme by Scottish Widows
HBOS HQ: The sprawling Scottish & Newcastle brewery stood by the Union Canal for around 150 years, however, much of the site took barely weeks to clear.
HBoS has agreed to buy the 12 acres of land with a view to creating a global centre, similar to the Royal Bank of Scotland's sprawling headquarters at Gogarburn, it emerged last week.
The offices would become the base for 6000 workers currently spread out across 16 different buildings in Edinburgh, although HBoS would keep its imposing headquarters on The Mound.
The full article contains 1778 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
