29 Albany Street
1905 – 1928 Offices of Alexander Campbell & Sons
Alexander Campbell was a solicitor (SSC) and he worked with his brother(?), Hugh, also a solicitor. By 1911, Hugh appears to no longer be working from here and instead Somerwell Campbell had joined the firm. In 1928, the property was advertised for sale: ‘Commodious premises, suitable for private dwelling house of offices.’
1905 – 1924 Offices of George Cowan
George Cowan was a solicitor (SSC). For a time he was in partnership with George Whigham, and worked from Number 7. When that partnership ended in 1894, Cowan moved his chambers to Number 3, and then here. In 1910, he wrote a letter to The Scotsman putting forward an idea that he had heard proposed at a lecture; this being that a fundraising football match might be organised all over the country to raise funds for the Lifeboat Institution. However, the idea does not appear to have been taken up by the football authorities.
1920 – 1924 Donald Moodie
Donald Moodie was born in 1892. He studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art and, in 1914, awarded the college’s travelling bursary. However, the war intervened and he joined the machine-gun unit of the 5th Royal Scots. This unit, curiously, consisted mainly of art students. The unit fought in Gallipoli and France, where Moodie was wounded and mentioned in dispatches. In 1919, he was included in an exhibition of Edinburgh Art College graduates: ‘Many of the male students have been in Gallipoli and France and their contributions are reminiscent of their experiences. Mr Donald Moodie shows Sketches – Gallipoli and Mr John D. Kennedy a water-colour of a tank in action.’In 1920, Moodie joined the staff of Edinburgh College of Art and, in 1922, had a one-man exhibition at the Petit Salon in South Castle Street of paintings he had done in Brittany. (here his painting of Camaret-sur-Mer in Brittany c. 1950)In 1924, he jointly won the Royal Scottish Academy’s Guthrie Award for a work of outstanding merit by a young artist. ‘Mr Donald Moodie shows considerable personal quality as a colourist in Wood Interior and Snow Scene.’ He was a President of the Scottish Society of Artists and ,in 1952, elected a full member of the Royal Scottish Academy, and
became the Academy’s elected secretary in 1959. He taught at the Art College until 1955 and died in 1963. ( photo - Moodie at the Young Artists Exhibition, organised by The Scotsman newspaper) In 1925, he married Susan Anderson Binnie and moved out of Albany Street. During the First World War, Susan had studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where she was among the first women allowed to study with male medical students. She and her brother, John Binnie, both became doctors, and they worked together in a medical practice in Midcalder. Later, she worked as a pathologist at Bangour Hospital, West Lothian. When the couple had their two daughters, Kathleen and Margaret, she found it difficult to keep her medical career going, and apart from undertaking a few locums in the Highlands and Islands, including on Papa Westray in Orkney, never returned to full-time practice. She died in 1975.
1925 to ? Margaret Laing Margaret Laing was born in 1925 and worked as an artist in Edinburgh. In 1947, she exhibited two lithographs Society of Artist Printmakers at the French Institute which were described as ‘full of a dreamy sort of poetry’. Here her 1962 painting Flower In A Vase .
1925 – 1930 John Davies Kennedy
John Davies Kennedy John Davies Kennedy took over Moodie’s studio.. He had nee at Edinburgh School of Art when war broke out and he served with the 8th Battalion of the Tank Corps. It was not until 1916, as part of the Somme offensive, that the British first used tanks in action. Unfortunately for the men operating the tanks the interior conditions were truly appalling, being a combination of intense heat, noise and exhaust from the engine, violent movement as the tank crossed the ground and molten metal splash as bullets struck the plating. Although tank design improved by 1917, when Kennedy took part in the Third Battle of Ypres the battlefield was a sea of mud and became a tank graveyard as machine after machine ditched in deep trenches and shell holes, and those stuck easy targets for German shelling. For his bravery in the battle
Kennedy was awarded the Military Cross. One of the first artworks by him bought by the Royal Scottish Academy was entitled, Sketches from the Ypres Salient. He later joined Sutherland and Moodie at the college as a tutor. Kennedy continued to exhibit with success: ‘Perhaps the most striking thing to meet the eye on entering the exhibition is the full-length portrait of a girl in evening dress by Mr John D Kennedy, which occupies the place of honour at the end of the gallery . Even more attractive, however, is a smaller study in oils of a Dutch boy, by the same artist , who also contributes a clever still-life group and several decorative landscapes.’ He later became an art teacher in a secondary school.1925 – 1927 Offices of Scottish PastesThe Scottish Pastes company sold glue pastes and gums. In 1926, they advertised for: ‘Agents or travellers with connection in Scotland – bookbinders, stationers, boxmakers, etc.; manufacturers (wine, beer pickle, etc.); and bill posters, theatres, cinemas, etc. to sell pastes, guns, etc. in bulk on commission.’
1930 – 1932 Crown Trading Company
What Crown Trading traded in has not been traced. The company moved to Number 11 and, in 1938, to Shandwick Place.
1932 – 1946 Offices of W S Murphy Ltd
This business moved here from Clyde Street. William Scott Murphy was a Turf Commission Agent (Bookie) and the founder of one of the two leading Scottish football pools companies of the day. Pools were a form of betting through predicting football results in the hope of winning large cash prizes. They became huge businesses by the 1960s, 70s and 80s, with a peak of ten million people playing weekly. Murphys Pools regularly advertised for agents who would go round businesses and neighbourhoods collecting individuals’ completed forms and their cash. In 1947, questions were raised in the House of Commons over what was seen as unreasonable low payouts by some pools companies: ‘Mr. Geoffrey Cooper (Middlesbrough, West): Has my hon. Friend any information about Murphy's Pools, of Edinburgh? - Mr. Nally: So far as I know, they fall into the category of those firms which are paying out 70% and above of their total revenue. I am bound to say that in justice to Murphy's Pools.’ Eventually, Murphy sold his pools business to Littelwoods, one of the largest UK Pools companies.
In 1937, Murphy sponsored an event organised by Stockbridge Chess Club at which Georges Koltanowski of Belgium created a new world record for 'blindfold' play in the Albyn Rooms, against 34 opponents, scoring 24 wins and 10 draws.
From 1932 to 1939, this also was the office of Murphy's Mail Order Stores although detail of this what this business dealt in has not been traced. However, customer satisfaction was clearly an ambition as the Telegraphic Address for the mail order company was 'Satisfied, Edinburgh'!
Murphy owned at least two racehorses, one of which, Dawmac ran in the 1938 Grand National at Aintree. It was a 100/1 outsider and fell at the 6th fence.
1949 – 1952 Town and Country Directories LtdTown and Country Directories was a publishing firm based in Manchester and Edinburgh. The firm mainly published trade and town directories. From 1952 – mid-1950s Veitch & HadleyPrinters.Around 1960 Stanley Press and Serif BooksSerif Books are an independent publisher. In 1954, they published Under The Eildon Tree by Sydney Goodsir Smith, lines from which would later decorate the interior of The Magnum at Number 1. The company continues today.1965 – at least 1980 David Macdonald Ltd
Printers, established in 1870, and still in business in Edinburgh. They were the printers of The Edinburgh Gazette, and printed many art event programmes.
1980s? Edinburgh Film Workshop