40 Albany Street

1925 – 1952 James Harvey ClarkJames Harvey Clark, a sculptor, lived here and, at this time, had a studio in Belford Road. In his book Dictionary of Scottish Art (1988) Peter McEwan described him thus: ‘last of the Old Guard of Scottish sculptors, Clark worked as an assistant to several monumental sculptors including Alice Meredith Williams and J. Beattie, before setting up on his own in 1929. Some of his most important work was involved in modelling maquettes from which the woodcarvers W & A Clow worked.’ (sculpture, Horse and Cart) He also created a bust of Robin Stark (see below). Clark was an Associate of the Royal Society of Artists. He died in 1980, aged 95.1931 Thomas Kerr Thomas Kerr was retired. His business had been Kerr and Brown in Forth Street, but nothing further traced. He died here aged 77.1934 – 1936 Robert and Helen Millar

Robert died here in 1934, aged only 30. Helen made gowns.

1935 – 1946 Robin H F Stark

Robin Stark was the son of Ross Stark, Chief Executive of the Blantyre and East Africa Company; coffee, tobacco and rubber planters. Stark was a journalist and a playwright. In the 1930s he wrote a number of plays for The Edinburgh Children’s Theatre which were performed at the Little Theatre. In 1935, the play Goldenquest ‘was presented to several hundred little boys and girls ….they obviously enjoyed their glimpse of a pirate world, and the joys of gold-seeking and high adventure such as form the dreams of every healthy child.’

Stark also wrote children’s plays for BBC radio. Two of his Christmas plays were Little Star - about the earliest star that ever shone – transmitted in 1940, and The Golden Sail - about Saint Bride - transmitted in 1942.

Another key figure in Edinburgh’s theatre between the wars was Christine Orr, the daughter of Robert Orr, an advocate and Sheriff Substitute of the Lothians and Peeblesshire. She attended Somerville College in Oxford, and in 1919, when only 20, published her first novel, The Glorious Thing. In the inter-war period she published 14 novels and numerous volumes of poetry, and also was editor of Great-heart, the Church of Scotland’s children’s magazine. She has been described as ‘the last of the New Town Literary Group, who were based in Edinburgh and whose most famous son was Robert Louis Stevenson.’

She also wrote plays and in 1932 founded The Makars, one of Edinburgh's leading amateur theatre groups; primarily to perform her own scripts. One of the group’s first productions was her play, Pearl for James. In 1935, her company performed, Flodden, a stage version of a radio play she had written, reworking Walter Scott’s Marmion. In 1936, she was appointed Organiser of Scottish Children’s Hour for the BBC.

Around 1943, Robin and Christine married and in 1944, they formed another amateur company, the Unicorn Players. One of her most successful plays was Miss Scott of Castle Street. (photo of the that play being performed by the Unicorn Players)

Being significant figures in Edinburgh’s arts scene, when, in 1947, the first Edinburgh International Festival took place, they were keen to be involved. The early years of the International Festival were primarily focussed on classical music and they felt theatre should have a role. Thus they decided to stage a play, as did six other amateur theatre companies, and the Festival ‘Fringe’ was born. The Christine Orr Players – also sometimes known as The Unicorn Players - performed Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with Robin Stark playing the lead The Scotsman review said: ‘the acting was keyed to concert pitch – and if occasionally there was tendency to over-act – this fault can be over looked against the intensity and excitement of many of the scenes….The contract of the characters of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth was capably brought out by Eileen Say and Robin Stark.’ In 1949, their production of Anna Merry, ‘an entertaining family comedy by Robin Stark’ was still part of the ‘unofficial festival’, but in 1953, they were jointly commissioned by the International Festival to create Masque of Edinburgh, that was performed at the Usher Hall, and on the last night of its one week run, attended by the recently crowned Queen.In 1954, Christine and Robin launched a new venture: the East Wind Players. They also took over premises formerly used as an art gallery in Shandwick Place and converted the space into the 200 seater Princess Theatre. The theatre opened with a production during the 1954 Edinburgh Festival of Orr’s play, East Wind House.

In 1950, at an event on ‘The Unofficial Festival’ (later to be renamed the Edinburgh Fringe) Orr called for more support for ‘small native companies.’ She argued that the unofficial events were essential as they provided shows for visitors who were unable to get tickets to the International Festival events and were more affordable. She also thought the challenge for local companies to mount productions alongside the Festival put them ‘on their mettle’. Her final reason was that they added to the variety of the Festival. The official play of the week might, for example, be heavy Greek tragedy, and there was a time to ascend the mountain tops and a time to dally pleasantly on the lower, sunny slopes.’ Today, with the Edinburgh Fringe staging 42,096 performances of 2,695 shows, concerns at the problems of finding venues and accommodation is hardly surprising. That this was an issue raised by Christine Orr in 1950: ‘The problem of finding a theatre or hall is getting worse every year, and something might have to be done on the marquee line as adopted at Pitlochry.’ She also made a strong plea for wider cultural provision in the city: ‘It seems to me that the Festival is in some way artificial, forced and sterile if it stops at one annual outburst of culture, and does not stimulate the arts in the city all the year round. Surely poetry, art, drama and music are things to be savoured all the year, and not swallowed at gulps, with the result of mental and spiritual indigestion.’

One trusts that Christine began to see the beginnings of the all-year-round arts activity that is now part of Edinburgh’s attraction before her death 1963.

Robin Stark died in 1980.