Memories of a childhood in wartime Leith. The trials and tribulations of the period, allied to the camaraderie of the community in facing up to an uncertain future made a lasting impression on John Stewart.

The welfare state was still a long way off and my mother once reminded me of the time she took me to the Leith Co-operative Boardrooms in Cables Wynd for a dosage of 'emulsion'. This concoction was to 'build me up' it was claimed. Being three years old, I did not enjoy the taste of it at all.

Cables Wynd junction with Giles Street.
Chimney Stack of Leith Hospital in background. Corporation Buildings on right side. (Courtesy of Edinburgh Room, Central Library)

Among several unrelated memories of my Buchanan Street days was the time I woke up one Christmas morning to find that Santa Claus had left me a pedal car complete with a spare wheel and petrol tank. Another was a model ranch that had been sent from Canada.

On a not so happy note, it may have been the following week, when I awoke in the middle of the night to find my parents missing. I cried out, wakening my grandmother in the adjacent room. She came through and sat by the fireside assuring me that my parents would be home soon.

Seemingly they had gone out first footing, it being the New Year.

Corporation Buildings in 1937. All bedecked out for the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Kent to open the Children's Wing of Leith Hospital

John Stewart, 2001