West End Girls and boys - here today - built to last
Resilient, reflective and ready to serve - Edinburgh's independent shopping streets pull together during challenging times
Tucked just off the West End’s busiest thoroughfare lies William Street and Stafford Street, two of Edinburgh’s best kept shopping secrets. The buildings are classic New Town, the cobbled streets echoes of a past when horse drawn carriages and delivery drays trundled back and forth.
But delve deeper and these two engaging streets reveal a mix of modern surprises behind their front doors - an area chock-full of small independent businesses, which all had each other’s backs at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Naturally, business owners in the West End are missing office footfall, an important component which breathes life in to this unique part of the city, and if that has diminished over these last months, the camaraderie of providing each other with company and support has grown.
Paper Tiger in Stafford Street is one of the longest established businesses in the West End, beginning life as Studio One and founded almost 40 years ago by John Johnson. It is now in the hands of Michael Apter who has owned the business since 2017, including the Lothian Road outlet.
This is a wondrous shop to visit, but like many others they have embraced the online world, and now you can buy anything in the shop at the click of a keystroke, and for those who can’t wait for delivery there is a click and collect service.
Happily, much of the groundwork had already been put in pre-Covid to build an online platform, and it has proved its worth.The core business is cards and stationery and they also have their own range of chocolate bars and candles. For Michael it is all about the quality of the images and the illustration which sets their products apart. He stocks Edinburgh souvenirs and Scottish products with a range of things made or sourced locally which are several grades above the standard tourist fare.
Michael said: “The West End has been the commercial heart of the city for decades, centuries even. William Street is in fact the city’s first purpose built shopping street. Our neighbours here are personal friends as well as business colleagues. We all have each other's best interests at heart and try and work together whenever we can to make sure that when one of us is doing well, the others are also following in the slipstream.”
Liam Ross is a goldsmith, an ancient trade, but one which makes the most of 21st century technology, with bespoke jewellery designed using 3D printers instead of the wax models of yesteryear.
Liam’s team of four jewellers take a customer through the design process and make the jewellery on the premises. He said: “When I started as a jeweller, we used to sketch a picture for a customer, and then I learned how to hand carve a wax model. I don’t do that anymore as technology has advanced with CAD and customers can actually try a 3D model on with the stones in place to see exactly how it will look.”
Engagement rings are a big part of the business and fortunately love did not stop during lockdown. Liam said: “I realised people were still shopping, and some were buying online for the first time. I was contacted by people who had proposed to each other during lockdown and wanted to buy a piece of jewellery.”
Liam has also created a range of jewellery called Native Flora which uses Fairtrade gold, but he can also source recycled gold - gold which is already in the UK system but has been melted down to be sold on and used again.
Alice Shaw, owner of Rogue Flowers, worked and trained in the flower shop which she took over 10 years ago. There is a big creative talent at number 5a William Street, and you only have to look at the beautiful array of flowers and plants spilling out under the green awning to appreciate there is something special going on.
She said: "It's hard to categorise our flowers, but we like to think we sell something different. I buy everything from Dutch auction websites, sometimes twice a week depending on what our orders determine. There are also a couple of big Dutch trucks which come to our shop and I buy more that way as I prefer to see what I am choosing. We opened here again on 1 July and our website custom has increased by about 200%. Online customers can buy ready-made and priced bouquets or plants, but we have a good few customers who like to pop in and actually see what we have and choose from there."
The flowers for sale on the website are delightfully named – some after areas of the city like New Town or The Meadows, but you can also have a Wee Rogue or a Rogue Hydrangea (Alice's favourite).
Paul Musgrove at Gallery TEN has been in business in William Street for eight years. Originally a furniture maker and glass maker, he arrived in Edinburgh to set up a 'hot shop' - not a repository for stolen goods, but somewhere with a furnace where you blow glass, and he has been here ever since.
The gallery's name originates from around the corner at 10 Stafford Street where his own Spektrum Collective featured Paul’s work alongside 15 other printmakers. Paul explained the apparently eclectic range of beautiful things in the gallery:
"I try to buy local goods if I can, but I found that to maintain a certain level I could not get the range and breadth that I wanted just doing that. I buy some things in - I bought some Venetian glass during lockdown from Carlo Moretti, made in Murano. I saw it last year when I was there visiting the factory, and here it is now in the gallery."
Most of the art on show is on gallery consignment, but there are big names in amongst some newer artists. He has a Henry Moore print sitting alongside a black and white by Elizabeth Blackadder, "Strelitzia" woodblock print from 1989, and there is a Barbara Rae in the window. Paul loves the juxtaposition of selling some well-known artists alongside the work of someone who hasn't yet left college.
Jason Miller is an artist too, and much sought after in the world of hairdressing. He is an award-winning stylist at Charlie Miller, a business started half a century ago by his father Charlie and mother Janet, and where he and his wife India, along with his brother Josh, all now work.
It is just over a year since the Stafford Street HQ was completely renovated. He said: "We moved into this building in 1982 and before that mum and dad had a
salon in a basement just down the road from here. For us, because we've been on the street such a long time, this refurbishment actually really did feel like a renewal, especially for me because I've worked my whole life in the street. What is brilliant is that the street and the area around here keeps rejuvenating itself. There's a lot going on here.”
Charlie Miller has also begun producing their own hair products with beautiful packaging, and the latest in the range is the volume mousse which was just about to arrive when I spoke with Jason.
Part of the Charlie Miller ethos has always been to give back and during the coronavirus pandemic, the company donated 500 haircuts to NHS workers and Jason is enjoying delivering them. He said: "We're lucky. We can support people and give something back.”
Roots vegan friendly deli and salad bar at 18 William Street boasts that their food doesn’t cost the earth – but many would share the view that owners Catriona and Mark Spence-Ishaq are the the salt of the earth, given their unwavering support to charities, and particularly people living on the streets.
Early on in lockdown, Roots organised the collection and donation of essential items for the homeless community. Their work with local charities, churches and welfare organisations is a strong ethos in the business. At the start of the pandemic, Roots was also quick off the mark in adapting their business model to offer collection and local deliveries, and with uncertainty over when office workers will return en masse to the city centre, this is a service Roots have continued to provide.
Denzil Skinner and Amanda Egerton-King have over 40 years in jewellery between them. The business will make bespoke pieces and Amanda offers a redesign service. Denzil is particularly keen that anyone considering jewellery using diamonds knows about old cut diamonds. He explained: “The modern cut stones use the latest technology and lasers in the cutting process. But there was a time when the cutting and polishing was all done by hand and eye combined with a great deal of experience.
“Old cut diamonds are not only a wonder of nature but also both individual and demonstrate a brilliance all of their own. The 'marquise' cut originated from
King Louis XV of France wanting a diamond like his mistress’s lips!"