Edinburgh’s old Caley station rediscovered for new exhibition
David Mclean’s grandfather sparked his interest in the old Princes Street station, and the rest, as they say, is history, says Liam Rudden
FOR nearly 100 years, Princes Street station was a gateway to and from the Capital, a place where generations waved farewell or gave a welcoming hug and where celebrities and royalty alike caught their first glimpse of everyday life in the city.
Now a new exhibition at the Waldorf Astoria Caledonian Hotel, built on the site of the station, is set to rekindle those memories.
Uncovering Edinburgh’s Lost Station captures life at the historic station, fondly known to locals as The Caley.
Ten images have been curated for the display by David Mclean, Evening News journalist and creator of local history website Lost Edinburgh.
Recalling the origins of the exhibition, he says: “Sian Mackenzie of the Waldorf Astoria approached me, having seen images on Lost Edinburgh. She loved the thought of unseen shots of the station being displayed in the hotel. The hotel’s lounge is actually the concourse where my granddad once stood.”
It was a photo of his granddad, Andrew Boyd, that sparked David’s interest in history.
“In 1999, the Evening News ran a series of supplements celebrating Edinburgh through the ages,” he says. “In the 1960 edition there was a picture of my grandad in the station. That’s when I discovered he’d been a wheel tapper. You can see the long hammer in the picture.”
That picture is now a centrepiece of the exhibition, taking pride of place alongside images of the Royal Scots returning from Germany in 1960, of the original wooden station and of the Queen arriving on a state visit.
There is also an aerial shot of the station after the terrible fire of 1890 that reduced the original to ash, as well as one of a crowd gathered around the station’s Christmas tree and model railway in 1964.
Unaware of the family connection until he spotted his granddad in the picture, David was aware there had been a station, though too young to remember it himself.
“My grandparents lived at Rutland Square,” he says. “As a wee lad I’d take a shortcut across the wasteland that was the car park behind the Caledonian Hotel, walking through the iron gates that are now one of the few parts of the station that still exists.”
He continues: “Years later, when my grandad was 81 and suffering from dementia, I wanted to create something to help stir his memories. That’s how Lost Edinburgh was born.
“Gathering together photos of the station and areas where he’d lived, we sat going through them.
“He kept going back to that one image, the one of him in his days as a wheel tapper. That was the last meaningful afternoon I ever spent with him.”
David is dedicating Uncovering Edinburgh’s Lost Station to his granddad’s memory. He says: “We wanted to use images with a story behind them, ones that had a human touch.”