Civic pride makes it easy to clock

by Stephen Rafferty

We’ve been springing forward since 1916, when the Summer Time Act was passed at the height of the First World War.

Moving our watches and clocks forward by one hour officially marks the start of British Summer Time (BST) – we have more light in evening but less in the mornings – and it followed a campaign started in 1907 by William Willett to stop people wasting valuable hours of light in the summer.

Almost everyone of a certain generation relies on their phone or mobile device to provide accurate time but for traditionalists there is no shortage of “civic clocks” in and around Edinburgh from which they can take the time of day.

Bank Clock, Stockbridge

In fact, according to Edinburgh City Council, there are 38 civic clocks or timepieces under their care and which are maintained by the famous Edinburgh clockmakers James Ritchie & Son.

Here are a few of The Edinburgh Reporter’s favourites –

Housed in the building of the former Edinburgh Savings Bank, then Trustee Savings Bank, and now part of Pizza Express, it has guarded the main thoroughfare in Stockbridge beside the Water of Leith since 1900.

This originally stood in the middle of the road and was the clock for Morningside Station which operated from 1884 until

St Paul's Church Pilrig All photos Martin McAdam it closed to passengers in 1962. The clock was designed by

James Ritchie & Son and was cast at the Saracen Foundry in Glasgow and installed in

1910. It was gifted to the city by Councillors Inches, Inman and Torrance, representatives for the Morningside ward at a time when you could travel by train from Morningside to Waverley via Haymarket in just 13 minutes. Bell's Tower Clock, Lothian Road Once the bane of Usher Hall audiences because its chimes could be heard during concerts, the clock was gifted to the city in 1962 by distillers Arthur Bell & Sons.

Designed by T W Alexander of West Linton and built by Stuart McLashen & Co of Canonmills, in 2010 the clock was lifted by a 300 tonne crane and relocated to its present location in Festival Square.

Gifted to the city in 1901 by Lord Provost James Steel and city treasurer Robert Cranston, the Tollcross Clock is one of four similar Edinburgh clocks made by James Ritchie & Son. Originally a weight-driven pendulum clock, it was altered to a spring-driven mechanism in 1926 and was one of the largest street clocks in Britain to be driven by this

Tollcross Clock

St Stephen's Church has the longest clock pendulum in Europe