The Institute

Formerly the WM Ramsay Technical Institute and converted into flats over twenty years ago, this impressive building at the entrance to Portobello has quite a history it turns out. It is of architectural significance as one of the first multi-story reinforced concrete buildings in Scotland, built to house a chocolate factory. The factory was owned by the Schulze family, originally from Germany but long-term Scottish residents. They started making luxury chocolates on the site in 1911, bringing over workers from Germany to help train local women in the factory. Unfortunately only three years later the First World War started and Germans were expelled from the country. Worse still for the Schulze family stories began to spread that the strong foundations - needed on the unstable ground - and the reinforced floors - to support the factory's machinery - had a more sinister purpose. There were wild ideas that the factory could be a site for heavy artillery that could bombard the docks at Leith. Quite how the armaments would get there I'm not sure - were they to be disguised as the ingredients for chocolates? Anyway, the rumours continued in the anti-German hysteria of the time and the authorities made an inspection of the building in October 1914. They didn't find anything untoward but it turned out that Charles Schulze senior had never taken British citizenship, despite living in the country for fifty years. He had to register as an enemy alien even as his sons signed up to fight in the British army, and his factory was commandeered for use as a barracks. Two of the three Schulze brothers were killed in the war and the factory never returned to making chocolates, becoming the technical institute in 1922. Just think, there could have been a smell of chocolate as you arrived in Portobello on a number 26 bus!
Another on-the-way-to-football blip. Just seven-a-side this week and we started slow - not scoring until it was 0-4. We did make it back to parity at 5-5 but then ran out of steam and lost by a couple in the end.
A day for connections with my Mum. Earlier it was announced that John Noakes, the former Blue Peter presenter had died. He was a real feature of my childhood, with the twice-weekly TV show must-watch family telly. I alway remember my Mum had a real affinity with Noakes who was from 'just up the road' in Halifax, close to her West Yorkshire upbringing in Holmfirth. And then later, Huddersfield Town won the Premier League play-off on penalties to get back to the top flight in English football for the first time since 1972. Back then I was just eight and had relatively recently picked Leeds as my team - a team in England with Scottish players. My mother was a fan of 'Town' and told stories of seeing Denis Law on the top deck of a bus when she had been a teenager. Her father had watched town in his youth - back when they were a major force in the country. When he had been only a few years older than I was then Huddersfield won the FA Cup and then the League, not once, but three times in a row. And despite being runners-up in the next two seasons and reaching a few more cup finals they had won nothing since - over forty years and counting. And now they are back in the top division once again - Mum would have been pleased.