Catscape by Mike Nicholson

was a site describing itself as “Edinburgh’s LocalHistory Archive.” Within that site there was an option to click on different areas of the city. Choosing “Comely Bank” led Jessie to say “Most revealing, most revealing,” for the second time that day. This time the boys could see why. There was silence as all three read what had appeared on the screen.
    The website that Jessie had accessed provided old newspaper articles, and the one that had come up first had the headline, “Plans Agreed for Shops on Pond.” Dated 1895, the article noted that, “As part of the extension of the Comely Bank residential community this bold engineering project will involve draining the pond and building up the resulting hole to street level through the creation of a set of vaulted cellars. The final stage of construction will involve the building of a new street of shops above the vaults which will serve the growing community of Comely Bank. It will be named Raeburn Place, after the famous artist, Sir Henry Raeburn.”
    “Well, who would have thought that I live on top of an old pond?” said Jessie.
    “Just think,” said Murdo, “If they hadn’t built all this we would have had a great place to play!”
    “Yes, but you wouldn’t have had any rock buns,” noted Jessie.
    “Hmm, fair point,” said Murdo looking suddenly serious again.
    Jessie clicked on another page, which read, “Council Leader Opens New Street.” The article was dated 1898 and had the sub-heading, “Vaults Hailed an Engineering Success.” There was a photo of a rather serious-looking group of bearded men in long coats beside a row of shops. The sign for Raeburn Place could just be seen above the line of their top hats. Fergus pointed out another familiar name to the others. One of the shops just visible in the corner of the picture was Crockett’s Watches and Clocks.
    The article described the opening of the new shopping street and the “engineering success” of the headline was the creation of the underground vaults supporting the street and the shopsabove. Alongside the article and the photo there was even a diagram similar to one of Jessie’s plans, showing a side-on view of the street with its line of shops and then underneath the road, three tiers of archways, one on top of the other.
    “It’s just amazing that we are on top of all that,” said Fergus.
    “Does it say who owns those vaults?” asked Murdo leaning in so close to the screen that Fergus and Jessie were squeezed out.
    “Well, according to the article,” read Jessie, “it looks like the shops each owned the vaults below their unit. I suppose whether they used it or not depended on their business and their need for storage space.”
    “So why would there be manhole covers leading down to the vaults?” asked Fergus.
    “There’s your explanation,” said Jessie, pointing to another paragraph in the article. Murdo read aloud, “Designers have responded to public concern that the draining of the pond would not be fully successful. The potential for the vaults filling with water and being a safety risk for anyone working below ground level has led to the creation of a series of quick access points to street level.”
    “Now,” said Jessie, “what we need to find is something about the ownership of the vaults. Let’s see what else we have here.”
     
    After a few more clicks of the mouse, the front page of the
Edinburgh Evening News
dated 14 August 1931 appeared on the screen. The article towards the bottom of the page had the headline, “Inventor Buys Underground Property.” Jessie read aloud, “Edinburgh saw one of its more unusual property sales last week as local businessman and inventor Charles Crockett purchased six of the shop vaults underneath Raeburn Place. Local residents were bemused by the sale. One stated that “It’s a bit of a white elephant,” while another said “He’s got more money than sense.” Crockett who owns the Watches and Clocks shop on