Adelphi Place, Portobello

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 8 May 2021

A classy name for a classy street. I looked up Adelphi on Wikipedia and even though it has been used in place names, hotel names, cinema names and more, there wasn't one case in which I actually recognised the Adelphi concerned. It must just be used when classiness is required and seep into your mind as a result - it is definitely originally the Greek for brother though it would seem! This part of Adelphi Place, a hammer-shaped cul-de-sac, was originally called Henderson Row, and the houses in this section were built to house pottery workers who worked for Thomas Tough's business. The fact that they are still standing shows that there was plenty of money in the industry at the time. Internet sources state various dates for the building of these houses, from the 1840s to the 1860s. The only house showing a date I saw was 1862. Although other industries developed in Portobello over the years, its initial expansion was based on the discovery of good clay on the North bank of Figgate Burn, at a point just West of the railway line behind here. Initially brick and tile works were the mainstays of the rapidly-growing village's prosperity, but by the mid 1800s pottery and stoneware were equally important.

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