IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Hutchison Place, EDINBURGH, EH14 1QT

Shops in a square on Hutchison Avenue, Edinburgh.

Greggs, Costa and a tanning studio. New facilities on the site of the old Chesser fruit market.

Almost finished, this development replaces the old Edinburgh fruit market that occupied the site for many years. see Image, Image, Image

This image is quite representative of the Hutchison area of Edinburgh, which sits at a point on the city's West side which marks the transition from its outer centre to the suburbs proper. Most of the buildings are six in-a-block flats on relatively narrow streets - this may be because most of the infrastructure was put in place by the council in the late 1920s when the impact of the private motor car had not yet been fully anticipated. Some of the blocks are cream and grey, but a lot are painted in this light pink colour. Hutchison is fairly small - it is about half a mile long by a quarter of a mile wide - but its boundaries are obvious, as every street within the area starts its name with Hutchison. The reason for this is disappointing and based on either pomposity or sycophancy. It is hard today to figure out which, but no doubt both were in play : Thomas Hutchison was Edinburgh's Lord Provost (a kind of Scottish mayor) in the early 1920s when the area was earmarked for development. He took over the post from a John Chesser, whose name is present in a large number of streets in the neighbouring Chesser district to the West, and was succeeded by William Sleigh, whose surname is similarly present in two streets in the area of Lochend in Eastern Edinburgh - Sleigh's area wasn't quite big enough to be named after him at least.

The Fruitmarket at Chesser undergoing demolition, no doubt to make way for more housing development.

Chesser Avenue in Slateford contains a mixture of industrial retail and civil service properties. This is the new fruit market, quiet during the day but no doubt very lively in the early hours.

This is the site of the Edinburgh Fruit Market at Chesser. Compare with two earlier photos Image and Image, from 2005 and 2007 respectively. As anticipated, there will soon be houses there. The red brick building to the left is Pentland House, a governmnent building dating from 1972.

What everybody wants - a new retail park. This one, on the site of the old Edinburgh wholesale fruit market on Chesser Avenue is almost complete.

Slateford Road