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Upper Gilmore Place, EDINBURGH, EH3 9NW

Upper Gilmore Place.

Sculpted roundel on the wall of the former Darroch School. Image

The school opened in 1910.

Downhill from Boroughmuir Senior Secondary, Darroch, the Junior Secondary, tended to be seen as the 'poor relation'. The sculpture shows that here the curricular emphasis was on the technical and vocational, as opposed to the humanities. Image

Apparently a WW1 drill hall for 1 Lothian Brigade, Bearer Companies (HQ) http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/WW1-Great-War-Centenary---Drill-Halls/18#lothians although it does not look as if it was planned to be any different from an ordinary house in a terrace, as it is now. Further research shows that the 1st Lothians Bearer Company became the 3rd Lowland Field Ambulance RAMC in 1908 and by 1914 was based at Easter Road Barracks [thanks to John Maddan for this information].

The school's most famous alumnus is undoubtedly Tommy Connery who left at the age of 13 to work on a horse-and-cart milk round for the nearby St.Cuthbert's Co-operative Society in Fountainbridge. After seeing the Alan Ladd Western 'Shane' in 1953, he preferred to be called 'Sean'. His stage debut was at the nearby King's Theatre where he earned £5 per evening as a non-speaking extra playing a soldier. Part-time work as a lifeguard at the Portobello open-air swimming pool helped develop his physique and, after entering a body-building competition in London, he discovered that auditions were being held for men in good physical shape to appear in the chorus of the musical 'South Pacific'. After a long period spent as a struggling, more or less self-taught actor, often on the road, he gradually won attention through theatre and television work. He then landed a leading role in the 1959 Disney feature film (Darby O'Gill), before being chosen to play Ian Fleming's 'James Bond' character in the 1962 film 'Dr No'. The rest, as they say, is history.

Undergoing some restoration. It appears to being reroofed.