Apr 242018
 

Old Forsyth's building

30 Princes St, Edinburgh EH2 2BY

‘Foreign and Colonial Outfitters’ a sign on the former Forsyth’s store speaks of Edinburgh’s Indian retail trade. Oriental carpets, rhododendrons or cashmere underwear were well expected imports, as were Melrose’s Teas (93 George Street). An Edwardian trade directory listed over 50 Edinburgh businesses exporting goods to India. India Pale Ale (see Oxford Bar’s window, Young Street), whisky and clothes, hats, boots, saddles, pulpit robes and “St Bernard’s Starch Enamel”, ‘regularly received’ orders from even ‘the highest circles in India’. More unexpected sales were stained glass, bullock weighing machines for bazaars, and ‘Edinburgh Shortbread sent in 1904 to Thibet’.

Forsyth's Globe.

Forsyth’s Globe.

 

Foreign & Colonial outfitters sign.

Foreign & Colonial outfitters sign.

 

IPA Window at the Oxford Bar, 8 Young Street, EH2 4JB.

IPA Window at the Oxford Bar, 8 Young Street, EH2 4JB.

Find out more

 Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.