Bucket-and-spade days are over for Portobello

[Bob Jefferson]

From The Herald today:

Bucket-and-spade days are over for Portobello

[Brenda]

Oh Yes! and when did the Herald reporter last come to the beach?
Co-incidentally, I heard a programme recently when it was said that, if global warming produces really hot summers, Britain's seaside places could be in for a revival.

[Bob Jefferson]

A pity that they chose to go with such a gloomy headline. I spoke to the reporter for around 20 minutes and I was very upbeat about everything that was happening in Portobello and stressed that most of it was community-led, but you know what the press is like, Brenda.

[Bob Jefferson]

I was copied into this response to the article:

Councillor Marshall,

We are an artist/architect led urban design company based in the Leith area of Edinburgh but with offices in other parts of the EC.

I have just read with interest an article in The GLASGOW Herald newspaper on a visit to my mother in Cumbernauld. It is strange to see such an article in a Glasgow orientated paper rather than say the Scotsman the Edinburgh orientated paper.

It is almost a year since we AIA Art in Architecture contacted Edinburgh City Development, after a stroll along the Portobello seafront with a proposal for the enhancement of the whole seafront. We were met with complete and utter disinterest except to be told that there was a proposal for the redundant paddling pool and its concrete structure. However this was being put out to tender to 3 landscape companies at that time and since we were not on the CEC approved list of consultants then we would not even be considered for any possible part in the project let alone any other one.

Since that point we have taken the view through other contacts with CEC Culture and Leisure, Herbert Coutts and Rebecca Peppiette on other projects that Edinburgh is one of the least innovative and modernising Councils in the EC let alone Scotland. We have also met in our studio/gallery space with Riccardo Marrini the newly appointed Design Manager within City Development and he saw the need to encourage young practices like ours with innovative ideas to be given some way of implementing them either through building them or through exhibiting them. However the problem here is that we cannot always be funding the production of this ourselves. Surely CEC with all its income from tourism and the International Festival could finance a research unit within the City to look at ways of enhancing the city in a more innovative way than the current restorative methods employed in the centre of town.

However we are ever the optimists and would be quite willing to discuss with yourselves the possibility of some way of enhancing the seafront and bring some much needed life to it.

We note that it used to have a pier and a swimming pool with Sean Connery as a lifeguard, maybe his arts charity could become involved in the whole regeneration of the seafront.

There has recently just been an international ideas competition for the Boardwalk of Coney Island in New York this could possibly be a way of bring some international importance to the area let alone the locals.

Maybe we could meet?

Regards

Ross McEwan
AiA Art in Architecture
2 Commercial Street
Leith
Edinburgh
EH6 6JA

[Dadaist]

I really hope that AiA apply more precision to their designs than they did to this letter and to their website (http://www.artinarchitecture.co.uk) which strike me as wonky and tactless - features I would not welcome in a promenade such as ours.

As a matter of urgency, I appeal to our resident web designer-in-chief Ed Walking to submit a proposal to AiA to improve their website, although perhaps not quite in the manner that they would like to "improve" our promenade.

I'd like to propose to improve AiA's letter-writing skills, but I don't think I'll get funding.

[Hiboz]

Last time I was down the beach, it was so cold, messy and covered with shite, and that was just the weedgie tourists!

[Dadaist]

Last time I was down the beach, it was so cold, messy and covered with ***, and that was just the weedgie tourists!

How did you know they were the weedge? There's plenty round these parts with old firm tops.

Anyways, we get to travel west to their beaches (like Troon and Largs) so I have no problem with foreigners coming here. Same deal with Burntisland and Aberdour - as long as they pick up their litter.

When did you last visit Porty beach, JambOz - oops sorry - HibOz ?

Hope you didn't get sand in your nappy!

[Hiboz]

[/quote]
When did you last visit Porty beach, JambOz - oops sorry - HibOz ?
Hope you didn't get sand in your nappy![/quote]

Just last year, but thankfully now have access to real beaches, not just the crappy bit of sand/shingle where the land meets the sea, (which we can go in without freezing).

No sand in my nappy, stayed above that, there was room in your pram after you chucked all your toys out....again!

[Dadaist]

When did you last visit Porty beach, JambOz - oops sorry - HibOz ?
Hope you didn't get sand in your nappy!

Just last year, but thankfully now have access to real beaches, not just the crappy bit of sand/shingle where the land meets the sea, (which we can go in without freezing).

No sand in my nappy, stayed above that, there was room in your pram after you chucked all your toys out....again!

waah! waah! want it dummy!

fair point H - i think we all have beach envy now.

[Hiboz]

Just think of all the great beaches and seaside resorts of the UK - Morecambe, Skegness, Aberdeen, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Cockermouth...any other faves?

[teddygirl]

Yes, plenty...........not resorts but beautiful beaches, Sandend, Cullen, Banff, Yellowcraigs to name just a few. Real beaches with rockpools, clean sand, wildlife and seldom a plonker in sight

Portobello might not be the best beach in the country but most of the locals are nice friendly folk and we make the most of what we have, after all a man made beach is better than no beach at all.