What’s in a name? Well quite a lot, actually - Kevin Buckle

I have taken to arranging any meetings I need to have in the back room of Linton & Co, as apart from getting a decent cup of coffee, they have a large back room that even when busy means a relatively quiet space can be found.
Avalanche Gapinski at Waverley MarketAvalanche Gapinski at Waverley Market
Avalanche Gapinski at Waverley Market

They have now teamed up with Hidden Scotland to offer visitors to Edinburgh recommendations on where to eat, drink and explore. This, of course, assumes that folk make it further than the Waverley Market roof which continues to be busy even during the latest cold spell.

Eagle-eyed folk will have spotted a name change there in that Waverley Mall is no more and it is now Waverley Market. While I, of course, knew this was coming I didn’t actually spot the change myself when I retweeted the news of the Linton & Co/Hidden Scotland collaboration until it was pointed out to me by an observant Twitter follower.

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Sure enough, a quick visit to the mall/market’s website revealed the change to Waverley Market was official. The changeover is understandably low key given the plans for the Waverley Steps and Waverley Bridge entrances are still to be announced and of course there is the matter of building on the roof.

I’m hardly one to talk about slow name changes, as I’m still to change the name above the door at Avalanche. We opened as Avalanche Gapinski as one wall of the shop was dedicated to limited art and T-shirts by my friend Gerry Gapinski who I had met at the Tron arts market.

When the limited run sold out the plan was to change to a different artist, which of course we did very successfully with Butcher Billy. But Avalanche Butcher Billy didn’t have the same ring to it and then of course I got involved with henni.photo and Dark Edinburgh.

An honourable mention should also go to Roberta Fidora who has done our other music related cards since we opened and has our best selling card with her Nick Cave / Birthday Party birthday card. The plan now is to leave the Avalanche part of the sign and underneath list the artists featured in the shop.

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To be honest I don’t really care if it is Waverley Mall or Waverley Market what matters to me is that people come in looking for shops like Avalanche and that is why what happens with the entrances so important.

I think we will still call the kids that frequent the place the “Mall kids”, so the name will linger on. They tend to hang out at the Damaged Society end of the mall and in the food court, eschewing the lure of St James’ Bonnie & Wild but are still regular visitors to Avalanche.

While the St James Quarter has proved to be very much a shopping centre full of brands the Waverley Market has an opportunity to be something many will find far more interesting and it is just a case of whether the owners have the vision to see beyond the obvious choices of brands and food and beverage.

I’m guessing when the new building goes up on the roof they give that a new posh name and hopefully something better than the Waverley Quarter.

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