Edinburgh retro: 12 random things Edinburgh locals will remember about the city in the 80s and 90s

By Gary Flockhart

Lifestyle Editor

Published 22nd Sep 2023, 15:53 BST

Updated 23rd Sep 2023, 06:06 BST

For anyone who grew up in Edinburgh in the 80s and 90s, many the entries on this list will be very familiar.

We’ve had a look through the pictures archives to bring you a dozen images of things people who grew up in Scotland’s capital city in the 80s and 90s will remember.

Let us know your own favourite memories of the growing in Auld Reekie in the comments section before you go.

Before buses were all fitted with CCTV, the driver used a kind of periscope contraption with a curved mirror to check what was going on upstairs.

. Watching the driver on the top deck

Before buses were all fitted with CCTV, the driver used a kind of periscope contraption with a curved mirror to check what was going on upstairs. Photo: Photo: Contributed

The bus station in Edinburgh in the 1990s looked a lot different than how it does today, in part thanks to the huge, concrete-clad office development that towered above it.

. St Andrew Square bus station

The bus station in Edinburgh in the 1990s looked a lot different than how it does today, in part thanks to the huge, concrete-clad office development that towered above it. Photo: Photo: Alistair Linford

For many Edinburghers, no hard day’s swim at the Royal Commonwealth (Commie) Pool was complete without a hunger-nullifying detour to Brattisani’s on Newington Road - its memorable red seating booths were a trip back in time to the year it opened.

. Brattisani’s

For many Edinburghers, no hard day’s swim at the Royal Commonwealth (Commie) Pool was complete without a hunger-nullifying detour to Brattisani’s on Newington Road - its memorable red seating booths were a trip back in time to the year it opened. Photo: Third Party

Here you can see a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex head being unloaded by workmen for the Dinosaurs Alive! Exhibition at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, February 1990.

. Dinosaurs Alive! Exhibition

Here you can see a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex head being unloaded by workmen for the Dinosaurs Alive! Exhibition at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, February 1990. Photo: Albert Jordan

Before buses were all fitted with CCTV, the driver used a kind of periscope contraption with a curved mirror to check what was going on upstairs.

1. Watching the driver on the top deck

Before buses were all fitted with CCTV, the driver used a kind of periscope contraption with a curved mirror to check what was going on upstairs. Photo: Photo: Contributed

The bus station in Edinburgh in the 1990s looked a lot different than how it does today, in part thanks to the huge, concrete-clad office development that towered above it.

2. St Andrew Square bus station

The bus station in Edinburgh in the 1990s looked a lot different than how it does today, in part thanks to the huge, concrete-clad office development that towered above it. Photo: Photo: Alistair Linford

For many Edinburghers, no hard day’s swim at the Royal Commonwealth (Commie) Pool was complete without a hunger-nullifying detour to Brattisani’s on Newington Road - its memorable red seating booths were a trip back in time to the year it opened.

3. Brattisani’s

For many Edinburghers, no hard day’s swim at the Royal Commonwealth (Commie) Pool was complete without a hunger-nullifying detour to Brattisani’s on Newington Road - its memorable red seating booths were a trip back in time to the year it opened. Photo: Third Party

Here you can see a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex head being unloaded by workmen for the Dinosaurs Alive! Exhibition at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, February 1990.

4. Dinosaurs Alive! Exhibition

Here you can see a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex head being unloaded by workmen for the Dinosaurs Alive! Exhibition at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, February 1990. Photo: Albert Jordan

Edinburgh Scotland

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