Double whammy sees roof cave in on unlucky store

For one unlucky shop owner, however, the experience has been made even more difficult by not one but two disasters.

Despite opening just one month ago, Lindsey Adam has had a masonry fall outside her shop and has now had to close the business for up to six weeks as a result of flooding.

The first catastrophe happened just two days after she opened Bonkers gift shop – situated in the basement of a tenement building in Hanover Street – when masonry fell from the premises above into her doorway.

The incident meant scaffolding had to be erected in front of the entire building, making it even more difficult to attract new customers.

The masonry fall also meant Ms Adam faces a repair bill running into thousands of pounds.

As if that wasn’t unlucky enough, a burst water tank in the Starbucks above then completely flooded her shop just a month later, destroying half of her stock and resulting in around £10,000 of damage.

The gift shop will have to remain closed for up to six weeks as the ceiling and walls are dried out and the mess is cleared up.

Ms Adam said: “We had to get something done after the masonry fall as it could be dangerous and we didn’t want it falling on someone’s head.

“We don’t know yet exactly how much it’s going to cost but it’s going to be thousands and thousands.

“We put up a temporary sign on the scaffolding saying that we’re open and, despite it not being the best look for outside your building, things were going quite well up until [Thursday] when our shop was completely flooded.

“The ceiling’s down, the walls are falling down and half the stock is ruined.

“It’s been horrendous, I don’t usually attract such bad luck.

“We’re going to be closed until the middle of October, so we’re going to miss out on the start of the season with people buying Christmas stuff and Hallowe’en. I’m gutted.

“My manager and myself have been working flat out over the past few weeks to get everything ready and all our hard work has been ruined.”

Ms Adam already runs a successful branch of her gift shop – which sells cards, wrapping paper, scented candles and photo frames – in St Andrews, and she hopes her venture in Edinburgh city centre will follow in its footsteps when it eventually reopens.

She added: “It was going well because people know us from St Andrews and we have loyal customers. It’s been a setback but we will open again and hopefully it won’t take any more than six weeks.”

A Starbucks spokeswoman said: “It’s a very unfortunate situation and we were saddened to discover the water damage downstairs and the inconvenience it has caused.

“We acted immediately and had an emergency plumber attend to resolve the matter. We’ve offered support to the gift shop to help get it up and running.”

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