These 16 images show how one corner of Edinburgh’s Southside was changed forever

Living Memories supplement. Bristo Street in Edinburgh in 1965 - Woolpack Inn pub to left and Parker's store to right. The construction of the Appleton Tower is visible in the background.

THE demolition ball swung regularly in Edinburgh’s Southside in the post-war era, but few areas of the city were transformed to the extent of the Bristo and George Square district.

In the late 1950s, Edinburgh University pressed ahead with arguably its most comprehensive and ambitious expansion plans since the institution was founded in the 16th century. The redevelopment proposals meant the loss of a large number of historic townhouses and tenements in the Southside, many of which dated back to the Georgian era and beyond. Heritage campaigners watched on in dismay as sections of George Square, completed in the 18th century, and nearby streets such as Bristo Street, Crichton Street, Marshall Street and Potterrow were wiped from the map in favour of the Edinburgh University Library, the University Health Centre and the multi-storey twins, the David Hume and Appleton towers. Scores of homes, shops and familiar buildings, including the fondly-recalled Parker’s department store, were lost forever.