This is a mainly 1930s sports club building situated just beside the Water of Leith off Belford Road near the Gallery of Modern Art. That newer entrance spoils it somewhat. The photo is a stitch to get it all in.

Far end view:-

Strong horizontals and verticals here. The canopy is good, and the blue highlighting. The windows have that “eyes poked out” look though.

Side view:-

The detailing on the main wall is good. That extension is a bit bland though.

This is the Allan Water Café. Quite a few of Scotland’s rivers are named something Water, (the Leithen Water is an example, and there is also of course the Water of Leith.) Though the river is only a few tens of metres away to the left of the photos you don’t actually see it when driving over the bridge as the parapet is too high for that.

Anyway the café has a typical 30s café frontage. This is from further along the road. Note the detailing above the windows and door. The more modern extension to the right (not in photo) isn’t deco but was full of customers when I took this.

The facade has pronounced deco features; horizontals and verticals emphasised in the glazing, nice detailing above the door. It seems to have been an addition to the front of an older house.

More detailing above the window and door of the furthest left portion of the building complex.

Two buildings from a trip down to Leith a few weeks back.

This one’s on the waterfront at Leith itself. It’s pretty recent but has some styling influenced by Deco.

The second is on the corner of Logie Green Road and Warriston Road. The stonework above the entrance is marked 1902 but it prefigures Deco. The reflections in the Water of Leith are quite nice too.

More photos are on my flickr site.

I don’t know exactly how many Antony Gormley statues there are in total in the Water of Leith, though I have now seen at least four.

The latest two I photographed last Saturday.

This one is in the water by St Mark’s Park and was taken from the footbridge you can see in the next one.

It’s quite a nice footbridge. Pity about the plastic on the bank. They’re doing some shoring up work I think.

The last is right at the end of the Water of Leith. The pier is hard by Ocean Terminal shopping centre. The Royal Yacht Britannia is 90^o to the left of where I took the photo from.

On our stroll to Leith docks on Saturday I noticed this building from the pathway by the Water of Leith. So we climbed up to Great Junction Street and I took a few photos. (Yes I know this is in Leith really but we’ll stretch a point.)

The State Cinema was opened in 1938, turned into a bingo hall in 1972 and later became the Babylon night club. It was B-listed in 1995.

This first picture was taken from the bridge over the Water of Leith.

Here we have typical deco styling: horizontals,verticals and also trianguloid bits. Note the painting on the bridge parapet. It’s a bit deco too.

This view shows a typical deco curved wall and entrance canopy. The trianguloid bits on the red columns are more obvious here.

It’s a pity the building has fallen into disuse. On the Scottish cinemas website it looks a bit less dilapidated.

There is a plan to refurbish it though. (The cinema parts at the back will go but the entrance building will stay.)

The pyramidal roof on the square tower looks a bit odd but judging by the old photo in the Scottish cinemas link above it seems to be original.

On Saturday we walked the Water of Leith from Arboretum Avenue all the way to the Port of Leith.

On the way there we saw this heron which may be one of the ones we have seen in the Water of Leith before. We were puzzling what it got to eat as we could see no sign of fish in the river whenever we had a suitable view.

On the way back…

We saw the heron looking intently at the bank, then stalking slowly and deliberately towards the river’s side. When close in its neck started to sway sinuously the way I suppose a snake’s does. It stopped, then started the neck sway thing again.

Then it pounced. Quickly.

There was now a small mammal in its mouth, a vole or mouse probably. I scrabbled to get a picture. I hope you can make out the mammal.

This is a few seconds later.

Not much later the mammal had been completely swallowed.

Now we know what it eats….

Nature red in tooth and claw.

Not to mention beak.

These photos were taken about a month or so ago.

This is a panorama of Edinburgh from the Botanic Gardens with Arthur’s Seat prominent towards the left and the Castle to the right.

This heron was in the Water of Leith as we walked back from the Botanics. It may or may not be the same one we have seen before.

This is one of Antony Gormley‘s sculptures. It is embedded into the tarmac in the middle of the pedestrian entrance from Belford Road into the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Last week the good lady and I took another stroll along the Water of Leith.

No herons this time, and we didn’t tarry by Dean Village, the Dene Bridge nor St Bernards Well but since the last time we were there, there have been a few additions to the water in the shape of Antony Gormley sculptures. This is the one nearest Stockbridge.

Gormley is most famous for the Angel Of The North but has also placed figures on Crosby Beach near Liverpool and on roofs in New York and London.

The Water of Leith seems an appropriate location for these new emplacements as it flows past the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, albeit out of sight in a valley.

We had a look around Stockbridge, the good lady loading up on books from the charity shops and a great second-hand book shop that we hadn’t gone into before.

I liked the look of this one as the facade is Decoish:-

I suspect the projecting frontage may have started life as a bank.

There is some nice detailing on the door surround too.

On its left as you look at it in the photo stands the former Woolworths shop (which wasn’t ever Art Deco) and is now a Scotmid.

On the way back I photographed the bridge which carries Belford Road over the river.

I’ve no idea whether this is one of Thomas Telford’s (as the Dene Bridge is) but it looks of an age to me.

This is the detail up on the right in close up:-

I believe it depicts the Arms of Edinburgh.