The history of Lothian House
This video takes you through the history of the site where Lothian House was built, and shows the development of the building from 1936 until now.
The video has no commentary and can be paused if there is something you want to review. There is also a download of the pdf of the images available here.
The commercial building variously included the Inland Revenue (still remembered in fear by some Edinburgh residents), the Philatelic Bureau and, most noteably, by Woolworths, who were partners in the contruction in 1936 and are specifically mentioned in the deeds of both the current shops and flats.
Retail images of Lothian House
Woolworths
When Lothian House was first built in the Hopetoun Basin, one of the key owners was the Woolworths chain. Woolworths had been in the UK since 1909 and already had a store on Princes Street. However they expanded to Lothian Road, to take the largest retail space in Lothian House in 1936. There are photographs of the store at the "Woolies buildings" website, link here. There is more about the Woolworths company here, link.
Jefferies haberdashery were next door, and were an Edinburgh institution.
Their premises took the whole of the south corner of Lothian House.
The Regal Cinema, then the ABC, then the Odeon
At the north end of Lothian House, the Regal Cinema served to local community as a cinema and as a venue for musical performances, most notebly the Beatles played there in 1964. The history of the venue for music can be seen at Edinburgh Gig Archive.
