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A Valentine's postcard written by a holidaymaker on board the Wednesday afternoon boat to Lerwick (St Ninian?) in May 1962 as they lay off in Lerwick unable to berth because of the weather. She writes that they'd left Kirkwall at 1pm and arrived at 8.30pm, that dishes and chairs had been dancing around the dining room and her with them, but she had "laughed and laughed". Good for her! The van turning the corner has "R Garden Ltd" on its side. By my reckoning there were 16 businesses on this part of the street then, and only three of them are still there under the same names, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. Date estimated.
Picture added on 04 April 2007
The 16 businesses I counted were, starting on the left and going away from the camera, John Sclater, draper, P C Flett, ironmonger, Cumming and Spence, bakers, then Glues' predecessors (was it Muir's greengrocers?), the Pomona Cafe, and, out of sight, George Rendall and Co., drapers. Then left to right at the Bridge were Maxwell's grocers, Leonards, and Stevensons with Sinclair's hairdressers above. Then returning along the right side of the street, The Commercial Bank of Scotland with Macrae and Robertson, solicitors, above (you can just see the top of the building - by the way, I've been told that the entire County Council was run from the top floor before the war. Duncan J Robertson managed to be County Clerk (equivalent to Chief Executive) as well as senior partner of the law firm and joint agent of the bank!), then Hepworth's gents outfitters, John T Flett, butcher, the Central Cafe or "Zanre's", and R Garden Ltd's drapery department. If you count Dunnet the dentist down the close on the left you get 17. Any more?
Added by Paul Sutherland on 10 May 2007
Kirkwall
