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This is Glass and Thompson deli at 2 Dundas Street Edinburgh. It is in Glass and Thompson where Domenica McDonald embarrasses Pat MacGregor by inviting a handsome waiter around for tea to discuss the poetry of Rupert Brooke in Espresso Tales . Apparently if you ask the proprietor Russell Glass nicely he might show you the copy of Alexander McCall Smith’s novel The Forgotten Affairs of Youth he keeps behind the counter, the one in which Russell himself and his café make a cameo appearance on page 173.

This is Café St Honoré  a french restaurant North West Thistle Street Lane in the New Town area in Edinburgh. One of the characters in “44 Scotland Street” Matthew frequents it for two-hour lunches when business at The Something Special Gallery is slack. It is however, also the scene of an incident which has resonance throughout the series. Bruce bumps into his boss’s rather blowsy wife Sasha while looking at an expensive book in a bookshop. Sasha has just come into an unexpectedly large legacy:

“Let me get it for you as a present,” she said suddenly. And then she added: And then let me take you to lunch at the Café St Honoré. Do you know it? It’s just around the corner….Bruce hesitated for a moment, but only a moment. Women were always doing this sort of thing for him. They couldn’t help themselves.”

The meeting is quite innocent but during a conversation about tennis Sasha reaches out and examines his wrists. At which point her husband, Raeburn Todd, walks in, sees them ‘holding hands’… and sacks Bruce.

This is Kierna at Moray Place in Edinburgh which is described as a world class architectural jewel. It features as a location in many of Alexander McCall Smiths books. In the volume “Espresso Tales” there is allegedly an nudist picnic that two of the characters Pat and Pete are to attend. However when Domenica McDonald is told about it by the portrait painter Angus Lordie she snorts back at him “I find that very difficult to swallow, Angus. Nudists in Moray Place? All those Georgian drawing rooms and grand dinner parties. Nudists? Certainly not!”

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This is The Cumberland Bar in the New Town in Edinburgh. The Bar has been immortalised as the stereotypical New Town pub in Alexander McCall-Smith’s serialised novel 44 Scotland Street, the Cumberland has an authentic, traditional wood-brass-and-mirrors look (despite being relatively new) Many of the characters of the novels frequent the Cumberland including Bruce, Pat, Stuart and Matthew as well as Angus Lordie and his dog Cyril. Cyril is a beer drinking canine with a gold tooth who winks at the ladies. In one of the books Cyril is impounded under threat of death for biting, it is to the Cumberland Bar that he returns to celebrate his reprieve.

This is Valvona and Crolla which features in many of the stories of “44 Scotland Street” This is a  very real location in New Town Edinburgh and is Scotland’s oldest deli. It was founded in 1934 to serve Edinburgh’s fledgling immigrant Italian community by Alfona Contini, who began life as a shepherd in the Abruzzi mountains. Now four generations of the Contini family are involved. Director Mary Contini wrote the cookery book ‘Dear Francesca’  One of the characters of Alexander McCall’s Smith’s novel, Irene states  “It was always possible that one might meet someone interesting in the café and have a conversation about something important…Edinburgh was full of interesting people, Irene thought, provided one knew where to go and meet them. Valvona and Crolla was a good start because interesting people liked to eat interesting food…” She goes on to talk about meeting a well known food writer in Valvona & Crolla. As it happens the day we had lunch there one of “The Two Fat Ladies” Clarissa Dickson Wright was having lunch at the next table.

In Alexander McCall Smith’s novel “44 Scotland Street” he uses a mixture of real and fictitious characters and locations in Edinburgh. On our first day there we went in search of number 44.  Scotland Street is a real street in the New Town area of Edinburgh however the house numbers only go as far as 43. So this is a photograph of  43 Scotland Street. As McCall Smith states himself  “Scotland Street occupies a busy, Bohemian corner of Edinburgh’s New Town, where the old haute bourgeoisie finds itself having to rub shoulders with students, poets and portraitists. And number 44 has more than its fair share of the street’s eccentrics and failures …” “44 Scotland Street” is an episodic novel and was first published as a serial in The Scotsman Newspaper, starting 26 January 2004, every weekday, for six months. The book retains the 100+ short chapters of the original. It was partially influenced by Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, a famous serial story.

This is the Edinburgh based writer Alexander McCall Smith. We met him at the Edinburgh Book Festival last week. His novels include The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, 44 Scotland Street, The Sunday Philosophy Club, Tears Of The Giraffe, Morality For Beautiful Girls, The Right Attitude To Rain, The Kalahari Typing School For Men.  Having read 44 Scotland Street we decided to visit many of the places mentioned in the book and photograph them. It’s a great way to get to know a city. It was a chance encounter with Armistead Maupin (of Tales of the City fame) in San Francisco which inspired Alexander McCall Smith to write his serial novel about the residents of 44 Scotland Street, a fictitious building in a real street in the author’s home town of Edinburgh. “44 Scotland Street” first appeared in daily episodes in The Scotsman newspaper in 2004, and was published in book form later that year. Over the next few days I will be posting those photos and giving some background to them and the locations significants in the book.

As the notice states, this is a small business card holder made from the skin of the left hand of William Burke. He was one half of a murderous duo Burke and Hare famous for acquiring bodies for the use by medical practitioners between the years 1827 and 1829. They chalked up 17 victims in that time. William Burke was born in Urney, County Tyrone in 1792 and moved to Scotland around 1815. He worked as a navvy on the Union Canal were it is thought he first met William Hare. After they were caught in 1729 William Hare was granted immunity from the law in return for testifying against Burke, who was found guilty and executed in Edinburgh by hanging on January 28th 1829. He was then publicly dissected at Edinburgh Medical College and his skeleton remains on display at the college museum. This card holder made from his skin can be seen in the police museum on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh and his “death mask” is on display at the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland Queens Street Edinburgh.

This is the plaque to a famous son of Edinburgh James Connolly which was erected on the wall of George IV Bridge arch spanning the Cowgate valley.

James Connolly was born at 107 Cowgate, Edinburgh, the son of Irish Catholic Immigrants. His upbringing was one of extreme poverty, and he was working to support his family from the age of eleven. At fourteen he joined the British Army, serving in Ireland for seven years. When he returned to Edinburgh in 1890 he became actively involved in socialist politics.

This is a William Wallace impersonator who entertains the visitors at the gates of Edinburgh Castle on the Royal Mile.