I’m pleased to say we have a new camera club in Peebles, something I was surprised we didn’t have before. It has only been in existence for a couple of months or so but already has a sizeable membership of mixed abilities. The experts have fabulous expensive cameras and amazing gadgets, while some just have the cameras, and then there are the wee folk like me, who take pictures with their wee compact cameras! I actually think the compacts are pretty good these days, and I like the photos I take with mine. Sometimes they need a tweak here and there with the computer – but then, don’t the experts do that too? I do have a better camera but just haven’t come to terms with it yet. However for general photography – snapping, if you like – then the compact is OK!
We’ve had a few meetings so far, and beginners have been out on photography missions occasionally, but last night was a TPG photo shoot with the theme of the doors and windows of Peebles! After the initial chat we all trotted off in different directions to see what we could find to photograph! I had fun just wandering in and out of the closes or passageways between buildings, letting the others do their own thing! So, today I will show you some of the pictures I took!
We each have to submit two photos for the group’s blog, but have been encouraged to upload more on Flikr!
This is one of my two for the TPG blog – I don’t know if we’ll all get our photos on it, but I hope us wee folk get a look-in!
This may be the other,>>> or perhaps it might be this one….
<<<Most of the glass in this window apparently dates back to the 18th century!
The building is the Burgh Hall.
We seem to like our coloured doors! This is an apartment beneath the old courthouse. The window is not the original window in the original courthouse building, but the yellow door may well be the original in the 18th century added on part of the building.
The famous red door! This was once the front door on to the High Street, of the Bank House where John Buchan’s family lived in the early 20th century . John’s father was the Banker. (John Buchan wrote The Thirtynine Steps, amongst other things, and became Governor General of Canada, Lord Tweedsmuir, in 1935, but he never lived here behind the red door.) Part of the building was demolished in 1975 to allow the Cuddy bridge to be widened, but the door was reinstated in the new gable round the corner. See the old picture here. The best part of the building – from the Italianate tower to the end of the street - has disappeared.
This is a turret window at the back of the Cross Keys hotel, taken through a gap in a wooden gate. This 17th century coaching inn has its very own resident ghost!
This is an interesting door! It’s still the entrance to the glazier’s, but I wonder if they still do any bell-hanging?
I love this old door with its iron grill and old hinge brackets. I’d love to know its story, because the front of the building is comparatively modern, but maybe it was the door at the foot of the tenement stairs in the long gone old building that once stood here.
Tenement: A building for human habitation, especially one that is rented to tenants, and usually containing several apartments.
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These are fairly old tenement windows at the back of the High Street. Because generally each apartment was not owned but rented the occupiers weren’t too bothered about the state of repair of the building. It shows in this photo!!! It is probably still rented property!
<Here are more modern tenements, built in the last ten years. They are still rented apartments with access from a stair inside the building. 
The next
ones, though still tenements, pretty much all have their own front door. The street behind this building is at a higher level than the ground floor flats which are basically built into the hillside with their front doors at this side. The next floor opens its doors on to the street at the other side, while the top floor is reached by a passageway from the street to the back, and up a stair to the walkway, with their front doors on this side!
Two different periods here – to the left is the 16th century Chambers Institution, once Dean’s House and later Queensberry House, now housing our library, museum and other civic offices, and on the right a glimpse of the Georgian Northgate House, the history of which I cannot find! I love the lions at the foot of the steps. The one on the left has paws crossed with his head down, sleeping, while the one on the right is alert and seems to be looking over to his sleeping comrade and roaring.
So, my last picture for today - a blocked up window in one of the closes off the Eastgate. Stan forgot to take his mug back inside, but it brightened a dull corner. Maybe this will be my second submission for the group’s blog!
Talk again soon.
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