A perfectly preserved Edinburgh 'ghost sign' has been uncovered during renovation work to a New Town building.
The sign advertising M.T. Scott Confections and Cigarettes was spotted at 19 Hart Street, opposite the junction with Broughton Place. After some digging into the building and owners' history, there is more than meets the eye with this particular sign.
As reported by the Broughton Spurtle, information gathered after consulting censuses, statuary registers, valuation rolls, Post Office directories and local newspaper reveal quite a lot about the building's past.
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In 1910, Jane Dickson moved to the address with her two sons and one daughter after her husband, Adam Scott, died of heart disease. The Scott family moved to the small two-room kitchen basement at 19 Hart Street which was rented out by Miss Ina Aytoun Maxwell.
A census from 1911 show the Scott family residing at 19 Hart Place, with Jane working from home as a confectioner. Ten years later in 1921, Jane was still listed as a confectioner, with her children all having separate jobs.
In February 1925, Jane's son Francis 28, appeared in the Midlothian Journal after a lorry belonging to him ran into a young man who was fixing the wheel on his push bike. The man was thrown underneath the lorry and suffered head injuries.
Jane Scott died in June 1930 after which Francis was listed as the lone tenant in the Hart Street flat. From 1934 'Miss M.T. Scott' - Margaret Tait - also appears alongside her brother, but as a grocer.
It is this name which features in the aforementioned ghost sign. In 1940, Margaret was listed at the property's proprietor. Margaret's brother and sister remained at the address until at least 1975, although Margaret had taken up residence at 32 Bellevue Terrace in 1948. She died in 1989.
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