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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
World
David McLean

Rare Edinburgh clip shows Fort Kinnaird in 1998 when it was just half the size

Today it's one of Edinburgh's busiest retail parks boasting more than 70 stores and covering a huge expanse of land east of Craigmillar.

But fascinating footage of Fort Kinnaird captured back in 1998, when it was still under a decade old, reminds us of a time when the shopping complex was a far smaller affair with fewer than 25 available outlets.

Uploaded to YouTube, the short clip by Craigmillar Gold surveys the scene at Newcraighall Road as it look 24 years ago, panning 360 degrees from the Craigmillar Arts Centre and back again.

READ MORE - Unearthed footage of Edinburgh in the 1980s shows several forgotten buildings

Much of the land that is occupied by new shops and restaurants today was still undeveloped.

The footage, which also features a very retro-looking LRT double-decker bus wrapped in an advertisement for Burger King, shows us that most of the shops at that time were concentrated south of Newcraighall Road on the site of the former Niddrie brickworks.

Known as The Fort, this was the second phase of the retail park and was brand new in 1998.

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Located on the opposite side of the road, the original Kinnaird Park, can barely be made out in the footage, but back then included Edinburgh's first purpose-built multiplex, the 12-screen UCI Cinema, as well as a Toys 'R' Us, a Megabowl bowling alley and associated restaurants.

The first phase, which occupied the site of the former Newcraighall Colliery, opened in 1989 and was at that time the largest out-of-town retail park development in the UK.

While it's now no longer one of Britain's largest retail parks, Fort Kinnaird has expanded massively since the footage was filmed.

In the 2000s, a whole new range of shops were added on the north side of Newcraighall Road as part of a multi-million pound expansion, which was added to in 2013.

It included the demolition in 2008 of the former UCI Cinema, which had by then been rebranded as the Odeon. The cinema, which was part of the first phase of Kinnaird Park when it first opened, was subsequently rebuilt.

You can watch the 1998 footage of Fort Kinnaird here.

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