Author Topic: High Street, Elgin  (Read 9199 times)

Offline Crowhunt

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Re: High Street, Elgin
« Reply #9 on: Monday 13 February 06 13:39 GMT (UK) »
Thanks for the information!
So if I understand this right........185 High St. was a two story house, way back when, and there were other houses behind it?
That's interesting.
Do you know how many?
So, it sounds like to me, being from the U.S., they are "row" homes but set the other direction.
So then, somewhere in time, the front house, was converted into a business. As were the ones behind it.
Ok, so is the second floor of the house is used by the business or is it an apartment where people can live?
Thanks ever so much for your time!
This is all very interesting, since I have never been to Scotland.
Thanks again!
Valerie
Scotland
Elgin-Moray : Crow, Fraser, Watson, MacLean
Aharacle-Jura- Argyll : Crow

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Re: High Street, Elgin
« Reply #10 on: Monday 13 February 06 14:19 GMT (UK) »
So if I understand this right........185 High St. was a two story house, way back when, and there were other houses behind it?
Still is. I will have to go and have a look at it but that's what I reckon. Two storeys plus an attic, and in a row at right angles to the north of the High Street.

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Do you know how many?
Not offhand.

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So, it sounds like to me, being from the U.S., they are "row" homes but set the other direction.
I don't recognise the term "row homes" but probably it means the same as what we would call 'terraced housing'

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So then, somewhere in time, the front house, was converted into a business. As were the ones behind it.
They may very well have been businesses from the start. It was customary for a businessman and his family to live on the premises, especially if there were two or more storeys - he would run the business on the ground floor and live in the upper floors(s)

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Ok, so is the second floor of the house is used by the business or is it an apartment where people can live?
See above. But be a bit careful about the terms 'first floor' and 'second floor' etc. In Britain, the first floor is one flight of stairs up from the ground floor. I believe that in the US, the first floor is the one at ground level and up one flight of stairs is the second floor.

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Thanks ever so much for your time!
This is all very interesting, since I have never been to Scotland.

You might like to have a look on http://www.moray.gov.uk/LocalHeritage/Assets/html_pages/morayheritage.html

HTH

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Re: High Street, Elgin
« Reply #11 on: Monday 13 February 06 21:20 GMT (UK) »
I've just been out for a curry in the tandoori restaurant almost opposite 185 High Street, and we walked down the close beside no 185 afterwards.

The High Street frontage is indeed the cancer charity shop, and the sides of the close are more or less blank graffiti-decorated walls now apart from a ramp* going up to the first floor above the shop, an anonymous and very shabby door beyond that, and a pub (with '2003' carved in the concrete above the door) built across the outer (northern) part of the close so the close has to make a dog-leg into the next one to the west, in which there is one door with number 187 on it. The buildings are still of a height to make two storeys plus an attic, but it doesn't look like anywhere anyone would want to live now. It could just about do as a set for a night scene in a low-budget gangster film.

*I suspect that this ramp might have been the fire escape from the offices of the Northern Scot newspaper, which has since moved to new premises elsewhere. But I'm not totally sure about this.

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Offline Crowhunt

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Re: High Street, Elgin
« Reply #12 on: Tuesday 14 February 06 01:46 GMT (UK) »
Thanks again for your time!
Funny how words and terms are so different from the UK & US!
Like "Curry", I take it is some sort of food or maybe a drink.
And the term "dog-leg", which I am guessing is a turn to the left.
And then "Row homes" and "Terraced homes"...... a "row home" is a row of narrow homes three or more built side by side without any space in between all facing the street. There is usually an alley (close) that is in between each group of homes. They are long and narrow and have a small yard in the back of each home with a small street, sometimes. They are not the safest homes to live in, because if one home gets a fire, it tends to spread to the next home, and of course the middle homes don't have any side windows, just front and back.
Well, anyway, thanks for the information.
I hope I didn't take you out of your way or put you in harm's way for the evening.
Thanks again!
Valerie
Scotland
Elgin-Moray : Crow, Fraser, Watson, MacLean
Aharacle-Jura- Argyll : Crow


Offline OzKat

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Re: High Street, Elgin
« Reply #13 on: Tuesday 14 February 06 02:11 GMT (UK) »
Though we're not really on topic anymore I thought I would add that in Sydney, Australia  they'd be called "terraces" or "terrace houses". I've never heard of "row homes" here. We also have "semis" which are semi-detached homes with one common wall.

I watch enough British TV to know that a "curry" is Indian food either at the restaurant or "takeaway". I haven't heard anyone use that term here though but could be wrong. In my family we'd just say "let's do Indian tonight" or some such.

We have "dog-legs" in streets and I they can go either way as far as I am concerned - not just left.  And we have "hairpins" which are streets which double back on themselves - generally in the mountains.

A "close" for us is generally a residential street in the suburbs which doesn't go anywhere but which is surrounded by homes or other buildings.

And we follow the British tradition of ground floor, first floor, second and so on.

But after all we were a "pommy" colony so you'd hope that we'd still understand some of the "lingo".

Kath  ;)

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Offline Crowhunt

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Re: High Street, Elgin
« Reply #14 on: Tuesday 14 February 06 04:03 GMT (UK) »
Yes, all my fault for getting off topic. Forgive me, I was just caught up in the difference of words.
Anyhow.......
I was just amazed on how long my ancestors lived in one house and thus the start of this topic. I have had quite a few very nice people who have helped me "see" what High street looks like and I am grateful to everyone.
If anyone finds out any further information about the building, I am "all ears"!  ;D
This has really been interesting!
Valerie
Scotland
Elgin-Moray : Crow, Fraser, Watson, MacLean
Aharacle-Jura- Argyll : Crow

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Re: High Street, Elgin
« Reply #15 on: Tuesday 14 February 06 09:27 GMT (UK) »
Funny how words and terms are so different from the UK & US!
It is said that the UK and US are two countries divided by a common language!

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Like "Curry", I take it is some sort of food or maybe a drink.
It is an 'Indian' meal - there are many 'Indian' restaurants in the UK, albeit most of them are in fact run by Pakistani or Bangladeshi people.

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And the term "dog-leg", which I am guessing is a turn to the left.
No, a dog-leg can go in either direction.

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And then "Row homes" and "Terraced homes"...... a "row home" is a row of narrow homes three or more built side by side without any space in between all facing the street. There is usually an alley (close) that is in between each group of homes. They are long and narrow and have a small yard
There's another different word. Here, a yard is always paved or tarred. What is called a yard in the US is usually called a garden here.

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in the back of each home with a small street, sometimes. They are not the safest homes to live in, because if one home gets a fire, it tends to spread to the next home, and of course the middle homes don't have any side windows, just front and back.
Yes, that's much the same. In cities there are often whole streets of terraced houses. Sometimes the whole terrace is designed as a unified whole - there are examples of this in the New Town of Edinburgh.

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Well, anyway, thanks for the information.
I hope I didn't take you out of your way
No, we go there most Mondays anyway

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or put you in harm's way for the evening.
Harm? Good grief, no, not at all. It can get a bit rowdy with drunks in Elgin High Street on a Friday or Saturday evening, but the chance of two people coming to harm on a winter Monday evening is so negligible that I wouldn't give it a thought!

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Offline Crowhunt

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Re: High Street, Elgin
« Reply #16 on: Tuesday 14 February 06 12:36 GMT (UK) »
 :) Thanks all just the same!
Have a nice Valentine's Day! (If you have that in Scotland)
Valerie
Scotland
Elgin-Moray : Crow, Fraser, Watson, MacLean
Aharacle-Jura- Argyll : Crow

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Re: High Street, Elgin
« Reply #17 on: Tuesday 14 February 06 12:44 GMT (UK) »
Yes, we do. Thank you.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.