Callyr Inn No More

I seem to be concentrating on the loss of interesting buildings at the moment, following my blip of the Fairmile Inn. Here's another, though not so architecturally significant.

Standing empty for some years and having caught fire in September 2011 the C19 Callyr Inn had become increasingly delapidated and it was no surprise to learn that, as planning permission for the development of the site had been granted back in May 2011, demolition would be necessary. However, it was a shock to see that, just before Christmas, it had been reduced to a few piles of bricks.


Once upon a time this building was
the local office of the Clippens Oil Company. And from the area nearby, products like 'Royal Standard Lamp Oil', 'Sunlight Oil', and 'Taylor's Paraffine' were among the thousands of gallons of oil and oil products that went around the world from the villages north of Penicuik, all as a result of local inventiveness, hard labour, and refining skill. Royal Standard Oil, sold in Edinburgh 150 years ago through Grays of George Street, had been an early (and briefly worldwide) brand. It may have prompted the choice of name in America of Standard Oil (Esso) a firm which was later to dominate the industry as world oil output overtook the wildest dreams of the early producers.

I expect even more shops will be moving into the area.