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Edinburgh in five places

Away from the tourist hotspots, Scotland’s capital boasts intriguing, immersive and sometimes shocking historical attractions. ROSEMARY GORING picks lesser-known treasures to discover

1 Museum of Childhood Past play

1 An 1880s miniature grocer’s shop is one of the rarities on show at the Museum of Childhood

This wonderful place on the Royal Mile, described as the noisiest museum in the world, is dedicated to a segment of the population that’s often overlooked – yet children are so much a part of the history of any city. It’s located in a part of Edinburgh where some of the poorest people occupied cramped, overcrowded tenements and closes. A visit to the museum provides a glimpse of how the children of the High Street and Canongate area lived, and the hard-scrabble existence they endured, which is pretty heartbreaking.

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BBC History Magazine
March 2025
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