JKGILLON The Marine Gardens, 'one of the most notable outdoor attractions of Edinburgh', were opened to the public in 1909. The Gardens were a huge entertainment complex, stretching a quarter of a mile westwards of King's Road in Portobello. Admission was 7d, including return rail fare from Waverley Station, and three quarters of a million people visited the Gardens in its first year.
The Empress Ballroom was the main building, flanked by a concert hall and skating rink. There were all-star variety shows every day in the concert hall with some of the best vaudeville acts of the time. These included: Mr John Cronow, 'the world's greatest facial expert giving impersonations of past and present celebrities' and groups such as the Humoresks, the Dandies and the Enterpeans which provided a mixture of comedy sketches, monologues, song, dance and burlesque.
The amusement park in the Gardens had a scenic railway, a joy wheel, a mountain slide, river caves and a maze, which 'recalled the complexities of a famous model at Hampton Court'. The main attraction of the amusement park was the Somali Village in which seventy natives of Somaliland lived in a small compound and provided entertainment for visitors by performing fights armed with spears. This was 'all carried through to the accompaniment of uncouth cries, the beating of the tom-tom and the shrill piping of the leading musician'.
Other attractions consisted of performances by well-known bands and musicians in the band court; a billiard saloon which featured demonstration matches by T Aiken, the Scottish champion; Hibbert's Electric Pictures; a social club for the use of regular visitors to the Gardens; skating arena for football and motor cycle racing.
The heyday of the gardens was short-lived. The site became a barracks for troops in the First World War and was used for a variety of other purposes over the years. It is now a bus depot.
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