Nostalgia: 'The ghost tales didn't bother me'

In the depths of its former North Bridge offices, Bob, 68, worked as part of the facilities team for The Scotsman for years, ending his service in 2000.

Often called out in the middle of the night to mend a boiler fault, he would make his way from his home in Broxburn, working alone in the hot, noisy boiler house, to make sure the building regained its heating.

Busy above him, on its many floors, reporters, photographers and production staff were hard at work preparing the paper, along with the Evening News and later Scotland on Sunday, to hit the streets and bring the day's events to the public.

Many people believed the building was haunted, with the legend of an old woman who allegedly lurked in the main entrance being one of the most popular tales.

"One of my team came crying down the stairs once," Bob recalls. "He was adamant he'd seen something."

Bob's duties did not end in the boiler house, as he was regularly called on to rescue employees trapped in the lifts.

"Ah, the lifts," he laughs. "A lot of people would use them when they came in the building from Market Street, rather than climb the stairs. The thing was, if there were too many people in them they would jam.

"I had to run to the top floor, ten flights up, to let the brakes off and then wind it up manually. It wasn't hard but sometimes some of the women would get themselves worked up about it."

Bob also fondly remembers when the fire alarm was tested in the building and hundreds of employees would take their places either on North Bridge or Market Street. "We used to shout up to each other as we did the roll calls."