WHEN the Evening News reported last week that there was a flat for sale in Princes Street, the most surprising part of the story wasn't the price tag - at offers over £385,000, that could even be described as modest by Capital standards.
No, what really caught the imagination was that the famous thoroughfare, better known for its shops, its views of the Castle and the Old Town and its Gardens, is home to anyone at all.
And as estate agents Leslie Deans & Co admitted, the flat was the first Princes Street home the company had put on the market in its 25-year history. In fact, the last residential property to sell on Princes Street - number 44 - changed hands back in 2002, for a princely £1.8 million.
So those living on the street are an elite bunch - there are only nine people registered on the electoral roll as living on Princes Street itself, although some flats have their entrances on streets such as South Charlotte Street.
And while the attractions are obvious - views over the World Heritage Site and shops, pubs and cafes on the doorstep - so are the drawbacks; noise from traffic, drunks and pipers, pavements congested with shoppers and a lack of parking.
But for one resident, it's by far the best address in the city - and he should know. Ivor Guild CBE could almost be described as the duke of Princes Street, having lived on the thoroughfare for half a century. Ivor doesn't even own his own pad, having eschewed the recent property boom to remain, as he has for the last five decades, an old-fashioned resident of the elegant New Club. And he has no intention of ever moving.
As the 83-year-old former solicitor drawls: "The secretary persuaded me to move in in the dim past and I've lazily remained."
In
DAPPER: Ivor in the morning room, every inch the city gent.
deed, he's now so much a part of the grand private members' club that he was immortalised in watercolour for the wall on the occasion of the club's bicentenary in 1987. It's easy to see why Ivor doesn't care to leave - along with the club's old-fashioned charm, the views from the communal balcony across to the Old Town are stunning.
And, as the bachelor has no kitchen of his own, he eats out every day and thus avoids the problems of lugging home bags of groceries during the rush hour - although a three-course meal at the club costs £22 which, if he chooses to take it, comes on top of his rent.
Impeccably turned out in a three-piece suit, complete with tie and tie pin, seated on a comfy tan leather seat in front of a huge portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh in the morning room, Ivor reveals why he chose to make his home in a members'-only club.
He came to Edinburgh from Dundee as a young legal apprentice and rented a succession of digs before the secretary at the New Club - a social and lunch members club - offered him a permanent residence there.
Ivor's father and uncle were both members of the New Club - a place where judges, doctors and stockbrokers met to enjoy a gin and tonic after work while their wives prepared the dinner at home.
Back then, it was common for men in the professions to belong to a club and Edinburgh's vast selection included the Conservative Club, the United Services Club, the University Club and the Liberal Club on Princes Street alone.
"When I first came to Edinburgh there were a lot of clubs but they all gradually amalgamated or went bust," he says.
And while Ivor just rents a room, the New Club has a swimming pool, sauna, and exercise room as well as a breakfast room, three dining rooms, two bars and a selection of reception rooms. Members can come to dine, have a drink or just play billiards and there are 22 bedrooms for those who wish to stay over.
A perk of the location was its proximity to Ivor's workplace, Shepherd and Wedderburn solicitors in Charlotte Square, where he rose to be a partner.
"A great advantage was that I could walk to work in seven minutes," he smiles.
The pensioner was one of four permanent residents in the extensive premises, which he enjoys because of the mix of people, of whom if he tires he can avoid by just retreating to his bedroom.
Nowadays only two residents remain - Ivor and Major James Scott, who has called the club home for around 12 years.
"The idea was that there was nothing worse than an empty club and if there are residents there, they give it a permanent life. People come from afar and spend the night at the club."
The Dundonian, who is charged council tax by the club, confesses that his rent has increased substantially over the years, although he won't reveal what he pays now.
"Rent has increased very much. Originally the club had two self-contained flats and I had one for £150 a year. It was a lot then but it was reasonable - it was a prestigious address then and now."
He moved out of that flat - which is in the block next door that contains the flat currently up for sale - when the New Club was redeveloped in 1969.
Then the residents were relocated to the St Andrew Hotel in South St Andrew Street for two and a half years while the place was rebuilt. It had to be designed according to the 1960s masterplan for Princes Street, which included a pedestrian walkway at first floor level, to make provision for shops on two levels. Part of the walkway can still be seen from Virgin Megastore almost as far as Jenners.
Ivor's home now consists of rooms in the building next door to his first flat at the New Club.
The club was initially a men-only establishment, where ladies were only allowed in for dinner once a week. Originally women could only come into the morning room, where the men read the papers on battered leather chairs, after 3.30pm. Nowadays, females have their own annexe with a bar and sofas and even have their own bridge nights to which men are not invited.
Ivor enjoys the central location and the bus service, but is not impressed by the imminent return of the trams, which he can remember from the first time around.
"There's a jolly good bus service at the door. I'm happy the trams were removed but now they are coming back.
"They seemed to be totally inflexible. With buses you can change routes as required but with trams you were tied to the track that was laid and if a tram went out of commission, it put out the whole road. The laying of the track will cause tremendous upheaval and they are dangerous when you are crossing the street."
Another drawback is that cars can't come on to the street so, when friends are bringing him home, they have to stop around the corner.
But without doubt the best thing about Ivor's accommodation, which has a stunning entrance hall with gilded mirrors, an immensely high ceiling and lift access to the club, is its central location and the views.
"It's very pleasant and central and you can get anywhere easily. My room windows look west so I have a fine view of Rose Street and I can see the western extremity of the Castle. I also have a good view of the fireworks at the end of the Festival."
When asked whether he would ever consider moving on, the sprightly pensioner, who holidays with his sister in South Africa every spring, shrugs: "At my age, any change is undesirable."
Club secretary Brigadier Charles Ritchie, who won't reveal the club's membership fees, says the club's two residents will remain as an elite pair.
"We currently allow two. We keep rooms available for members here and those who come from overseas. Members can ask to move in permanently but it would alter the whole club."
But he is fulsome in his praise for the club's longest-serving resident.
"Ivor is absolutely magnificent, a fount of knowledge and very, very popular."
STRO
NG BOND WITH SIR SEAN HELPS CLUB SURVIVE
TH
E New Club at 86 Princes Street is where Sir Sean Connery often stays when he is in town.
The Hollywood actor and former Fountainbridge resident is not a member of the New Club but is of a reciprocal club so can and does stay there.
Currently there are 2400 members, who own the club, and Brigadier Charles Ritchie runs it on their behalf.
The club first met in 1787 in Bayle's Tavern in Shakespeare Square at the east end of Princes Street. It acquired its own premises in St Andrew Square before moving to its present site in 1837.
Many other private members' clubs have been forced to amalgamate or close down completely.
The Caledonian Club, once the haunt of Tory grandees Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, closed its Abercrombie Place doors in 2002 after 176 years.
What is now Debenhams on Princes Street once housed both the Scottish Liberal Club, which dates back to 1869 and the Conservative Club, which opened in 1882.
The Liberal Club closed in the late 1960s. Perhaps not surprising, given that most of its premium ground floor space on Princes Street was taken up by the club's lavatory.
The Scottish Arts Club opened in 1873 and met in rooms lent by the Architectural Association in George Street before leasing premises in Castle Street and then moving into a bigger home on Queen Street in 1874. By 1889 it had 121 members, consisting of 87 resident and 34 non-resident.
It moved into a permanent home when it bought 24 Rutland Square for £2100 in 1894.
The Edinburgh Press Club, which formed in 1939, closed its Rutland Street premises on January 31 this year due to rising debt and falling membership.
