Before there was clean(ish) indoor heating, before Edinburgh’s medieval old town became a tourist mecca, Scotland’s capital city earned the nickname Auld Reekie, Gaelic for “Old Smokey.”

There were so many people crammed into such a small space, and so many chimneys belching so much smoke. It’s hard to believe the nickname on a day like today, with blue skies and clouds more puffy than forbidding. 

But Auld Reekie it was, and Auld Reekie it has remained — though it’s now just a term of endearment. 

(Victoria Street, said to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books.)