Once-thriving Edinburgh estate that featured in Trainspotting demolished after becoming ghost town

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A once-bustling housing estate in Edinburgh became a ghost town before it was demolished. Images of the infamous 'Ramps' scheme in West Granton from the 1980s have resurfaced online.The brutalist estate was thrown up in response to the growing population in the capital in the 1970s.

At the time, they were hailed as an architectural marvel - but the praise was not to last.In the pictures, the geometric buildings sit in front of the giant gasometers from the Granton gasworks site.

The scheme was featured in Irvine Welsh's legendary novel, Trainspotting, where they were described as "varicose vein flats" because of the white plaster used to fill cracks in the exterior rough cast, Edinburgh Live reports.The author wrote: “This is one ay the varicose-vein flats, so called because of the plastered cracks all over its facing.” The shoddy refurb work made the estate look tired and its early promise fell away.

It was also known as a hotspot of crime during the 1980s and the area has undergone a major regeneration since the scheme was demolished in the 1990s.When the images were shared online, former residents spoke about their memories of The Ramps - both good and bad.