When researching the history of music in Edinburgh I came across a remarkable non-coincidence. The centre of the Old Town was pedestrian-only until 1760 - it was up a steep hill you could only get to by narrow lanes which fed through a fortified gate, the Nether Bow. And until 1760, the city employed a reed band (the Town Waits) to play from a tower right in the middle of town.

In 1760 they demolished the Nether Bow and opened the centre to wheeled traffic for the first time. That was the last year we have any record of the Waits being paid to play. Cartwheels and hooves on stone setts will have drowned them out.

And you wouldn't even hear those cart sounds now for the engine noise in the city centre. Cars have changed everything.