Why we are called "Gilded Balloon"

"Why 'the Gilded Balloon'?" - curious punters over a drink

At the end of the 18th century the medieval closes surrounding the Gilded Balloon's old home in Edinburgh's Cowgate (destroyed by a disastrous fire in 2002) were incorporated into the piers of Robert Adam's massive South Bridge. The pedimented gable adjoining the Bridge is after Adam's design and originally housed an elegant drapery store advertising under the sign of 'Gilded Balloon'. The first balloon flight in Britain took place in Edinburgh in 1784, only a few months after the Montgolfier brothers’ historic manned flight in Paris. Ballooning became such a craze that fashionable Edinburgh ladies took to wearing huge wire and gauze bonnets in the shape of hot air balloons.

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