Oxgangs is a suburb in the south-west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Surrounding districts include Caiystane, Dreghorn, Redford, Fairmilehead, Colinton and Swanston and Colinton Mains. The post code area for Oxgangs is EH13. Etymology The name derives from "oxgang", an old unit of land measurement. Skene in Celtic Scotland says: "in the eastern district [of Scotland] there is a uniform system of land denomination consisting of 'dabhachs', 'ploughgates' and 'oxgangs', each 'dabhach' consisting of four 'ploughgates' and each 'ploughgate' containing eight 'oxgangs'." History The building of the area started in around 1953/54; before that (with the exception of Colinton Mains) there had only been a number of prefab houses and several farms but it had been mostly farmland and was basically considered to be part of the countryside. The area consists of large public housing schemes aimed at low to middle income groups, ranging from private bungalows to Edinburgh City Council-owned high rise tower blocks (although these have now been demolished). A significant majority of former council-owned properties in Oxgangs have been bought by tenants under the right to buy scheme leaving approximately 659 properties in council ownership thus making it extremely difficult to be allocated a council home in the area. Peter Hoffmann has written memoirs of growing up in Oxgangs between 1958 and 1972 which capture the era and its social and cultural history. He has also written Two Worlds: The Story Of An Edinburgh Doctor, a biography of Dr Motley, a Black American, and the first general practitioner to set up his practice in the area in the mid 1940s until his retirement in 1978. Amenities There were two small shopping areas at each end of Oxgangs known locally as the "top" and "bottom" shops. The top shops (Oxgangs Broadway) are larger and feature award winning convenience store called "Premier - Broadway Convenience Store" known as "Dennis'" after the owner of the shop. As of March 2023, the shop has been in the Broadway for 40 years, having been passed down through Dennis' family. He runs it with his wife Linda, who runs the hugely successful Premier Deli, and their daughter Sophie. Other shops in the Broadway include Glo Tanning and Beauty Salon, two barbers and a hairdressers, a bookies, two take aways (a chip shop and a Chinese). There is also a post office and a pharmacy. The bottom shops (Oxgangs Crescent) bottom right of photograph, were demolished