- 01 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Scotland Street Tunnel – north
Scotland Street station, goods yard and tunnel were constructed 1843-47 as the southern terminus of the 2.5 mile Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway to link with Fife passenger ferries sailing from small harbours on the Firth of Forth. For such a small railway it underwent many changes in its lifetime. One such was a short extension to a new harbour at Granton from where the world’s first train ferry operated a service operated until the 1870s completion of the Forth Railway Bridge
- 02 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Scotland Street Tunnel – south
In 1848 a 1,000 yard tunnel was driven at depth under St Andrews Square in the New Town to a new terminus built at right angles to the then Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway on Princes Street. On a gradient of 1:27 train operation was by stationery steam engine powered rope haulage. Rail company rivalries created a new route from the North British Waverley station and the tunnel was closed. The station site remained in use for freight until British Railway days and the site was cleared in the 1980s for a public park from where this pair of images was made.
- 03 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Railway bridge over the Water of Leith
This pair of arches carried the rails across the Water of Leith: a third crossed a street. The route is now part of a network of path and cycle ways created on the removal of the area rail lines. It’s an interesting and easy walk from Scotland Street Station park to Newhaven and Granton.
- 04 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Dean Village perspective
A favourite Edinburgh day walk starts at the Royal Scottish Academy on Princes Street, follows downhill on Dundas Street to the Water of Leith and the eastern entrance to the Royal Botanic Garden. After exploring some of its many walks I join the river walkway west to Stockbridge, Dean Village, and the two Modern Art Museums before returning to my starting point.
- 05 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Dean Village perspective 2
This was once an outlying village north-west Edinburgh’s original centre around its castle. The Water of Leith flows through a narrow gorge up to some some one hundred feet deep and crossed by the narrow Bell Bridge carrying the city’s road to the west. A four arch bridge by Thomas Telford was completed across it in 1833. This view of late nineteenth century housing includes the clock tower in Wells Court.
- 06 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Dean Village detail
Corn milling was a principal trade in the area but with industrial developments of the Victorian era it and the village declined. Conversion, renovation and new buildings in the late twentieth century created today’s fine architectural and living environment. This gate is feet from the river and ensures privacy to those living in the intricate and beautifully detailed homes beyond. The Water of Leith walkway winds through thirteen city miles from Balerno in the west to Leith and its harbours on the east coast.
- 07 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Victoria Terrace from Victoria Street
This area of the Old Town was subject to major rebuilding following an 1827 Improvement Act. The two stone buildings behind the iron railings flank the stub of what was then the Upper Bow which curved sharply and steeply down to the West Bow and Bow Well at the eastern end of the Grassmarket. Victoria Street is lined by small shops roofed by the Terrace walkway.
- 08 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Victoria Terrace 1
The scheme was overseen by architect Thomas Hamilton and completed between 1829 and 1834. The United Original Secession Church in an Italian Revival Style by the Upper Bow at its eastern end was designed by Paterson & Shiells: in recent times it’s been adopted as a Quaker Meeting House. I’m uncertain as to the history of the foreground building.
- 09 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Victoria Terrace 2
I’ve not been able to find information about this building so if you can help me please use the contact button on the home page. Businesses in the shops below come and go. The Old Town Bookshop at the upper end closed a few years ago whilst most recently another in a 1722 building at the other sells now clothing rather than antiquities behind a cleaned façade. The Robert Cresser Brush Shop at No.40 opened in 1873 and closed c.2004. For several years I was a customer for strings and twines for other creative activities before photography. Visiting the shop was always fascinating and its history and images can still be viewed online.
- 10 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Cockburn Street building detail 1
I like the street for varied reasons, one being its elongated “S” plan and rising gradient which have influenced the alignment of its individual buildings. The variety and detail design of the architecture in dressed stone gives visual pleasure heading up the slope from the Waverley Station to the Royal Mile. The shops and cafes have apartments above, some in the Scottish Baronial style recorded in this pair of images. The STILLS photography gallery is inevitably of interest.
- 11 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Cockburn Street building detail 2
It’s a street where looking up is important as there is so much architectural style and variety to search. Sometimes urgently driven cars are a potential hazard to sky gazers. An increasing development features temporary street enclosures for café customers and sharing the kerb with parked cars..
- 12 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Cockburn Street detail viewed down Anchor Close
Narrow closes are a feature of the Old Town providing foot access to properties between is streets running east down the ridge from the Castle: a few more images feature in other Edinburgh galleries. Here, I liked the dark framing of the sunlit building beyond and the silhouetted vintage street light.
- 13 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | A garden doorway in the Old Town.
An inscription in stone set by the door reads “TAKEN FROM ELPHINSTONE HOUSE IN 1927- PLACED HERE IN 1938” Perhaps this was a namesake old house demolished on nearby Cowgate but I have not found anything more precise nor did I record the door’s current location.
- 14 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Belford Road building, now demolished
Over a good number of years I’d walked past this modest building on Belford Road heading for the Modern Art Museums. Single storey from the street its steeply sloping site overlooking Dean Village dictated more levels behind. It used to be home to architects but for a number of years has been replaced by a deep void after demolition. I just liked the simple building and the potentially welcoming open door, a possible invitation I lacked the courage to accept.
- 15 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Bannerman’s Bar, Niddry Street and Cowgate
Exterior plaques record its history and the various trades of its occupants since the late eighteenth century. These have included a banker, flax drier, printer, rag merchant, tailor and accountant. Its name is that of the person taking over in 1979. It’s well known and popular for its rock music sessions.
- 16 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Royal Scottish Academy 1
The Royal Scottish Academy building 1822-26 stands at the junction of The Mound and Princes Street. Its galleries are grandly spacious and the exterior a lesson in neo-classical style. The National Gallery of Scotland in simpler detailing is set behind and over the railway tracks leading west from the Waverley Station. Both buildings were designed by William Henry Playfair.
- 17 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Royal Scottish Academy 2
The symmetry of the repetitive architectural forms and the echoing iron lights appealed. A decade ago a multimillion pound refurbishment installed underground galleries and facilities that joined the two buildings together and currently (2023) further major works are underway at the National Gallery.
- 18 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 7 | Royal Scottish Academy 3
More symmetry, with sharply detailed stone forms and dark shadow shapes animate the eastern façade. The Impressionist exhibition poster in Image 6 is typical of the large scale exhibitions presented. The RSA annual exhibition shows works by Academy members and those selected by jury from non-members in open competition. Like its London counterpart at the Royal Academy it always shows a broad range of imagery.