General view of 186, 188 and 190 Canongate, Edinburgh, from NW.

Description General view of 186, 188 and 190 Canongate, Edinburgh, from NW.

Date 20/8/2013

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number DP 160527

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content This group of four-storeyed tenements at 186-190 Canongate have a traditional Scottish vernacular appearance, but are in fact mostly rebuilt/refurbished during major redevelopment of the Moray House campus during the 1960s by the architects Alexander Esme Gordon (1910-93) & William Gordon Dey (1911-97). No 186 in particular was a cleared site when the redevelopment began. No 188 is a restored 17th century, three-storeyed, four-bayed tenement with additional space in two attic floors within the gable onto the street. Both these blocks have distinctive red pantiled roofs. These blocks were rebuilt/refurbished to provide staff common rooms, dining facilities and meeting rooms, with building work completed in 1968. In 1969, the project received a Civic Trust Award. Further refurbishment work was carried out in 1998/9 by architects Lewis & Hickey, providing a new home for the Graduate School and Research Base. In 2001, the block was renamed Simon Laurie House with its entrance in the rear courtyard to St John's Street. The building was probably named after Simon Somerville Laurie (1829-1909), a Scottish educator and former Bell Professor of Education at Edinburgh University (1876) who campaigned for better teacher training in Scotland. Moray House College of Education's origins began with the establishment of the Free Church of Scotland's Normal and Sessional School in 1848 at Moray House itself. The need for more teachers following the formalisation of education with the 1872 Education Act saw a dedicated training Department set up in 1878-9. The government took on the responsibility of educational training provision from the church in 1905. It was not until 1959 that Moray House College of Education was formally established, and it has subsequently been an associated part of Heriot Watt University before becoming the University of Edinburgh's Faculty of Education from 1998 on.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1348367

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap