Detail of turrets on corner of St Mary's Street and 1-7 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh.

Description Detail of turrets on corner of St Mary's Street and 1-7 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh.

Date 27/5/2014

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

Catalogue Number DP 190115

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content This shows the corner block at 1-7 Holyrood Road and 60-68 St Mary's Street, Edinburgh. One of the earliest major redevelopments in this area was the creation of St Mary’s Street (along with Jeffrey Street to the north) as the north-south route over the ridge of the Old Town. The Lord Provost at the time, William Chambers (1800-83, Lord Provost 1865-9) implemented the widening of several narrow streets and wynds in the Old Town as part of the City’s Improvement Act 1867. Alongside this, tenements were improved and new streets were created to provide access through the area. St Mary’s Street was built more or less along the line of St Mary’s Wynd in 1867-9 as a result of this Act. The tenements on the east side, which continued into both Canongate and Holyrood Road, replaced smaller scale houses which were severely overcrowded, and were built in the Scots Baronial style to designs by architects David Cousins (1809-78) and John Lessels (1809-83), featuring turrets like these on the corner of the block, crowstepped gables and carved stone finials, with much improved facilities internally. Most of the shopfronts have been upgraded but many retain original features including decorative cast iron grilles below the windows.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1427802

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap