General view of Old Tolbooth Wynd, Edinburgh, from S.

Description General view of Old Tolbooth Wynd, Edinburgh, from S.

Date 27/5/2014

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

Catalogue Number DP 190186

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content This shows Old Tolbooth Wynd, Edinburgh. The wynd joins Canongate in the south to Calton Road (formerly North Back of Canongate) in the north, accessed via a round-arched pend under the tower of the Canongate Tolbooth. This view looking north in Old Tolbooth Wynd shows the remains of a stone and brick boundary wall for the former gasworks (left) and the tall stone boundary wall of the adjacent Canongate Kirkyard. A gasworks was established in the area bounded by New Street and Old Tolbooth Wynd between 1817 and 1821 -Kirkwood's map of 1817 shows the land as 'The Property of Alex. Ramsay Esq' with the Magdalene Asylum in this eastern portion. However by Kirkwood's map of 1821, there is a gasworks in the western half of the site. The works expanded hugely from 1821 to 1852 (Ordnance Survey 1:1056 map of 1852) and again by 1877 when a large coal shed filled the northern section of Old Tolbooth Wynd (OS 1:1056 map). During the 20th century, the area became a bus depot and car park before being unused and earmarked for development as part of the Caltongate scheme (2014). The walls seen here comprise stone lower portion with brick above forming arched and squared 'openings'. This was probably part of a vast coal shed on the site, which had railway lines running into it, seen on the OS 1:500 map of 1894.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1427895

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap