Photographic copy of engraved elevation to High Street. Frontispiece to "Contract of Agreement for Building an Exchange" Delt. J Fergus

Description Photographic copy of engraved elevation to High Street. Frontispiece to "Contract of Agreement for Building an Exchange" Delt. J Fergus

Date 1754

Collection Survey of Private Collections

Catalogue Number EDD 372/82 P

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 466317

Scope and Content 18th-century drawing of the front elevation of the building designed by John Adam for a merchants' exchange, Old Town, Edinburgh In 1752 a series of 'Proposals', initiated by the then Lord Provost George Drummond, suggested improvements to the city, including the construction of a merchants' exchange, a public record office and the building of a New Town to the north. The south front of the building has a centrepiece with fluted Corinthian pilasters, a pediment with urns, and a sculptured tympanum in the middle. The arcaded ground floor was to be used as a meeting-place for merchants. In 1754 John Adam produced a plan for 'a New design'd Square to serve as an Exchange', later revised by architect, John Fergus. The resulting building is the only 18th-century public building in the Royal Mile, and one of the first of Classical Edinburgh. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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