Edinburgh, Union Canal. General view of canal. Digital image of ED 6948

Description Edinburgh, Union Canal. General view of canal. Digital image of ED 6948

Date 1900 to 1930

Collection Collection of photographs by George Chrystal and Francis Maxwell Chrystal, photographers, Edinburgh,

Catalogue Number SC 785592

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of ED 6948

Scope and Content Union Canal, Edinburgh, looking east towards the road bridge at Yeaman Place (closed 1965 and navigation restored 2002) This relatively straight section of the canal cut between tall tenement blocks on its approach to the iron road bridge at Yeaman Place. The back courts of the buildings were screened from the waterway by high stone walls, preventing children from playing at the water's edge and falling into the canal, one of the dangers of living so close to the thoroughfare. A broad towpath, capable of accommodating the two horses that were required to pull the larger barges and passengers boats, ran along its north bank. The people who lived and worked along the canal were only too familiar with the regular traffic of barges carrying coal, timber, stone, slate, brick, sand and lime into Edinburgh from the west. There was comparatively little trade out of Edinburgh, except in 'merchant goods' and manure. A day and night passenger service operated between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and when efforts were made to reduce travelling time, notices were put up warning the public that the horses pulling the passage-boats travelled at 'a great speed' and that it was therefore unsafe to walk on the towpath. In the late 19th century, the passenger trade was lost to the railways, and in 1933, commercial traffic on the canal finally ceased. The towpath, however, remains, and offers a direct and, nowadays, relatively safe route from town out into the countryside, either by foot or on bicycle. The Union Canal, the last of Scotland's major canals, was a commercial venture begun in 1818 and completed in 1822. It was built principally as a means of importing coal and lime into Edinburgh, and ran from Port Hopetoun in Edinburgh to join the Forth & Clyde Canal at Camelon, Stirlingshire. However, within 20 years of completion most of its passenger traffic was lost to the railways, and the Edinburgh basins closed in 1922. The rest of the canal remained navigational until 1965 when it was finally closed by an Act of Parliament. In 2002, Britain's largest canal restoration project, The Millennium Link, restored navigation, and with an extension to the Union Canal and a link with the Forth & Clyde Canal through the Falkirk Wheel, boats were once more able to travel between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/785592

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap