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Edinburgh, Union Canal. View of staff and visitors at Johnston's Boathouses.
SC 785608
Description Edinburgh, Union Canal. View of staff and visitors at Johnston's Boathouses.
Date 1900 to 1930
Collection Collection of photographs by George Chrystal and Francis Maxwell Chrystal, photographers, Edinburgh,
Catalogue Number SC 785608
Category On-line Digital Images
Copy of ED 7002
Scope and Content Staff and Visitors at Johnston's Boat-houses, Lochrin Basin, Union Canal, Edinburgh (canal closed 1965 and navigation restored 2002) This long, low timber boat-house stood on the south side of Lochrin Basin at Lower Gilmore Place, Viewforth, and specialised in the hire of rowing boats. This shows a group of staff and visitors possibly on a day's outing. In the 1930s leisure boating on the canal became a popular pastime, with rowing boats and canoes available for hire at Slateford or closer to the city centre at Johnston's Boat-houses at Lochrin Basin, then the eastern terminal basin of the canal. Serious rowing and canoeing also became popular with several rowing and canoe clubs established near the basin, and competitions, races and regattas held on a regular basis. 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/785608
File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap
Attribution: © Courtesy of HES (Francis M Chrystal Collection)
Licence Type: Educational
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