Edinburgh, Union Canal. General view looking towards Port Hopetoun.

Description Edinburgh, Union Canal. General view looking towards Port Hopetoun.

Date 1900 to 1930

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

Catalogue Number SC 785623

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of ED 7069

Scope and Content Union Canal, Edinburgh, looking towards Port Hopetoun (closed 1965 and navigation restored 2002) This photograph, taken in the early 1920s before the Edinburgh basins were closed, shows the canal at its entry into Port Hopetoun, the eastern terminus at Lothian Road. The broad quays on either side are piled high with goods, including chimney pots (right), unloaded from the barges docked alongside. These wooden barges, known as 'scows', an old Scots word meaning 'flat-bottomed boat', were pulled by a horse walking along the towpath. The barge on the right is from the Winchburgh brick works, the last commercial user of the canal. Canal trade gradually decreased in the early 20th century. In 1907, 56 barges carried 120,000 tons of goods annually, bringing in a total revenue of £2,385; by 1921 there were 32 boats working on the canal, carrying a mere 20,000 tons and producing an annual revenue of £1,169. In 1922 Port Hopetoun was abandoned, and in 1933 commercial traffic on the canal finally ceased. 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/785623

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap