View from NW

Description View from NW

Date 1979

Collection Papers of Professor John R Hume, economic and industrial historian, Glasgow, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 792541

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Ross Fountain, West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, from south-west This view from the south-west, taken in 1979, shows the Ross Fountain, made by a Paris iron founder, A Durenne, for the International Exhibition of 1862, to designs by an unknown sculptor, and presented to the city of Edinburgh by Daniel Ross, an Edinburgh gunsmith. This is a remarkable example both of the iron founder's art, and of French Second Empire sculpture. It was described at the time by Dean Ramsay as 'Grossly indecent and disgusting, insulting and offensive to the moral feelings of the community and disgraceful to the City'. West Princes Street Gardens formed part of James Craig's original design for the first New Town, published in 1767. The area was not, however, laid out by adjacent proprietors until the 1820s. It was originally much larger. In 1876 it was taken over by Edinburgh's Town Council, and remodelled by Robert Morham. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

External Reference CTH118

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/792541

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap