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1000 results for “antiquarian”
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strangely my #ChildrensBooks are looking quite #antiquarian now. when did that happen? https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2026/04/books-growing-old-with-me.html #oldbooks #memories #reading
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📚✨ Oh joy, another pulse-pounding tale of antiquarian excitement featuring... antennas and, uh, Margaret's letter? 😂 Because nothing screams thrilling adventure like vintage radio gear and forgotten correspondence. Let's all pretend we're not dozing off with this yawn-inducing treasure hunt through dusty pages! 📖😴
http://ei3lh.eu/?p=88 #antiquarianadventures #vintagegear #thrillingreads #dustytreasure #humorousstory #forgottenletters #HackerNews #ngated -
📚✨ Oh joy, another pulse-pounding tale of antiquarian excitement featuring... antennas and, uh, Margaret's letter? 😂 Because nothing screams thrilling adventure like vintage radio gear and forgotten correspondence. Let's all pretend we're not dozing off with this yawn-inducing treasure hunt through dusty pages! 📖😴
http://ei3lh.eu/?p=88 #antiquarianadventures #vintagegear #thrillingreads #dustytreasure #humorousstory #forgottenletters #HackerNews #ngated -
📚✨ Oh joy, another pulse-pounding tale of antiquarian excitement featuring... antennas and, uh, Margaret's letter? 😂 Because nothing screams thrilling adventure like vintage radio gear and forgotten correspondence. Let's all pretend we're not dozing off with this yawn-inducing treasure hunt through dusty pages! 📖😴
http://ei3lh.eu/?p=88 #antiquarianadventures #vintagegear #thrillingreads #dustytreasure #humorousstory #forgottenletters #HackerNews #ngated -
The Society of Antiquaries of London.
Check out their YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@SocAntiquaries/streams #Antiquarian #globalmuseum
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Our country’s flowers by wj gordon, 1900. #antiquarianbooks
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I’m selling a few of my vintage books, link here …
thegreenlanesshimmer.etsy.com #antiquarianbooks
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There‘s a bunch of book thieves going around prestigious #libraries and swapping #Pushkin #FirstEditions for (so the library officials say) high quality facsimiles. The @stabi_berlin
has been targeted , also national libraries in Poland and the Baltic states.
It’s a wild story, and the forgers’ skills seem to be very remarkable.
#artcrimes #russianliterature #forgeries #antiquarianbooks
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a79836a3-8c74-4db9-882b-690a074763f5 -
#Oxfam has a 1st edition of Dirac's book for sale:
"The Principles of Quantum Mechanics", Paul Dirac, 1930, Clarendon Press.
£1,750.00
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@antiquarian Doug, you had me at “forgotten, lost, and obscure”—some of my very favorite kinds of 19th-c. books! Glad to meet you. #VictorianBooks #BookHistory
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@antiquarian Doug, you had me at “forgotten, lost, and obscure”—some of my very favorite kinds of 19th-c. books! Glad to meet you. #VictorianBooks #BookHistory
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POSTMODERN BOOKSELLING
instructors: Jen Johnson & Brad JohnsonApply using QR code or link in bio!
#bookseller #bookselling #library #libraries #archives #specialcollections #bookdealer #bookcollector #bookcollection #rarebooks #appraisal #usedbookstore #antiquarianbooks
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#introduction - I’m Doug. A rare bookseller of forgotten, lost, and obscure very long 19th century British and some American works, gothic, chapbooks, street literature. Not a scholar but love history of the book trade. I’m also (still) a lawyer during the day. Like surfing, fishing, and chasing my 3 year old around. @antiquarian on Musk’s hellscape.
#rarebooks #bookcollector #antiquarianbooks #oldbooks #specialcollections #bookcollecting #booksellerlife
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#introduction - I’m Doug. A rare bookseller of forgotten, lost, and obscure very long 19th century British and some American works, gothic, chapbooks, street literature. Not a scholar but love history of the book trade. I’m also (still) a lawyer during the day. Like surfing, fishing, and chasing my 3 year old around. @antiquarian on Musk’s hellscape.
#rarebooks #bookcollector #antiquarianbooks #oldbooks #specialcollections #bookcollecting #booksellerlife
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This is first book in a cozy mystery series about an antiquarian book seller. The provenance of the book is the key this mystery. Although set in modern times, it has a feeling of the 30's. The book was ok. I will try the second book, but not sure if I will continue the series. #goodreads
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🎮🔍 Ah, "The Digital Antiquarian" strikes again with yet another thrilling saga of ancient computer #RPGs. Apparently, the world can't get enough of rehashing how Fallout 2 and Baldur's Gate shook the pixelated landscape of the 90s. 🕹️✨ Spoiler Alert: they were popular—breaking news from 1997, folks! 📅🚀
https://www.filfre.net/2025/03/the-crpg-renaissance-part-5-fallout-2-and-baldurs-gate/ #DigitalAntiquarian #RetroGaming #90sGaming #Fallout2 #BaldursGate #HackerNews #ngated -
The Primrose Lady of Lady Fife’s House: the thread about the Ninth Day of Christmas
This part in the Edinburgh and Leith themed Twelve Days of Christmas thread is preceded by a post about the “Maiden Castle”.
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me; Ladies (dancing). There are many options to choose from with respect to Edinburgh and Leith placenames – there’s at least 16 sets of street names with a Lady or Ladie in them in the book of Edinburgh place names. I shall go somewhere close to home with Lady Fife (sometimes spelled Lady Fyfe) who lent her name to a house, a “brae”, a well, and a street in Leith. Lady Fife was Dorothea Sinclair (1739-1818), wife of James Duff, 2nd Earl of Fife.
Dorothea Sinclair. Picture from the collection of Aberdeen UniversityLady Fife’s House was more commonly known as Hermitage House and had been completed prior to 1744 in the lands of Coatfield Mains, just to the south of Leith Links between the roads to Lochend and Restalrig. The origin of the Hermitage name is unclear, but when the house was built, it was advertised as being the house “large new house in Hermitage Park“, which suggests the name was already known for the area, and was not taken from the house itself. It was described as having “Kitchen, 12 fire rooms, garrets, closets and other conveniences, all neatly and substantially finished, with a stable, hay loft and brewhouse, and other offices“. In January 1744 it was advertised for sale in the Caledonian Mercury and described as “new built” and extending to 42 acres of lands. It was at this time the property of the estate of the recently deceased Thomas Mercer of Binhall; his widow, Elizabeth Jamieson, was then still resident in it.
Lady Fife’s House, or Hermitage House, from a painting hanging in Leith LibraryThe house continued to be advertised for annual let from 1753 to 1760 (it’s unclear if it was formally occupied during this period) and was optimistically described as being “newly finished” at least 16 years after completion! Lady Fife had bought the house in 1794 after she separated from her husband as a result of there being no legitimate heirs (and probably helped by him siring numerous children through extramarital affair). One of the main conveniences of the house was said to be “a pipe of fine water brought into the kitchen“, making it one of the first houses in Leith to have running water. It’s not clear if the water came from the new public supply for Leith from Lochend Loch or if it was tapped off of the well of the name Lady Fife’s Well opposite the house on Leith Links. A large rookery is described as being kept in the grounds.
The distinctive cruciform footprint of the mansion, with four detached wings arranged around the main building, is clear on Roy’s Lowland Map of the 1750s, the house would have been relatively new at this time.
William Roy’s Lowland Map of Scotland, c. 1755, centred on Hermitage House. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandIt is described as having “three pavilions, presently used for summer lodgings“, which I assume account for three of the 4 structures at the end of the “arms” extending from the main block of the house. It also had a walled kitchen garden that grew fruit trees and 8-20 acres of grazing.
John Ainslie’s 1804 Town Plan, showing Hermitage House. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandYou will notice that in the 1804 map above, the land ownership is recorded as “Miss Primrose” (the same is true in the 1817 town plan also). This is on account of Lady Fife’s mother being Margaret Primrose, Countess of Caithness; Dorothea had obviously foregone using the title of her philandering husband – at least for the purpose of land ownership. She gives this family name to the current day Primrose Street which is just to the west of where the house once stood.
Ordnance Survey 1849 Town Plan, showing detail of Hermitage House.By 1839, the house was in the possession of the Wood family, merchants and shipowners of Leith. The end of the Wood line of ownership was Miss Mary Wood, who died there in 1871 age 80. She left a huge legacy, including £1,000 for the Leith Ragged School, £2,000 each for Leith Hospital, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and the Blind Asylum and £15,000 for the reconstruction of St. James’ Episcopal Church and school on Constitution Street. These bequests alone totalled c. £3.3 million today.
The grounds of Hermitage House were once filled with many species of hardwood trees, but this land was gradually swallowed up by building – the first plots, those along the Lochend and Restalrig Roads, were advertised for sale for “building houses upon” as early as 1771. On these plots were built villas including Upper Hermitage, Hermitage Hill, Hermitage Cottage and Hermitage Park. A row of Georgian villas – Hermitage Place was built along the Links. In 1868 the trees of Upper Hermitage were cut down to be replaced by the model streets of the “Lochend Road colonies” houses that took their name; Oakville, Ashville, Thornville, Woodville, Woodbine, Elmwood and Beechwood Terraces. The Hermitage House itself was demolished about 1877 and the Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company was granted a warrant in October 1878 to complete the Leith Links colonies houses on the site (Rosevale Place). Hermitage Park went around 1910, when new tenements were built on Lochend Road and a new public school taking the name Hermitage Park was built on the parkland.
The building around and then over the site of Hermitage House in three old maps; 1849, 1876 and 1882.In Lady Fife’s day, she was reputed to be fond of taking a walk on Leith Links. Outside the gates of her house, a public well took the name Lady Fife’s Well. The Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1852-3 records the well as “a spring on the east side of the Links near to Hermitage House, [which] was a favourite walk of Lady Fife residing in Hermitage House“. Beyond the well was (and is) the raised mound of earth given the optimistic title of Lady Fife’s Brae (the latter word being the Scots for a hill, and usually a steep one).
Lady Fife’s Brae, from the Story of Leith by John RussellLady Fife’s Brae. CC-by-SA 2.0 Jim BartonSo what is the brae? Is it natural or man made? The Ordnance Survey marked it as an antiquity, “Remains of Pelham’s Battery” on the map of 1849. Pelham’s Battery, or Mount Pelham, was one of three English siege-works constructed as artillery firing platforms during the siege of Leith in 1560. It was named after its commander, Sir William Pelham. The Ordnance Survey Name Book says of it: “An ancient fort said to have been thrown up by the English Army at the Seige of Leith, it is situation about one chain west of Lady Fife’s Well“.
Field Marshall Sir William Pelham, Lord Justice of Ireland in 1577, by Hieronimo CustodisThe naming authority was quoted as the antiquarian, Dr. David Henderson Robertson. Robertson had produced in his 1850 book, The Sculptured Stones of Leith, a map showing the hypothetical arrangements of the fortifications of the town during the siege of 1560. It was in this book that Robertson determined that the two remaining “braes” on Leith Links were the remains of the 16th century siege batteries.
Robertson’s Map of 1850Unfortunately Robertson’s map is only partially correct and wrong in a number of respects. The outline of the fortifications he shows is directly contradicted by numerous earlier maps, including a contemporary and accurate one made during the siege. The latter map also accurately shows the siege positions, and that these do not correlate with the mounds on the Links. The mounds are much too close to the walls of Leith for instance, and they are much too small. Plotting the locations of the English siegeworks onto a modern map, based on the contemporary map evidence and subsequent research, puts Mount Pelham (reputed to be Lady Fife’s Brae) on the slopes to the south of Hermitage House. Mount Somerset was categorically not the Giant’s Brae on the Links, but in the grounds of Pilrig House.
Siegeworks of the Siege of Leith in red. The defensive walls are in green. Mount Pelham – that to the right of the image – is much larger and further south than “Lady Fife’s Brae”, where the modern streets of Ryehill and Cornhill now stand.So if Lady Fife’s Brae isn’t the last remains of an artillery fortification, what is it? I think a far more logical explanation is that these are natural. The Leith Links are an ancient raised beach system; the earliest illustration I can find of them is from a painting by David Allan in 1787 showing William Inglis, captain of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers who played that game on them. We can see Inglis is standing atop a prominent mound, with the spire of South Leith Kirk, the cones of its glass kilns and North Berwick Law in the distance. This means we are looking north across and the view is over an obviously uneven landscape.
The 1804 Ainslie and 1817 Kirkwood maps both also show the area to be extremely lumpy and bumpy, with many prominent hillocks. The most simple explanation is that when the Links was was being flattened and landscaped in the 19th century these two most prominent mounds were left behind because local lore – supported by Antiquarians – attached a historical significance to them. This is backed up by a letter of 1888 to the Leith Herald, which writes of the intention of Leith Town Council to “level the Links” as “the holes and pitfalls are still so numerous there is a chance of breaking one’s leg if there is a deviation from the pathway“. The author of this letter notes that two “braes” – those of the Giant and Lady Fife – were to be excluded, for what he called a mistaken, sentimental idea of their heritage. He thought they should also be levelled!
Kirkwood’s Town Plan of 1817 showing just how hillocky the Links then were. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandUnfortunately, Robertson’s theories have been taken as fact and the story of the two mounds on Leith Links being Marian siege-works have lasted the test of time. Many books have reproduced this story in good faith and the official monument plaques in the park also use this attribution. That doesn’t mean the “braes” aren’t interesting, it’s just not for the reasons that are most commonly assumed.
The Edinburgh and Leith-themed Twelve Days of Christmas Thread continues with a post about Lord Russell Place and Lord John Russell.
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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
Thomas James Wise war einer der versiertesten Antiquare um 1900, Vorsitzender der Bibliographical Society & Gutachter für zig bibliographische Verzeichnisse. Und er war der größte Buchfälscher überhaupt. Jetzt gibt es eine Biographie & schon die Rezension nötigt einem Respekt vor diesen Nerven ab.
#Bücher #Buchwissenschaft #books #bibliography #Fälschung #forgery #lrb #britishlibrary #collecting #antiquarianism
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n12/gill-partington/every-watermark-and-stain -
Eine Releases Session Dedicated To Anarcho-Antiquarian Bookstore
Eine, the solo project of Ivan Ščapec (Seine, litl itali, Vlasta Popić), now translated into electric impulses and analog synths, closes 2025 with the Tajni desk session. The session was filmed in a unique anarho-antikvarijat to save books from destruction, directed by Marina Uzelac. Featuring two songs, ‘Bubamara’ (Seine) and ‘Sve’ (solo eine), the release is a continuation of his experimental alt-rock/electronic format, and announces a busy 2026 starting with a concert in Zagreb.
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'Grotto With Travellers And a Statue Of Bacchus' by Abraham van Cuylenborch, 17th Century. #Bacchus #Classical #antiquarian #pagangods #17thCentury #artsky
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'Grotto With Travellers And a Statue Of Bacchus' by Abraham van Cuylenborch, 17th Century. #Bacchus #Classical #antiquarian #pagangods #17thCentury #artsky
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'Grotto With Travellers And a Statue Of Bacchus' by Abraham van Cuylenborch, 17th Century. #Bacchus #Classical #antiquarian #pagangods #17thCentury #artsky
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'Grotto With Travellers And a Statue Of Bacchus' by Abraham van Cuylenborch, 17th Century. #Bacchus #Classical #antiquarian #pagangods #17thCentury #artsky
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'Grotto With Travellers And a Statue Of Bacchus' by Abraham van Cuylenborch, 17th Century. #Bacchus #Classical #antiquarian #pagangods #17thCentury #artsky
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French antiquarian Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, who died OTD in 1875, published many examples of #Maya and #Aztec sculpture; unfortunately, errors in his illustrations fostered misconceptions about Mesoamerican civilizations https://toilet-guru.com/blog/20.html?s=mb #travel #history
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French antiquarian Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, who died OTD in 1875, published many examples of #Maya and #Aztec sculpture; unfortunately, errors in his illustrations fostered misconceptions about Mesoamerican civilizations https://toilet-guru.com/blog/56.html?s=mb #travel #history
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I've come to the conclusion that this collection of #Schiller's #poetry was printed while the author was still alive, which boggles my mind a bit. I also managed to cobble together a plausible provenance https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2025/12/our-oldest-book.html #oldbooks #antiquarian #familyhistory #antiques
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The rise and fall of high rise Edinburgh: the thread about multi-storey, public housing in the city
Between 1950 and 1973, Edinburgh built a total of seventy-eight municipal, multi-storey1 housing blocks which contained 6,128 flats (give or take a few) across 977 storeys.
Developers model of the Sighthill Neighbourhhod Centre by Crudens, from 1963. © Edinburgh City LibrariesI’m interested in writing a few stories about some of these buildings, their histories, how and why they got built and attitudes to them at the time but wasn’t sure were to start. As a starting point I’ve made an inventory of them all; so let’s have a look at all of them in chronological order.
- For this exercise I have only counted freestanding blocks of 7 storeys or more. Edinburgh traditionally had tenement buildings of this height and higher (up to 11 or even 13 stories in parts of the Old Town), however these were both built into a steep gradient and were not free-standing blocks, but supported by adjacent buildings. ↩︎
1950-51 saw the first such building that meets the above criteria in Edinburgh, the 8 storey Westfield Court with 88 flats (and a childrens’ nursery on the roof!) It was constructed by local builders Hepburn Bros., better known for construction of interwar bungalows, with a steel and concrete frame clad in pre-fabricated concrete panels and an inner skin of traditional brick. Its design and facilities were heavily inspired by London’s Kensal House by Maxwell Fry. Although it was a starting point for the block that followed, it remains something of a one-off and is a rather unique, evolutionary dead-end in the city. I have written up its fuller story on this thread.
Westfield Court flatsHepburns built their second and last multistorey block for the city from 1953-56. It is the 7 storey, 42 flat block of Maidencraig Court at Blackhall. It was constructed at a time of acute national materials shortages, and compared to Westfield it had to have its ceilings lowered and room dimensions reduced, and as much steel as possible removed. This led to the first use of cross-wall construction in the city’s public housing. This method uses load-bearing internal wall panels of reinforced concrete and offers economies of time and materials compared to traditional load-bearing external walls or the sort of internal steel and concrete framework employed at Westfield.
Maidencraig Court flatsAfter Westfield and Maidencraig there followed a series of experimental mid-height multi-storey blocks, which were variations on a basic theme, as a rather conservative local administration (headed by the Progressive Party) tentatively tried to work out what it wanted to do regards high-rise housing post-war. While there was a post-war housing emergency in the city, the authorities had purchased large volumes of temporary and permanent prefabricated housing (they were the most enthusiastic adopter of the former in Scotland) to meet immediate demands and the chairman of the Housing Committee, Councillor Matt A. Murray, was keen not to expand the city further on the outskirts but to focus on central redevelopments.
The 10 storey, 60 flat Inchkeith Court followed in 1956-57, located on Spey Terrace, just off of Leith Walk. Billed by the local press as “Edinburgh’s First Skyscraper“, it was built adjacent to a slum clearance zone on Spey Street, atop 139 piles on an old sandpit; an experiment in building on a confined site. The contractor was the Scottish Construction Company – ScotCon. The city specified a pitched roof be added to the design and also settled on each flat having its own hot water and heating supply under the control of (and paid for by) the tenant. The experiments in communal supplies at Westfield and Maidencraig had stung the Corporation with unexpectedly dramatic fuel bills as residents made the full use of the provision.
Inchkeith Court in 2023. Photo © SelfA month later the identical pair of Inchcolm Court and Inchgarvie Court completed in West Pilton. These were by English contractors George Wimpey and were also of 10 storeys and 60 flats each and also had almost apologetic pitched roofs. They differed in having an offset H-plan with a central access and service core and were of a different construction method. As at Westfield and Maidencraig, each flat had its own private balcony, although these were removed in later refurbishments.
Inchgarvie (r) and Inchcolm (l) Courts in 1982. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveThe following year, 1958, a further pair of 10 storey, 60 flat blocks were completed; Moat House and Hutchison House at Moat Drive in the Slateford area of the city. These were by local contractors James Miller and Partners (a firm headed by the City’s former Lord Provost) and adopted another variation of a Y-plan. They are of reinforced concrete construction with this frame in-filled with brickwork and rendered over and have external balconies for most (but not all) flats. The pitched roof however was abandoned; it was an anachronistic design throwback that added unnecessary additional demands for materials and labour on buildings that were meant to be ultra-modern and simpler to construct.
Moat House, with Hutchison House distant rightThe last of the 1950s experiments were the pair of Holyrood Court and Lochview Court at Dumbiedykes, which were also built by Millers. Construction was rather protracted and did not finally complete until August 1963. These are 11 storeys tall, with 95 flats arranged on an H-plan; regular flats in the side wings of the “H” but maisonettes and top-floor artists studios (with enlarged windows and heightened ceilings to improve natural daylight) in the central arm. Each block had communal laundries, reducing the size demands of flat kitchens and requirements for hot water provision, with the the ground floor containing lock-up garages. Construction is of reinforced concrete, faced in brick and rendered-over but with an unusual original feature (now lost behind re-cladding) of traditional sandstone masonry the whole height of the building in the staircase areas. The roofs are of an ultra-modern, inverted pitch and clad in green copper; to conceal the rooftop services and clothes drying spaces from the view of those gazing down from Salisbury Crags or up from Holyroodhouse Palace.
Holyrood Court (r) and Lochview Court (l) in 1982. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveThe 1960s saw a step-change in the volume of building, and also in scale. After the experiments of the 1950s, a lot of “bells and whistles” were trimmed off the specifications, use of traditional techniques abandoned and there was a move to taller blocks with industrialised construction in the name of building more and faster. After 1962, the city’s energetic housing commissioner, Labour’s Pat Rogan, adopted a policy of replacing the post-war, low-density, low-rise prefabricated housing estates around the city’s periphery with new high-rise, high-density schemes, again to built more and build faster.
Between 1960-61, two different pairs of blocks were built at Muirhouse by Wimpey, in a scheme called Muirhouse Phase II. The first were the 9 storey slab blocks of Gunnet Court and May Court, with 48 flats apiece of reinforced concrete cross-wall construction with brick and pebble-dashed, pre-cast concrete panel infill. These blocks squeezed the build price down to c. £2,000 / flat from £2,800 of Westfield and all the flats were maisonettes; accessed from open “streets in the sky” decks to the rear. Such a layout, where the flats are all two storeys with their own internal staircases, did create initial engineering headaches, but meant that there only needed to be half the number of public passageways, lifts only had two stop at half the number of floors and sleeping and living areas of adjacent houses can be better spaced apart to reduce noise complaints.
Gunnet Court in 2018, before subsequent modernisation and re-cladding. The identical May Court can be seen in the background to the left of the tower block of Fidra CourtThe other pair by Wimpey, at 15 storeys, were the city’s first real point blocks (i.e. buildings proportionally taller than they are wide or deep). These are Fidra Court and Birnies Court and have 56 flats each – however these proved to be 10% more expensive than the 9 storey slabs on account of the construction and engineering complexity of the extra height.
Fidra Court (right) and Birnies Court (left, distant) in 2022The last multi-storey part of Muirhouse Phase II was a pair of 11 storey slab blocks by ScotCon; Inchmickery Court and Oxcars Court, with 76 flats apiece. The central part of the slab has deck-access maisonettes, with wings on each side of regular flats A flaw in the design of these blocks has the concrete load-bearing frames exposed, which forms cold bridges into the core of the building and resulted in endemic damp problems which are only now, 60 years later, due to be finally resolved in a renovation project.
Inchmickery Court, with Oxcars Court poking out on the right. Notice the prominent vertical bands of the reinforced concrete crosswalls, which have caused cold and damp problems in the buildingsLastly in the 1960-61 construction programme were the point block trio of Allermuir Court, Caerketton Court and Capelaw Court at Oxgangs, a site known as the Comiston Scheme at the time. Their names reflected some of the nearby Pentland Hills, the preceding blocks in Leith and Muirhouse having used the names of islands in the Firth of Forth. These 15 storey blocks had 80 flats apiece, 20 of which were maisonettes (on floors 2, 5, 8, 11 and 14), and were constructed by London-based John Laing & Co. I have seen them referred to as the Comiston Luxury Flats but I suspect this may be because in the newspaper columns where their Dean of Guild Court approval was reported, the announcement was alongside approval for “luxury flats” at Ravelston, under the headline of “Permit for £3m Housing; Edinburgh to Clear More Prefabs; Luxury Flats“. The laundry rooms were on the ground floor, and there were novel outside drying greens arranged in a spoked wheel pattern from a single, large, central pole. The flats were initially very popular, but suffered from long-term lack of maintenance and run-down of facilities and were demolished between 2005-06 as an alternative to refurbishment after a community campaign.
Allermuir and Caerketton Courts coming down in 2006. CC-by-SA 3.0 by 95469Another trio of point blocks were started in 1960 but did not complete until 1962 – Fala Court, Garvald Court and Soutra Court in the Gracemount Housing Scheme, a post-war, greenfield site development. These were named after hills and parishes in the Moorfoots; Garvald was originally to be Windlestraw, but the name was changed at the suggestion of housing chairman Pat Rogan who felt it was ambiguous in its pronunciation. These were constructed by the local firm Crudens and each had 14 storeys and 82 flats. They were not built with sufficient ties between the inner and outer wall skins and this had to be remedied at a cost of £100,000 in 1986. All three were demolished in 2009 as part of the wider redevelopment in area.
Garvald Court with Fala Court beyond, emptied of life and stripped out in preparation for demolition. CC-by-ND 2.0 KaysGeog via FlickrLast of the 1960 starts did not complete until 1963 and marked a step change in scale and construction methods – the infamous pair of Cairngorm House and Grampian Houses in the Leith Fort Comprehensive Development Area (CDA). These 21 storey, 76 flat towers were built by Millers and designed by Shaw Stewart, Baikie & Perry (John Baikie was principal architect, and was assisted by Michael Shaw Stewart and Frank Perry, all were working for the firm of Rowand Anderson, Kininmonth & Paul). The whole building was made up of interlocking, three storey repeating units, with single-storey flats in the middle surrounded by maisonettes above and below. One assumes that the names were a double reference both to their heights (they were the tallest residential structures in Scotland when completed) and how far you could see from the top. The core of each building was poured, reinforced concrete cross-walls and floors, clad in a system of prefabricated concrete panel units. These storey-high panels, of three standard widths, had external ribs to improve their strength but this contributed to their spartan, blocky appearance with almost no redeeming features beyond the labour savings their construction offered; it was estimated by Millers that the fifty men and external scaffolding that they had needed for each storey at Dumbiedykes had been replaced by four men and a crane to lift the prefabricated concrete panels into place. They came down in 1997, having been largely empty of residents since 1991 after a long period of neglect and decline, with the local press referring to them as Terror Towers and Withering Heights.
Grampian House (l) and Cairngorm House (r) in 1982. The rooftop “cages” contained drying “greens” and on the left is the brick and concrete block of Fort House (see below). Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveThe next phase of the Leith Fort CDA scheme was Fort House – a 7-storey deck access block of 157 mainly maisonette flats on a rambling, wonky X-plan built by J. Smart & Co to a design also by Shaw Stewart, Baikie & Perry. This block sat on 162 large diameter piles, 3 feet wide and 30 feet deep and its odd plan was to make the maximum use of the available space as it was confined within the historic but oppressively high walls of the old Leith Fort. It was a reinforced concrete frame infilled with brown bricks degenerated into some of the city’s most infamous housing in the 1980s. Despite a renovation which saw pitched roofs, awkward looking rooftop pediments and additional insulation added, it was demolished in 2012-13 and replaced by low rise Colonies-style housing, with those prison walls greatly reduced in height.
Fort House, 1982. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archive1962-64 saw another tall pair of point blocks erected by Millers in Leith as part of a redevelopment scheme variously known as Citadel Area Phase 1 or Couper Street Area. These are the 20 storey, 76 flat John Russell Court and Thomas Fraser Court were designed by Robert Forbes Hutchison. Now known as Persevere Court and Citadel Court, respectively, John Russell was an antiquarian and author who wrote some of the first, comprehensive histories of Leith, and Thomas Fraser was his schoolmaster. Each block is comprised entirely of maisonette flats (except for four, top floor penthouses), with two separate wings joined by a service and access core, although neatly packaged to appear as a single, point block. Originally finished in concrete panels dashed with Norwegian quartz chips, 1980s makeovers had them insulated and clad in colourful blue and yellow corrugation at the same times as the names were changed and tenancies were restricted to those over the age of 35 and without children under the age of 16.
Persevere (left) and Citadel (right) Courts in 2011. Notice that the arrangement of yellow and dark blue panels on each building is inverted. Cc-by-NC-SA 2.0 by me!The multi-storey flat peaked, literally, in Edinburgh in 1965 when Martello Court in Pennywell, Muirhouse completed. This 23 storey, 88 flat point block remains the tallest residential structure in Edinburgh and has unusual with wrap-around external balconies all the way up to the top. These served a dual purpose; as the building had only a single staircase, they were to assist escape in the event of a fire, however were unpopular with residents who wanted them gated off. Built by local contractor W. Arnott Mcleod to designs by Rowand Anderson, Kininmonth & Paul, it was intended to showcase local skills in the field of housing but was ultimately over-budget and delayed; the final project cost approximated £3,571/ flat, almost 60% more than neighbouring multis that had completed just 4 years before. Corporation Housing Architect Harry Corner branded the building “a disaster“. This was the first high-rise block to dispense with communal laundries since they had been introduced, with each flat having laundry facilities in the kitchen, and each floor having an external drying area. In a superstitious move, there is no thirteenth floor, the floors being number 1 to 12 and then 12A to 23.
Martello Court, towering over the neighbouring high rise flats at Muirhouse. It now has a dark red external cladding. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveThere was no such qualms about the number thirteen with another block in the Muirhouse area, Thirteen Muirhouse Way was never formally named (and confusingly was actually 11 to 21 Muirhouse Way!) This nine-storey, 44-flat slab block was part of the Muirhouse Temporary Housing Area Phase II scheme to replace the post-war prefabs to the south of Pennywell. It was very similar to the earlier Gunnet and May Courts nearby. This block was part of a scheme completed 1963-1965. In 1982 the residents set up a Tenant’s Steering Committee to lobby for improvements to deal with the windows, dampness, heating and insecure entry. The council did eventually draw up plans for a refurbishment but in 1987 branded it “one of the worst in the city” and instead used new borrowing powers to have the block demolished and replaced by a low-rise scheme of accessible housing. Demolition came in 1988, just shy of its twenty-third birthday.
The insipidly and threateningly named “13 Muirhouse Way” in the background. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveAlso completing in 1965 was a large scheme on a greenfield plot at Sighthill, known as the Sighthill Neighbourhood Centre. This scheme was initially mooted in 1957 and in 1962 a scheme for two 23 storey point blocks and an 8 storey slab was approved, but was challenged successfully by the Civil Aviation Administration over the proximity to the flightpath of Edinburgh Airport. This resulted in a change to three lower 17 storey, 95 flat blocks – Glenalmond Court, Hermiston Court and Weir Court – and an increase in height of the slab block to 11 storeys; the 98 flat Broomview House. Construction was by Crudens. The entire scheme was demolished between 2008 and 2011, and replaced by a new estate of low and mid rise housing, which includes streets named after Glenalmond, Weir and Broomview (but not Hermiston; probably to avoid confusion with other nearby areas of that name.) These names were taken from the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Weir of Hermiston.
Hermiston (l), Glenalmond (c) and Weir (r) Courts in 2011 just prior to demolition. Cc-by-NC 2.0, by me!Yet another completion in 1965 was the well known “Banana Flats” of Cables Wynd House in Leith; officially Central Leith Phase 1 or Cables Wynd Redevelopment Scheme. The architect in charge was Robert Forbes Hutchison and the contractor was J. Smart & Co. This vast, 10 storey slab block of 212 largely maisonette flats has a distinctive curving plan to accommodate pre-existing roads and tenements and was designed to house up to 800 residents. The building has a concrete frame – a ground floor of columns and crosswalls above that – with a cladding of pre-cast concrete exterior panels covered in quartz chips. To reduce the number of lifts and stairwells, entry to the houses is deck access along three internal “streets in the sky“, which give access to the flats on floors above and below also. Bedrooms are arranged so that none are adjacent to the deck, to reduce noise disturbance. It was Category A listed in 2017.
Cables Wynd House, cc-by-sa 2.0 Tom ParnellCables Wynd was joined nearby in December 1966 by Linksview House, an 11-storey, 96-flat block by the same architect and contractor as the former. It sits at the northern end of the Kirkgate and was officially the Central Leith Phase 2 or Tolbooth Wynd Redevelopment Scheme. Although it is a regular, straight slab and is significantly smaller than its bendy neighbour, its construction and internal layout is fundamentally similar. It has reinforced concrete columns on the ground floor and crosswalls above that, similar precast cladding panels and again three access decks to maisonette flats.
Linksview House, at the end of Leith’s historic Kirkgate, CC-by-ND 2.0 KaysGeog via FlickrBetween 1965-66, at the Greendykes Temporary Housing Area, a pair of 15-storey, 86-flat point blocks was constructed by Crudens – Greendykes House and Wauchope House. These were part of Pat Rogan’s policy of quickly increasing completion of new housing by replacing the life-expired, low-density, low-rise estates of post-war prefab bungalows with mixed mid- and high-rise schemes. Population density in these areas was more than doubled, from 60 to 140 people per acre, meaning the sitting prefab tenants could re-homed and there were more new houses too. This facilitated the clearance of slum housing in the inner city – still a huge problem at the time.
Wauchope House (l) and Greendykes House (r), 1985. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveFebruary 1966 saw the completion of high-rise buildings in the north of the city, with Northview Court at West Pilton – again a prefab replacement build, officially Muirhouse Area 3. It was something of an afterthought, replacing a smaller block on the plans at a late stage. Its 16 storeys contain 61 flats and the contractor was Wimpey.
Northview court in 1982. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveThe Moredun Temporary Housing Area was next, where a row of four 16 storey blocks was constructed on the only thin strip of solid bedrock in an area othewise riddled by mining and subsidence. The contractor was Wimpey and the 91 flat blocks are called Castleview House, Marytree House, Little France House and Moredun House.
Left-to-Right, Castleview, Marytree, Little France and Moredun Houses.The next phase here was two identical blocks to the previous four, which also completed in 1967. These are Moncrieffe House and Foreteviot House and are further up the hill and in a more exposed position than the first four. As a result of this exposure, and the way the wind swirls around and between the blocks, they have long suffered with windows blowing in (and out).
Foreteviot (l) and Moncrieffe (r) houses. The first phase of towers at Moredun is in the right distanceIn 1967, to the west of Greendykes, a 15-storey pair of towers was completed at the site of the Craigmillar prefabs; the 57 flat Craigmillar Court and Peffermill Court. They were built by Concrete (Scotland) Ltd. on the prefabricated Bison large wall panel system – as a result they were 10% cheaper than Wimpey at Moredun
Peffermill Court (r) and Craigmillar Court (l) in 1967. © Edinburgh City LibrariesBetween 1964-67, a pair of 13 storey blocks was completed at Restalrig Gardens; Lochend House and Restalrig House. Constructed by Millers, these 76 flat, T-plan point blocks are reinforced concrete construction with brick infill and external harling. They replaced the old Georgian villa of Restalrig House, which had been requisitioned during WW2 to act as a headquarters for the National Fire Service. It was acquired by the city in 1945 to act as a hostel for homeless families but was damaged by a fire in 1956 and evacuated, being used as a store for surplus council equipment thereafter.
Restalrig (r) and Lochend (l) Houses.1965-67 proved to be a busy period, with 21 high-rise blocks completed in total, the fruits of Pat Rogan’s efforts as housing chairman. His successor – G. Adolf Theurer – was a Progressive (Liberal / Unionist / Conservative political grouping), but something of an ally and continued his basic policies.
In 1968, the Kirkgate Redevelopment Scheme was completed by the 64 flat Kirkgate House, built by the Token Construction Co. This had been intended to be a 25 storey crowning monument, but ended up being behind schedule, overbudget and only 18 storeys tall.
Kirkgate House as seen from South Leith Kirkyard in 2023. Photo © SelfA 1968 outlier, in geographical terms, is the 11 storey, 41 flat Coillesdene House at Joppa by Wimpey. It sits within the red brick walls of the villa of the same name. Like Restalrig House, this had been requisitioned during WW2 by the National Fire Service and acquired and ultimately demolished afterwards by the Corporation for housing, with some of its undeveloped garden land having been used for temporary prefabs.
Coillesdene House – the red brick walls of the villa are prominent in the foregroundJust along the road from Joppa, on Portobello High Street, Portobello Court completed in 1968. This 8 storey, 60 flat, T-plan block is the centrepiece of a mixed-rise housing scheme which replace the old tramway depot. It was built by J. Best.
South elevation of Portobello Court.A further phase of temporary housing replacement completed at Sighthill in 1968, a scheme known as The Calders. This was another mixed height development by Crudens. The high rise element was three 13 storey, 136 flat slab blocks built on the Skarne large panel system. These are named after locations in West Linton parish; Cobbinshaw House, Medwin House and Dunsyre House (like the Sighthill Neighbourhood Centre, there may be a Robert Louis Stevenson connection here). The Ronan Point Disaster of May 1968 occurred while they were completing. This fatal partial collapse of a brand new large panel system tower block prompted an immediate national review of such structures, and an immediate halt was called on moving new tenants in to Cobbinshaw House and final construction paused on the other pair. Structural surveys and improvements were made, and the domestic gas supply was removed from Cobbinshaw and replaced with electric, with the other pair completing as all electric before they could be occupied. The buildings were renovated and re-clad in the early 1990s.
Left-to-Right, Medwin House, Dunsyre House and Cobbinshaw HouseIn 1968-69, two 15 storey, 85 flat blocks were completed at Hawkhill on the site of an old tallow melting works – Hawkhill Court and Nisbet Court. These used the no-fines poured concrete method – where there is no fine sand component in the aggregate, and therefore the end product is porous and has air pockets – to try and deal with the condensation and damp problems that plagued earlier concrete builds. The contractor was local firm J. Smart & Co. Nisbet is the name of an old local landowning family (Nisbet of Craigentinny), although not one that was ever specifically associated with Hawkhill.
Nisbet Court (l) and Hawkhill Court (r). At this time, the Hawkhill Playing Fields in the foreground were still in use. © Edinburgh City LibrariesThe last pair of the blocks in the prefab replacement scheme, and the last residential point blocks built in Edinburgh were built between 1969-71 at Niddrie Marischal; the pleasant sounding Teviotbank House and Tweedsmuir House, names from the Scottish Borders. These were built by Hart Bros. and were 15 storey, 57 flat blocks using the Bison large panel system. As well as the last, they were some of the worst such houses Edinburgh ever built and they were devoid of residents by 1989 after only 18 years and were unceremoniously demolished in 1991. The blocks had the last laugh though and refused to collapse under controlled explosion, having to be carefully tipped over later by a giant hydraulic ram known as Big Willie.
Tweedsmuir House (l) and Teviotbank House (r) in 1983. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveWhile Niddrie Marischal was still on the drawing board, Edinburgh’s public housing focus shifted away from the old Comprehensive Development Areas and Temporary Housing Sites to a grand new edge-of-the-city scheme at Wester Hailes. This was meant to be a “New Town within the town” for up to 20,000 people. However, despite the best of intentions, the Corporation was caught between price inflation and forced cost cutting by central government. As a result, it was forced to increase the housing density – putting multi-storey blocks back in favour again – and cut costs to balance the books. The cost cutting meant that construction quality was lacking, landscaping was bleak and that many of the facilities and public amenities that a growing community required were absent.
The overall Wester Hailes scheme is comprised of multiple, distinct neighbourhoods, within which there were multiple development contracts. These included three big groups of multis, all of which suffered from bad design, bad engineering and bad workmanship. Group one, by Hart Bros, was at Hailesland, and was comprised of six 10 storey slab blocks using the Bison large panel system. These blocks contained between 67 and 107 flats and were finished in stark, pebbledashed concrete panels. They were also shoddily built, to the point of compromising their very structural integrity. In 1990, after a life of only 18 years and a long period of uncertainty and partial vacancy, three of the blocks were demolished. The remaining three were repaired and renovated as there were not funds to write off and demolish structures on which the construction debt had yet to be paid off; these were renamed Kilncroft, Midcairn and Drovers Bank and were given colourful, corrugated cladding and pitched roofs.
Hailesland Bison flats. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveThe two remaining high rise groups at Wester Hailes were all built by Crudens on a proprietary system using a concrete frame and floors, in-filled with brick cladding and covered in harling. They were so badly built the render was falling off in huge chunks from the get go, and much of it had to be pre-emptively chipped off. Its application had been so lacking in control that the thickness varied between half and two and a half inches, as a result these nearly new flats were left looking decrepit and piebald. The Westburn Gardens group got no names, just the ominous sounding Blocks 1-7. They were built between 1970-72 and comprised seven slab blocks of 9 storeys with 55 flats each, except the last which got 112. They came down in 1993, aged just 22 years old.
Westburn Gardens, 1982. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveThe other Crudens Group was on the same system at Wester Hailes Drive and Wester Hailes Park. They at least got street numbers instead of block numbers, but were just as badly built as Westburn. Constructed from 1971-73, they came down in 1994 at the tender age of 21.
Wester Hailes Park (l) and Drive (r) flats in 1982. Picture by Prof. Miles Glendinning, released under CC-by-4.0 licence through Tower Block archiveThe year 1972 was both therefore both the peak and the swansong of multi-storey housing in Edinburgh; 12 blocks were finished at Wester Hailes, pipping the 11 of 1967, and the final 5 completed the following year. Such was the fallout from the multitude of scandals at Wester Hailes (and wider elsewhere, both in the city and nationwide) and also the rapid and terminal reputational damage they suffered in the 1980s that Edinburgh has never again built residential multis.
Of the seventy seven blocks in this inventory, some forty four are still standing and thirty three have been demolished. Twenty of the latter were 22 years old or younger and the average age at demolition has been 30.3 years. The oldest block to be demolished was Fort House, aged 50, and the youngest were the Hailesland Bison Blocks, at only 18.
Graph of total number of residential multi-storey public housing blocks in EdinburghIf you’d like to look at all these housing blocks on the map instead, just follow this link or click on the thumbnail below. This map is colour-coded by the number of storeys.
Google My Map – “High Rise Edinburgh”.I have made much use of the reference of the Tower Block Archive of Prof. Miles Glendinning and team, including facts and photos, and I recommend this resource to you if you have an interest in the subject. I can also recommend his publications “Rebuilding Scotland, The Postwar Vision 1945-1975” and “The Home Builders. Mactaggart & Mickel and the Scottish Housebuilding Industry” by Miles Glendinning and Diane M. Watters, amongst others, for further reading.I am also much obliged to Miles for letting me read his interview notes with key movers and shakers in local authority housing in Edinburgh in the 1950s and 60s, which are full of invaluable details and insights.
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NEATH LEGEND: Hollywood’s first Welsh Oscar winner honoured with blue plaque at childhood home
The tribute was unveiled at the house on Dalton Road where the legendary actor lived from the age of four.
Milland, who was born Alfred Reginald Jones in 1907, remains a titan of the silver screen and was once Paramount’s highest-paid star.
The installation follows a special exhibition at Melincryddan Community Hall on Friday, March 6, which brought together relatives, fans, and local dignitaries.
Organised by the Neath Antiquarian Society, the event marked the 80th anniversary of Milland’s historic Academy Award win for his role in The Lost Weekend.
He was the first Welsh actor to ever scoop an Oscar, a feat that cemented his place in cinematic history alongside greats like Grace Kelly and John Wayne.
Relatives of the Hollywood star attended the celebratory exhibition in Neath to mark the 80th anniversary of his Oscar win. (Image: Neath Port Talbot Council)The plaque was successfully nominated by the Neath Antiquarian Society through Neath Port Talbot Council’s Blue Plaque Scheme.
It serves as a permanent reminder of a man who told the world he was from Neath, even at the height of his global fame.
Jonathan Davies, Chair of the Neath Antiquarian Society, hailed Milland’s “varied and lasting” career which spanned more than 55 years.
“From romantic leads to comedy, horror, Broadway Theatre and his own TV shows, I don’t think there are many other careers in Hollywood that have been as varied or lasted as long,” he said.
“Over the course of 55 years, he won everything; Oscar, Grammy, Cannes Film Festival, the lot.”
The blue plaque is now a permanent fixture on the wall of the actor’s former home on Dalton Road in Neath. (Image: Neath Port Talbot Council)The actor’s incredible journey saw him serve in the Royal Horse Guards before a chance meeting with an American actress convinced him to try his hand at acting.
His 1929 debut in The Flying Scotsman led to a contract with MGM and a move to Hollywood that would change his life forever.
Milland went on to star in classics such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder and the terrifying spy thriller Ministry of Fear.
Despite his stardom, he never forgot his roots, famously being “lionised” in Cardiff in 1946 and touring Neath by car during a visit in 1947.
Councillor Cen Phillips, Cabinet Member for Nature, Tourism and Wellbeing for Neath Port Talbot Council, said the plaque celebrates a key part of the area’s “incredible cultural legacy.”
The ceremony was attended by Milland’s relatives and local residents, including the current tenant of the house on Dalton Road.
(L-R) The current tenant of the Dalton Road house, Ray Milland’s cousin, Councillor Cen Phillips, and Jonathan Davies of the Neath Antiquarian Society at the unveiling. (Image: Neath Port Talbot Council)Funding for the 2026 Commemorative Blue Plaque window will open from April 1 to September 30 for new nominations.
The scheme is part of the council’s wider Heritage Strategy, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to restore and celebrate local history.
#BluePlaque #Hollywood #localHistory #Neath #NeathAntiquarianSociety #NeathPortTalbotCouncil #OscarWinner #RayMilland -
Hollywood legend who told the world he was from Neath to be honoured with blue plaque
Ray Milland, who starred alongside screen legends like John Wayne and Grace Kelly, was the first Welsh actor to win an Oscar and became one of Paramount’s highest-paid stars during a career that spanned five decades.
Now, 80 years after his career-defining Oscar win for the film The Lost Weekend, Neath Port Talbot Council has announced he will be recognised with a blue plaque.
Milland joins a prestigious list of local figures to be honoured, including fellow acting giants Richard Burton and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
The public will get a first look at the plaque at a free event this Friday, 6 March, at Melincryddan Community Hall from 3pm. It will later be installed at Milland’s childhood home on Dalton Road.
The successful nomination for the plaque came from the Neath Antiquarian Society.
Jonathan Davies, Chair of the society, said Milland never forgot his roots:
“I have little doubt that there are few people in our history that have reached more corners of the world and told them he was proud of the fact that he was from Neath.
“He’s known to have said, ‘When people say to me, you are English, I tell them I’m not English. I’m Welsh. Call me British if you like but never, never call me English’. His death was reported on every continent.”
1946 was a golden year for Milland. As well as the Academy Award, he also won Best Actor at both the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Globes.
Councillor Cen Phillips, Cabinet Member for Nature, Tourism and Wellbeing, said:
“It’s great to honour the first Welsh Oscar winner, Ray Milland. He had an amazing career and became a household name in Hollywood. This blue plaque celebrates yet another figure from the incredible cultural legacy that we have across the whole of Neath Port Talbot.”
The council has confirmed that a further two blue plaques will be funded this year, with the funding window opening on 1 April.
#AnthonyHopkins #BluePlaque #GraceKelly #Hollywood #JohnWayne #Neath #Oscar #RayMilland #RichardBurton