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1000 results for “antiquarian”
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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 -
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 -
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 -
A double toot, #elephants from “Nova de li Animali piu curiosi de Mundo” (Rome, 1650). A favorite volume in our #specialcollections and the plate I was looking for yesterday when I found the grumpy porcupine
#art #rarebooks #antiquarianbook #copperplate #libraries #toots
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The porcupine from Antonio Tempesta's "Nova Raccolta de li Animali piu curiosi del Mondo" (Rome, 1650) has a five- o'clock shadow and really sums up the ✨ vibe ✨ this week :dumpster_fire:
#rarebook #antiquarianbook #17thcentury #copperplate #porcupine #libraries
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I hope to #meetu at numerous Antiquarian Book Fairs all over the world
We exhibit many times in #Paris #Brussels #Melbourne 🦘 #Amsterdam #Metz #Milan #Vienna #Mechelen #Ludwigsburg #Stuttgart #Tokyo #Leipzig - all you need is #love and #books
#bookfairs #fun #meetup #follow #repost -
#YLW a month of not buying anything except groceries
update 6 day 17 - 24
Things went pretty well these past few days.
Except... When I went to visit my youngest son, he took me to an antiquarian bookstore.... I just couldn’t resist a book on the history of Islam and a facsimile of the first edition of Bordewijk’s 'Blokken'. That was Wednesday.
However, I didn’t buy the book on all Churches from the Middle Ages still existing in the Northern parts of the Netherlands and Germany. That unbought book itches!!
And as my resoluteness was being worn down by the itch, I saw yesterday a book by Amadou Hampāté Bā on Tierno Bokar’s life and thought for just € 8,13 …
So 3 books added to my library in a week and still that unbought book about those churches nags.
It is silly, I bought 4 new bookcases already this year *and* I have about 20 boxes with books stored in my two attics. And still I’ld like to own that book on Middle Ages churches.
😒 This is addict behavior.
And the urge to buy stuff is stronger now that my paycheck has arrived…
The added challenge of not visiting supermarkets led me to find another farmers’ store in the neighbourhood. Very happy with that, so it is not all bad.
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#YLW a month of not buying anything except groceries
update 6 day 17 - 24
Things went pretty well these past few days.
Except... When I went to visit my youngest son, he took me to an antiquarian bookstore.... I just couldn’t resist a book on the history of Islam and a facsimile of the first edition of Bordewijk’s 'Blokken'. That was Wednesday.
However, I didn’t buy the book on all Churches from the Middle Ages still existing in the Northern parts of the Netherlands and Germany. That unbought book itches!!
And as my resoluteness was being worn down by the itch, I saw yesterday a book by Amadou Hampāté Bā on Tierno Bokar’s life and thought for just € 8,13 …
So 3 books added to my library in a week and still that unbought book about those churches nags.
It is silly, I bought 4 new bookcases already this year *and* I have about 20 boxes with books stored in my two attics. And still I’ld like to own that book on Middle Ages churches.
😒 This is addict behavior.
And the urge to buy stuff is stronger now that my paycheck has arrived…
The added challenge of not visiting supermarkets led me to find another farmers’ store in the neighbourhood. Very happy with that, so it is not all bad.
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#YLW a month of not buying anything except groceries
update 6 day 17 - 24
Things went pretty well these past few days.
Except... When I went to visit my youngest son, he took me to an antiquarian bookstore.... I just couldn’t resist a book on the history of Islam and a facsimile of the first edition of Bordewijk’s 'Blokken'. That was Wednesday.
However, I didn’t buy the book on all Churches from the Middle Ages still existing in the Northern parts of the Netherlands and Germany. That unbought book itches!!
And as my resoluteness was being worn down by the itch, I saw yesterday a book by Amadou Hampāté Bā on Tierno Bokar’s life and thought for just € 8,13 …
So 3 books added to my library in a week and still that unbought book about those churches nags.
It is silly, I bought 4 new bookcases already this year *and* I have about 20 boxes with books stored in my two attics. And still I’ld like to own that book on Middle Ages churches.
😒 This is addict behavior.
And the urge to buy stuff is stronger now that my paycheck has arrived…
The added challenge of not visiting supermarkets led me to find another farmers’ store in the neighbourhood. Very happy with that, so it is not all bad.
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In 2009, I rescued more than 100 random old books from a skip. Still have 45 of them to sell or give away: https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2025/12/random-old-books-revisited.html
might put them up on #freegle later. #oxford #antiquarian #oldbooks
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A fox, hare, swan, peewee and a cannonball: the thread about Edinburgh’s first piped water supply
Comiston is an old placename, stretching back to 1337 in records. It comes from Coleman’s tun in Old English; or the farm of a man called Coleman. You may know that it is the site of the Comiston Springs, the source of Edinburgh’s first public water supply, and if you are interested in such things then the National Library of Scotland Map Library is your friend as it shows them all.
OS 1:25 inch map, 1892 survey. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandThere are multiple natural springs in this area and given its relative proximity (about 3 miles) and the elevation to allow water to flow under gravity, it was an obvious place for the city to look for its first reliable source of clean drinking water in the 17th century. It had the right to do so since 1621 when an Act of Parliament was passed authorising the Magistrates of the city to bring in water “from a distance” and to carry out necessary works in the land though which it passed. They eventually bought the rights to the springs and water of Comiston from Lady Comiston for £18. A Dutch or German engineer resident in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Peter Bruschi or Brusche, was contracted to bring the water into the city. The springs were captured by pipes that led to a central cistern house, marked on the map above. One source says it had been built as early as 1674 (although that was perhaps just referencing the date when Brusche was contracted. At their fullest flow the springs could provide 23 to 36 cubic feet of water per minute, dropping to 9 to 10 cubic feet in the depth of summer.
Comiston springs cistern house, CC-BY-SA 2.0 Callum BlackThis was the source of clean drinking water that was led to the city reservoir on the Castle Hill, where it arrived in 1681, which could contain 9,070 cubic feet of water. Brusche was able to defy the doubters and make water run “uphill” to the Castle Hill as it was 44 feet lower than the Comiston cistern. His lead pipe was three inches in diameter and he was paid £2,950 to lay it. It would remain the sole source of piped water in the city until 1722, when an engineer called Desaguilon laid an additional pipe of 4.5 inches diameter. This was joined in 1787 by a 5 inch cast iron pipe.
“The first Waterhouse or Reservoir, Castle Hill”, a John Le Conte watercolour of 1840 showing the old water reservoir and house on the Castle Hill which supplied the city, and was a convenient location for the housing of a fire engine. © Edinburgh City LibrariesFrom there it ran downhill under gravity to public wells along the High Street and Canongate where it could be collected for free.
“A Walk thro’ Edinburgh. 1817”. Image showing the Tolbooth Well by James Skene. © Edinburgh City LibrariesThe Comiston cistern house is still where it always ways, although suburban sprawl means it is now in the middle of a housing estate and down a lane off the appropriately named Swan Spring Avenue in south suburban Edinburgh.
The cistern house marked in red behind the neat houses of Swan Spring Avenue.So why Swan Spring? Well the four springs that led to the central cistern house in four conduits were each named for an animal; the swan, the fox, the hare and the peewee (the Scots term for a lapwing). The Fox Spring also has streets named for it. In cistern house, where the four conduits arrived, there are (or perhaps now, were) four lead statues of all the animals to denominate the pipes.
Inside the cistern house. © Scottish WaterThese statues (or it may be copies of them, I am not clear) are now kept in the museum of Edinburgh.
The animals of Comiston Springs. Left to right the Swan, the Fox, the Hare and the Peeswee (Lapwing), from the Blipfoto of Flumgummery.Interestingly, I have found a 1976 photo that shows the animals in different positions. Which is right? I suspect the statues may have just been taken in and posed in these images for the photographer, then returned to safe keeping.
Inside the cistern house, 1976. © TSPLAnd here they are 10 years previous to that in the Water Board offices in Cockburn Street, so it seems they’ve been in the habit of taking them out and putting them back at least twice!
The Comiston animals, 1966 © The Scotsman Publications LtdI can recall learning this story as a schoolchild when once or twice you got to go to the council-owned Cannonball House on the Castlehill where the tour guide, Mrs Quick, would regale you with local history. She was obviously very good at this as it has stuck with me all these years. A formative experience clearly! Cannonball House is that old tenement at the top of the Castle Hill, which the story says is named for the cannonball lodged in its walls that this was shot out of the castle at Bonnie Prince Charlie during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. Right? Well, personally I think no.
Eighteenth century cannon were not peashooters, they were high velocity weapons. A cannonball like the one in the wall would have tore straight through the building, not lodged gently in the wall protruding out slightly. Given the size, it’s likely to be a “42pdr” (i.e. a “full cannon”, firing a 42lb shot with a diameter of 6.7 inches). This would have had an initial muzzle velocity of 1,200 feet per second and a kinetic energy sufficient to turn a domestic masonry wall to dust. The source of the story is the antiquarian James Grant in his book Old & New Edinburgh. Although Grant is usually reliable, we cannot rely 100% on what he collected in his books as being just local fable or hearsay – writing in 1947, local historian George Scott-Moncrieff says it is “not very convincingly reputed“.
The cannonball embedded in the walls of “Cannonball House”. CC-BY-SA 4.0 Enchuffla Con ClaveSo, if it’s not a relic of the ’45 what is it? Well there’s two theories. The obvious one is that it was just a convenient piece of material to fill a hole in the wall, but at 42lbs it’s a very heavy piece to lift all that way up. The nicer theory is that it’s a levelling marker for the gravitation feed from Comiston Springs – although it isn’t quite high enough for that as the Castle Hill reservoir is 44 feet below the Comiston cistern house.
I have a third, purely conjectural, explanation of my own. The first mentions of it being called Cannonball House in the local newspapers are only in 1909 when it came up for sale, the name was given in quotation marks so if not official, certainly had local recognition. It was purchased by the Edinburgh School Board to serve as a teaching annexe for the overcrowded Castlehill Public School next door (now the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre). They even stuck this name on the facade in stone to commemorate the completion in 1913! So perhaps the story of it being hit by a cannonball in the ’45 is true. We do know that there was intermittent and at some times quite intense exchanges of gunfire between the Castle garrison and the Jacobites. Perhaps some humorous builders found a suitable round stone (it may even have been a cannonball) in the demolition rubble during the alterations and decided to include it as they rebuilt the western gable, to fit the name of the building? Certainly during the works some significant alterations were made to both the inside and outside of the building, and antiquarian additions were made to the façade from bits and pieces recovered from other parts of the building. Ultimately, who knows…
Carvings on the east gable of Cannonball House in commemoration of the Edinburgh School Board rebuilding in 1913. © SelfThere’s a nice BBC article on the subject of these springs but it does overlook that the engineering was German.
Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.Explore Threadinburgh by map:
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NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
Magical book fairs, one honoring ‘Frankenstein’ and the other fantasy, arise – NBC Los Angeles
What to KnowRare Books LA Antiquarian Fair will take place at Union Station Oct. 4 and 5; tickets…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Books #ArtandCulture #Booksandliterature #Entertainment #Movies #Museums #unionstation
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/198415/ -
The thread about Old Edinburgh as it never was; the elaborately crafted fake for nostalgic Victorian spectators
There’s a photo of “Old Edinburgh” that pops up now and again online that purports to show the City as it was back in 1886; usually from one of those context-less, “random old photos” social media accounts. But not all is quite what it appears to be with this image. It’s a fake! In fact it’s a very good fake.
But it’s not a fake in the sense that the image itself has been doctored – it is the whole scene that is an elaborately staged Capriccio: a recreated tableau of various parts of Old Edinburgh, in no particular order, as they may (or may not) have been over a period of some three centuries. A 200 feet by 65 feet section of the City was recreated, loosely modelling parts around the old Netherbow Port but including interlopers from other parts. It contained 21 painstakingly recreated buildings, all of which had been demolished in the living memory of the time. The whole lot was an industrial-scale fantasia which was assembled for the the International Exhibition of 1886, located in a vast, temporary show-hall on the West Meadows.
The 1886 pavilion of the International Exhibition on the West Meadows, a temporary building believe it or not! Peter Fletcher Riddell bequest to National Galleries ScotlandThe reconstruction was the idea of the Exhibition organisers who appointed a Committee to oversee it and who held a design competition in 1885. There was an increasing awareness at this time of just how much of Old Edinburgh was rapidly and unsympathetically being swept away and replaced by – what was then – modern architecture. As a result there was a growing nostalgia for what had been lost in recent memory and also a recognition of what a lot of those buildings had represented in the context of Scottish statehood and national identity. It was hoped that this revival of a semi-forgotten national architecture might go hand in hand with a revival of the country as a whole, on its own, distinct lines. The convenor of the Committee – John Charles Dunlop – said “I trust one of the early results of this first great Scottish Exhibition will be a return to a style of building at once suited to the varied scenery and the changeful skies of Scotland, and to the character and history of the Scottish people“.
“Mercat Cross & Old Assembly Rooms”, Marshall Wane, 1887On 27th October 1885 the Old Edinburgh Committee picked its competition winner – Sydney Mitchell, a Scottish revival architect behind such vernacular style buildings as Well Court in the Water of Leith (Dean) Village, part of Patrick Geddes’ Ramsay Garden and the restoration of the old Mercat Cross to the city. Mitchell’s entry – entered under the nom de plume Tolbooth – featured twenty four “passed away” buildings and structures. The official handbook (which you can read at archive.org, here) commissioned by the Committee includes this helpful street plan of the buildings:
Ground Plan of The “Old Edinburgh” Street, from “The Book of Old Edinburgh” published to accompany the exhibitionThese were picked from locations scattered across the city as can be seen on the map below, and the handbook pointed out that they were not from any specific period of time, stretching from those built in the 15th to the early 18th century, but “they had with each other a long contemporaneous existence“:
The locations of “Old Edinburgh”, marked on the map of Edinburgh by James Gordon of Rothiemay in 1647, Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandThe installation was in a section of the exhibition hall that was open to the air and was constructed from wood, plaster and paint – with “realistic but illusionary finishes” to mock up age and weathering under the expert eye of Mr Smythe, the scenery artist at the Theatre Royal. The workmen were encouraged to add to the authenticity by chipping paint, cracking chimney pots, splintering wood, etc., so that the effect was not a “pristine original, but of undisturbed ageing: the illusion that the buildings had survived undisturbed into the present“. An electric arc lamp was installed to simulate moonlight in the evening, and weak incandescent bulbs simulated candle light behind the windows. Actors in period costumer were employed to add to the visual spectacle of the recreation.
Actors hired to represent the “Old City Guard” at the entrance to “Old Edinburgh”. The uniforms and equipment are seemingly accurate for the 18th century when compared to some contemporary illustrations, although the size of the bicorne hats may be somewhat accentuated.Briefly, the chosen subjects, their location, relevance and when they had been lost were:
- The Netherbow Port. The old eastern entrance, and principal gate, to the City. It stood on a spot near where St. Mary’s Street now intersects the High Street, and the latter becomes the Canongate. Built 1606, demolished 1764.
- Robert Gourlay’s House. An immense 16th century house that once stood on Old Bank Close which was swept away in 1834 for the construction of George IV Bridge. Gourlay enjoyed the patronage of King James VI.
- Cardinal Beaton’s House. A 16th century house on the corner of Blackfriar’s Wynd where it met the Cowgate, it had been the residence of the Archbishop of Glasgow, James Beaton and then his nephew, Cardinal David Beaton, a prominent figure in 16th century Scottish history. It had a prominent octagonal tower projecting from its first storey and was demolished in 1874.
- Twelve Apostles House and French Ambassador’s Chapel. A building demolished in 1829, named for the “apostles’ heads” that decorated its gable and reputed to have contained a chapel for the French Ambassador. Located on the Cowgate at the foot of Libberton’s Wynd and taken down in 1829 to allow construction of George IV Bridge. The gable, and other ornamental stones, were saved and incorporated in Easter Coates House where they remain to this day.
- House in Dickson’s Close. A 16th century house exemplifying the old style of a stone ground floor, with projecting timber and render upper stories and reputed to have been built by Robert Mylne, the Seventh Royal Master Mason.
- Paul’s Wark. A 17th century workhouse built by the City at the foot of Leith Wynd, where it met the Calton, part of which later became a reformatory. It was demolished around 1844 to make way for the North British Railway.
- Symson the Printer’s House. This early 16th century house, at the foot of Horse Wynd, was the oldest house in the Cowgate at the time of its demolition in 1871 to make way for Chambers Street. It took its name from its late 17th century occupant – Andro Symson – an Episcopal clergyman who had turned to poetry and printing.
- Bowhead House. The archetype of the above style in the city, a sprawling building on the top corner of the West Bow whose tiers got ever wider and more precarious as they rose higher. It had been demolished in 1878.
- Major Weir’s House. An early 17th century house that was located off of the West Bow, demolished when Victoria Street was constructed between 1829-34. The resident after whom it was named was the notorious Major Thomas Weir a soldier and “warlock” who was executed in 1670 for bestiality, incest and adultery.
- Earl of Hyndford’s House – also known as the Earl of Selkirk’s House. A large and most impressive house in the Old Town which was demolished in the 1870s. It was accessed off of Hyndford’s Close and had passed into the hands of Dr Daniel Rutherford, credited with the discovery of Nitrogen and grandfather of Sir Walter Scott. This house had been a favourite haunt of the young Walter when he was at the High School.
- Laus Deo House. A late 16th-century house on the Castle Hill at the head of Blyth’s Close, decorated with the legend “LAUS DEO” (Praise be to God) in large letters on its façade. This had been a focus of antiquarian interest in the first half of the 19th century when a stunning original ceiling was discovered hidden above a later one. There was a theory that this may have once formed part of the residence or “Palace” of the Regent of Scotland, Mary of Guise.
- The CunȜie House. A purported one-time location of the old Royal Mint of Scotland in the 16th century at the head of the Cowgate, where it met Candlemaker Row, with a distinctive “timber-arched porch, outside stairs and ancient ballusters“. Demolished around 1870.
- Mary of Guise’ Oratory. A private chapel situated on the Castle Hill on the east of Blyth’s Close, built some time after 1544 in connection with the residence (or “palace”) of the Regent of Scotland, Mary. It was demolished in 1845 when the New College of the Free Church of Scotland was being built.
- The Royal Porch. An ornamental gateway to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, built around 1490 by Abbot Bellenden. It was demolished in 1753 by the hereditary keeper of the Palace, the Duke of Hamilton.
- Assembly Rooms. Long before they were on George Street, Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms were on the Bow, the steep route up from the Grassmarket to the Lawnmarket. This was a “tall, picturesque building” that was demolished in 1836 when the street was remodelled as Victoria Street.
- The Black Turnpike. A few doors up from the Tron Kirk, it was demolished in 1788 (along with parts of that Church) to form Hunter Square as part of the South Bridge development. A very large building for its time (15th century), it was a “sumptuous residence” for high status nobles. Access to its upper floors was by a prominent turnpike stairwell on its façade, hence its name.
- House Fornent the Mint Close. An old house on the Cowgate fornent (Scots – opposite) the Mint Close, the last site of the Royal Mint of Scotland, it was one of the last surviving examples of a timber-fronted building of a burgher, with a small piazza on its ground floor and an open gallery above it. This particular house was also opposite that of Cardinal Beaton (above) and cleared in 1874 at the same time to allow the Cowgate to be widened.
- Parliament Stairs and Parliament Hall Gable. The “back stairs” led from the Cowgate up to the Parliament Close through the city’s Meal Market. At the head of the stairs was the south gable of the Parliament Hall of Scotland. The stairs were removed after the Great Fire of Edinburgh of 1824, and the gable of the Parliament Hall disappeared from view when the Outer House of the Court of Session was extended out from it.
- Tolbooth. One of the best known of Old Edinburgh’s buildings, this ugly, multi-storey building adjacent to St. Giles cathedral performed a variety of civic functions from guard house to prison to council chambers, court room and even a meeting space for the Parliament of Scotland. It had stood on this spot in one form or another since the late 15th century and was finally demolished in 1817 to widen and improve the High Street.
- The Mercat Cross. The ancient meeting point on the middle of the High Street, it had been taken down in 1756 and its stones scattered amongst other buildings and gardens, the cross and its shaft finding its way to Drum House, from where it was restored to the High Street in 1866. As a result of this, it was unique in being the only exhibit in the reconstruction that still existed (even though it was a restoration)
The stunt was a roaring success. On June 5th 1886, the Dundee Weekly News described to its readers “A Saunter Round the Old Edinburgh Street” at night, in a long, 3-column report complete with in-depth descriptions of each building and illustrations. They said it was “A fine replica of early Scottish architecture – a group of ancient buildings with which are associated much of Edina’s romance and history” and that Mitchell was “worthy of all praise for the truthful representation he has given as of those historic edifices which have long since corroded under the rime of years“.
Thank you to Alan Faichney for reminding me that I never wrote this thread up at the time, and for bringing it back to my attention 4 months later!
Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.Explore Threadinburgh by map:
Travelers' Map is loading...
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.These threads © 2017-2026, Andy Arthur.
NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
In their volume "The Art of Discovery", published in 2022, #ClusterROOTS member Maren Elisabeth Schwab and US historian Anthony Grafton examine how antiquarians began to excavate - both physically and intellectually - the ancient world in the 15th and 16th centuries AD. The book has now been published in a new Italian translation: https://www.uni-kiel.de/en/cluster-roots/details/news/how-the-renaissance-discovered-the-past
#Renaissance #EarlyModern #antiquity #ROOTSofKnowledge -
Slowly updating https://www.fromoldbooks.org/books-for-sale.html books for sale page.
I am not a bookseller by trade, but have accumulated hundreds of books over the years, and there are too many. The strategy is to try and sell exceptionally interesting ones first and maybe have money for groceries, too!
Some of these i bought to study the layout and typography (e.g. the Four Gospels fac simile). Which i did.
#rareBooks #antiquarian #finePrinting #finePress #books #booksForSale #typography
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French antiquarian Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, born OTD in 1766, published many examples of #Maya and #Aztec sculpture; unfortunately, errors in his illustrations fostered misconceptions about Mesoamerican civilizations https://toilet-guru.com/blog/22.html?s=mb #travel #history
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@eWalthert @iconspell Do you know #Booklooker? Marketplace also independent from Amazon, hosting antiquarian bookshops as well as private sellers. There’s an activatable feature to allow buyers to make an offer asking for a reduced price. Really like the way how this platform handles direct communication between the parties.
https://www.booklooker.de/ -
Yusuf and Zulaikha (يوسف وزليخة), unknown scribe, 1880–1910, Kashmir.
This Muslim story was adapted in Persian by Jami in the 15th century. See the entire illuminated manuscript in the Online Archive: https://oa.letterformarchive.org/item?workID=lfa_antiquarianbound_0035
#Persian #Quran #YusufAndZulaikha #Calligraphy #IlluminatedManuscript #Nastaliq -
📚✨ 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 -
New blog post: a listing of the contents of the notebooks of Charles-Louis Hugo, an antiquarian scholar who is important to the study of the #medieval #Premonstratensian Order
https://yvonneseale.org/blog/2023/07/01/the-notebooks-of-charles-louis-hugo/
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A bit of urban prehistory for #StandingStoneSunday
This is Maen Huail in the lovely northeastern Wales town of Ruthin. In folklore it is said to have been the stone on which Arthur had Huail (brother of Gildas) beheaded. The version of the story on The Modern Antiquarian doesn't paint Arthur in a particularly chivalric light!
Visited January 2012, while walking Offa's Dyke Path.
https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/13562/maen_huail.html
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A bit of urban prehistory for #StandingStoneSunday
This is Maen Huail in the lovely northeastern Wales town of Ruthin. In folklore it is said to have been the stone on which Arthur had Huail (brother of Gildas) beheaded. The version of the story on The Modern Antiquarian doesn't paint Arthur in a particularly chivalric light!
Visited January 2012, while walking Offa's Dyke Path.
https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/13562/maen_huail.html
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From beacons to buried treasure—Tales of Drake Howe
At the highest point of Cringle Moor's flat summit is a Bronze Age round barrow named Drake Howe. A cairn overlooks the hollow left by Victorian antiquarians in this ancient monument. "Howe," a term with a Scandinavian etymology, means a mound. But "Drake," is that a name that carries a folk memory recalling the age-old vigil of a beacon warning of the impending a ...
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A timeless cinematic treasure of literary devotion
“It’s certainly good to know that someone so many miles away can be so kind and generous to people they haven’t even seen”
― Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road——-
Tuesday evening (Jan. 13) we had the opportunity to watch a marvelous motion picture called 84 Charing Cross Road. Released in 1987, the film stars three top-notch stars — Oscar winners Anne Bancroft, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Dame Judy Dench.
Source: imdb.comBased on the 1970 memoir of the same name by scriptwriter Helene Hanff, this lovely tale tells the heartwarming story of two decades of correspondence (1949-1969) between Ms. Hanff and a small bookstore specializing in antiquarian British literature named Marks & Co. Ms. Bancroft portrays Ms. Hanff and Sir Anthony Hopkins plays the bookstore’s manager Frank Doel. Dame Judy Dench stars as Mr. Doel’s wife.
Source: lanierivester.comWithout giving too much away, let’s just say that this cinematic treasure will melt your heart. It’s a film that will stay with you long after watching, in large measure due to the story, but also the performances, and in no small part due to the memories it will invoke.
Memories of a pleasant and genial era that has long since passed, where a business could mail a requested book clear across the Atlantic and expect to be subsequently paid; where connections and friendships were made through written/mailed correspondence; and where time seemed to pass at a more leisurely pace. One didn’t need or expect to have items they ordered delivered immediately. Instead, anticipation was an integral part of the joy of ordering something and then receiving it from the post office.
Source: patrickcomerford.comRarely, have I seen a film, particularly from the 1980s, that does such a marvelous job of reflecting the vast differences between then and now and it does so without ever trying. Often, the film simply lets the images do the talking.
Perhaps, we should all just step back a bit and just take the time to actually appreciate the wonder of an exchange of goods between two parties rather than expect (even demand) hypersonic speeds for a transaction.
Peace…and take time to relish the moment!
#acting #art #books #bookstores #cinema #drama #film #HeleneHanff #history #letters #literature #MarksCo #movies #times #UK #writing
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Writing an essay and wondering if anybody out there in the world of #library #librarian #archives #specialcollections #bookdealer #bookcollector #bookcollection #rarebooks #antiquarianbooks #printculture #bookstodon would know of any examples of rare books (for example) damaged by children coloring in them in say, the 19th century. I'm confident there are some out there, just can't figure out how to search for it.
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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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🎧 The Antiquarian's Object of Desire by India Holton
@indiaholton.bsky.social @EKNOWELDEN @penguinaudio.bsky.social @berkleyromance.bsky.social @berkleypub.bsky.social #LoveAudiobooks @IndiaHolton @BerkleyPub @PRHAudio #BookReview #3.5Hearts #AudioBookReview #magic #ReadListen
https://booksofmyheart.net/2026/04/18/%f0%9f%8e%a7-the-antiquarians-object-of-desire-by-india-holton/?fsp_sid=12523 -
Brattle Book Shop started in 1825 in Cornhill, Boston.Today it occupies a 3-storey building in West Street, offering a huge range of used and antiquarian titles.
Its neighbour, Back Deck Boston, serves grills, so you can enjoy outdoor dining with some 'novel' company.
So next time you're in Boston,why not pop by - who knows, you might just see a Holland House title sitting on the shelves....
https://www.brattlebookshop.com/
#haveyoubeenhere #bookstore #indiebookstore #books #reading #indiebookstores
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@aweatherall there must be #musicteachers or #antiquarian stores for this. I remember the first times I visited Prague and bought loads of used sheets of music very cheep for my two sons, full scores, or for viola and cello, chamber music etc. They were both part of orchestras up to university level. Plus had ind. lessons from about age 9
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The thread about the rise and fall of High Rise Edinburgh – a chronology of multi-storey, public housing in the city
Between 1950 and 1973, Edinburgh built a total of 77 municipal, multi-storey1 housing blocks which contained 6,084 flats (give or take a few) across 968 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 Housing Committee Chairman, 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, 3-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 50 men and external scaffolding that they had needed for each storey at Dumbiedykes had been replaced by 4 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 Phase 1 of the Citadel 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 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 Edinurgh 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!Also in 1965, the well known “banana flats” of Cables Wynd House completed 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, occured 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 reclad 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 Temporarh 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 inflaction 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 comprimed of multiple, distinct neighbourhoods, within which there were mulitple 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, infilled 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 betweem 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 natiowide) 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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