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1000 results for “plinth”
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Project Caligari
As the days tolled ever onward to All Hallow’s Eve, an opportunity arose to make use of a new creative space on campus – just by our CentR Stage bar and just in time for the Academy’s Halloween party. Despite only receiving full access and equipment on the morning of festivities, a hastily scribbled tribute to the legacy of cinematic horror was set in motion.
Knowing partygoers were there to chill, chat, and indulge appropriately themed cocktails, there was no expectation they would sit down to watch a full film. Instead we planned a minimalist immersive area to relax in, with low-slung sofas encircled by rear-projected screens showing multiple silent movies. A central plinth would hold an object of focus and contrasting colour from the cold scenes on display.
Implementation demanded a different design – not least a lack of haze, incense, and human remains – with a trio of floor-sat units forward-projecting onto a curve of black drapes. The plinth then sat behind the sofas, adorned with a plastic pumpkin pilfered from the bar – ideally replacing it with the winner of the party’s carving competition.
Vintage horror sourced from archive.org provided the (cunningly Public Domain) vibe, with many films planned for each screen through the night. Technical difficulties, however, meant we had to lock each projector down to a single looping movie – controlled by a laptop behind the curtain running Resolume Media Server going into an HDMI splitter.
The chosen films presented a journey through the early years of macabre movies. An era where the steadfast rules of cinema had yet to be written, inspiring a vibrant visual imagination lost in a later generation of sedate talkies.
The vivid expressionism of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) was an essential choice. The first feature-length horror committed to celluloid, and one which many have not been aware. Director Robert Wiene’s eye delivers a pioneering dream-like ambience to a tale of grisly murder, with hand painted backdrops accentuating this unreality.
Next, F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) – another German Expressionist classic. Despite drawing the ire of the Stoker estate for obvious plagiarism, this film offers its own interpretation. Max Shreck‘s Count Orlak presents an iconic image of vampyric horror as a monstrous being, a presence revisited in subsequent remakes.
Completing the triptych with another tale retold through the generations, James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) was filmed with spoken dialogue. However, the rich gothic design still offers strong visual storytelling, with Boris Karloff‘s taciturn performance as the monster just as captivating in silence. A cornerstone of Universal Studios’ shared monster cinematic universe.
All crew work is collective, and we could not have done this without the aid of veterans Nick and Max, who helped to set up and put the final pieces together while I was embroiled in all-day lectures. Their efforts ensured the project was finished to schedule.
Freshers had their chance to contribute too, with new student Ruby curating a masterful multi-genre playlist to accompany proceedings. Although I was obliged to throw in a few extra tracks at the end, we all agreed to remove ‘Monster Mash’ after the shuffle spookily reprised it over and over.
Nothing can ever happen without some form of improvisation, and the taming of wild ideas into practical necessity manifests many happy accidents. The surreal imagery of early experimental cinema, especially in Caligari’s twisted set design, was thrown further off-kilter by the warp of the drapes. An abstract unease accentuated by the imperfect focus and inconsistent framing. It is important, at times, to let go of perfection so things can simply find their own form.
Overall, it went down very well. Partygoers drifted in and out to watch and take photos, enjoying my eager explanations. The client and crew working in the main studio also popped in to take a look around in appreciation. The only complaint from some was the installation wasn’t ‘scary’ enough…
… but the True Terror was throwing it together on time!
https://heathenstorm.com/2025/11/01/project-caligari/
#academyoflivetechnology #caligari #cinema #expressionism #frankenstein #halloween #horror #immersive #nosferatu #projections #resolume #samhain #vintage
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Project Caligari
As the days tolled ever onward to All Hallow’s Eve, an opportunity arose to make use of a new creative space on campus – just by our CentR Stage bar and just in time for the Academy’s Halloween party. Despite only receiving full access and equipment on the morning of festivities, a hastily scribbled tribute to the legacy of cinematic horror was set in motion.
Knowing partygoers were there to chill, chat, and indulge appropriately themed cocktails, there was no expectation they would sit down to watch a full film. Instead we planned a minimalist immersive area to relax in, with low-slung sofas encircled by rear-projected screens showing multiple silent movies. A central plinth would hold an object of focus and contrasting colour from the cold scenes on display.
Implementation demanded a different design – not least a lack of haze, incense, and human remains – with a trio of floor-sat units forward-projecting onto a curve of black drapes. The plinth then sat behind the sofas, adorned with a plastic pumpkin pilfered from the bar – ideally replacing it with the winner of the party’s carving competition.
Vintage horror sourced from archive.org provided the (cunningly Public Domain) vibe, with many films planned for each screen through the night. Technical difficulties, however, meant we had to lock each projector down to a single looping movie – controlled by a laptop behind the curtain running Resolume Media Server going into an HDMI splitter.
The chosen films presented a journey through the early years of macabre movies. An era where the steadfast rules of cinema had yet to be written, inspiring a vibrant visual imagination lost in a later generation of sedate talkies.
The vivid expressionism of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) was an essential choice. The first feature-length horror committed to celluloid, and one which many have not been aware. Director Robert Wiene’s eye delivers a pioneering dream-like ambience to a tale of grisly murder, with hand painted backdrops accentuating this unreality.
Next, F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) – another German Expressionist classic. Despite drawing the ire of the Stoker estate for obvious plagiarism, this film offers its own interpretation. Max Shreck‘s Count Orlak presents an iconic image of vampyric horror as a monstrous being, a presence revisited in subsequent remakes.
Completing the triptych with another tale retold through the generations, James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) was filmed with spoken dialogue. However, the rich gothic design still offers strong visual storytelling, with Boris Karloff‘s taciturn performance as the monster just as captivating in silence. A cornerstone of Universal Studios’ shared monster cinematic universe.
All crew work is collective, and we could not have done this without the aid of veterans Nick and Max, who helped to set up and put the final pieces together while I was embroiled in all-day lectures. Their efforts ensured the project was finished to schedule.
Freshers had their chance to contribute too, with new student Ruby curating a masterful multi-genre playlist to accompany proceedings. Although I was obliged to throw in a few extra tracks at the end, we all agreed to remove ‘Monster Mash’ after the shuffle spookily reprised it over and over.
Nothing can ever happen without some form of improvisation, and the taming of wild ideas into practical necessity manifests many happy accidents. The surreal imagery of early experimental cinema, especially in Caligari’s twisted set design, was thrown further off-kilter by the warp of the drapes. An abstract unease accentuated by the imperfect focus and inconsistent framing. It is important, at times, to let go of perfection so things can simply find their own form.
Overall, it went down very well. Partygoers drifted in and out to watch and take photos, enjoying my eager explanations. The client and crew working in the main studio also popped in to take a look around in appreciation. The only complaint from some was the installation wasn’t ‘scary’ enough…
… but the True Terror was throwing it together on time!
https://heathenstorm.com/2025/11/01/project-caligari/
#academyoflivetechnology #caligari #cinema #expressionism #frankenstein #halloween #horror #immersive #nosferatu #projections #resolume #samhain #vintage
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Another postcard from our #allotment... kinda went a bit long with this one. Not a lot of tasks ticked off, but a good bit of hard yakka. My arms and legs ache!
The octagonal shed is now upright on cinderblock plinths.
We have a #polytunnel rat!! 😐 As captured by CCTV...
Something has eaten a bunch of our polytunnel crops! 😭 (The rat?? 🤔)
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S. Maria Maggiore station is the highest point on the #Vigezzina 🇮🇹 #Centovalli🇨🇭narrow gauge railway line. Pictured here is today’s 15:26 #Domodossola to #Locarno “Diretto” service, worked by a 1950s #SSIF ABe8/8 unit. Meanwhile, a plinthed tramcar seems to enjoy the autumn sun.
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𝗪𝗜𝗞𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔 𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬
✧ Krishna's Butterball ✧
Krishna's Butterball is a large granite balancing rock that rests on a short incline in the coastal resort town of Mamallapuram in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is approximately six metres (20 ft) high and five metres (16 ft) wide, with a mass of around 250 tonnes. It is balanced on a slope on top of a 1.2-metre-high (4 ft) plinth that is a naturally ...
#Mamallapuram #Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna%27s_Butterball -
Coming to #NYC this fall: a 16-foot-tall pigeon.
"Nobody takes pigeons all that seriously: They are background animals, their gray bodies blending in with the dirty pavement they flock across, pecking around for whatever humans drop on the ground. Which is entirely the point that Argote was making in proposing it for the perch atop the High Line Plinth."
https://www.curbed.com/article/ivan-argotes-big-pigeon-to-land-on-the-high-line.html
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Après un an dans l'appart je réorganise enfin mon bureau; #JeVends à #PrixLibre une armoire-penderie Ikea PAX blanche de 75x58x236, avec trois tablettes et une tringle KOMPLEMENT.
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/pax-caisson-darmoire-blanc-90458235/ * 1
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/komplement-tringle-a-habits-blanc-40256895/ * 1
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/komplement-tablette-blanc-90277961/ * 3Il y a quelques trous qui traversent les panneaux de chaque côté (l'armoire était vissée à une autre d'un côté, et à une plinthe verticale de l'autre côté), voir photo (c'est pareil de l'autre côté, des trous visibles près de l'avant du meuble).
À venir chercher, démontée (avec tous les petits bitonios bien rangés dans un sachet), à Ivry-sur-Seine, dans mon appart au 4eme étage sans ascenseur. (Les planches sont trop grandes pour être stockée dans la cave, donc elle reste stockée dans l'appart).
À prix libre, premièr.e arrivé.e premièr.e servi.e.
#Ikea #Pax #Armoire #Penderie #IvrySurSeine #Paris13 #PrixLibre #ÀVendre
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Après un an dans l'appart je réorganise enfin mon bureau; #JeVends à #PrixLibre une armoire-penderie Ikea PAX blanche de 75x58x236, avec trois tablettes et une tringle KOMPLEMENT.
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/pax-caisson-darmoire-blanc-90458235/ * 1
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/komplement-tringle-a-habits-blanc-40256895/ * 1
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/komplement-tablette-blanc-90277961/ * 3Il y a quelques trous qui traversent les panneaux de chaque côté (l'armoire était vissée à une autre d'un côté, et à une plinthe verticale de l'autre côté), voir photo (c'est pareil de l'autre côté, des trous visibles près de l'avant du meuble).
À venir chercher, démontée (avec tous les petits bitonios bien rangés dans un sachet), à Ivry-sur-Seine, dans mon appart au 4eme étage sans ascenseur. (Les planches sont trop grandes pour être stockée dans la cave, donc elle reste stockée dans l'appart).
À prix libre, premièr.e arrivé.e premièr.e servi.e.
#Ikea #Pax #Armoire #Penderie #IvrySurSeine #Paris13 #PrixLibre #ÀVendre
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Après un an dans l'appart je réorganise enfin mon bureau; #JeVends à #PrixLibre une armoire-penderie Ikea PAX blanche de 75x58x236, avec trois tablettes et une tringle KOMPLEMENT.
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/pax-caisson-darmoire-blanc-90458235/ * 1
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/komplement-tringle-a-habits-blanc-40256895/ * 1
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/komplement-tablette-blanc-90277961/ * 3Il y a quelques trous qui traversent les panneaux de chaque côté (l'armoire était vissée à une autre d'un côté, et à une plinthe verticale de l'autre côté), voir photo (c'est pareil de l'autre côté, des trous visibles près de l'avant du meuble).
À venir chercher, démontée (avec tous les petits bitonios bien rangés dans un sachet), à Ivry-sur-Seine, dans mon appart au 4eme étage sans ascenseur. (Les planches sont trop grandes pour être stockée dans la cave, donc elle reste stockée dans l'appart).
À prix libre, premièr.e arrivé.e premièr.e servi.e.
#Ikea #Pax #Armoire #Penderie #IvrySurSeine #Paris13 #PrixLibre #ÀVendre
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Après un an dans l'appart je réorganise enfin mon bureau; #JeVends à #PrixLibre une armoire-penderie Ikea PAX blanche de 75x58x236, avec trois tablettes et une tringle KOMPLEMENT.
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/pax-caisson-darmoire-blanc-90458235/ * 1
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/komplement-tringle-a-habits-blanc-40256895/ * 1
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/komplement-tablette-blanc-90277961/ * 3Il y a quelques trous qui traversent les panneaux de chaque côté (l'armoire était vissée à une autre d'un côté, et à une plinthe verticale de l'autre côté), voir photo (c'est pareil de l'autre côté, des trous visibles près de l'avant du meuble).
À venir chercher, démontée (avec tous les petits bitonios bien rangés dans un sachet), à Ivry-sur-Seine, dans mon appart au 4eme étage sans ascenseur. (Les planches sont trop grandes pour être stockée dans la cave, donc elle reste stockée dans l'appart).
À prix libre, premièr.e arrivé.e premièr.e servi.e.
#Ikea #Pax #Armoire #Penderie #IvrySurSeine #Paris13 #PrixLibre #ÀVendre
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Après un an dans l'appart je réorganise enfin mon bureau; #JeVends à #PrixLibre une armoire-penderie Ikea PAX blanche de 75x58x236, avec trois tablettes et une tringle KOMPLEMENT.
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/pax-caisson-darmoire-blanc-90458235/ * 1
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/komplement-tringle-a-habits-blanc-40256895/ * 1
- https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/komplement-tablette-blanc-90277961/ * 3Il y a quelques trous qui traversent les panneaux de chaque côté (l'armoire était vissée à une autre d'un côté, et à une plinthe verticale de l'autre côté), voir photo (c'est pareil de l'autre côté, des trous visibles près de l'avant du meuble).
À venir chercher, démontée (avec tous les petits bitonios bien rangés dans un sachet), à Ivry-sur-Seine, dans mon appart au 4eme étage sans ascenseur. (Les planches sont trop grandes pour être stockée dans la cave, donc elle reste stockée dans l'appart).
À prix libre, premièr.e arrivé.e premièr.e servi.e.
#Ikea #Pax #Armoire #Penderie #IvrySurSeine #Paris13 #PrixLibre #ÀVendre
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And… that’s a wrap! Another #FediPaint wrapped up, so here’s my finalised entry! Lots and lots of personal progress made and some lovely headspace offered along the way.
Very happy with my Dark Elf Noble, I’m sure the arrogant devil is just chuffed with having a plinth of Ice to look down on us all from too.
#Warhammer #PaintingMiniatures #Miniatures #TheOldWorld #PaintingWarhammer #Painting #Hobby #WarhammerFantasy #Minis #Wargames #Wargaming #Miniature #Hobbyodon #Hobbyverse #WHFB
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On the #SSIF 🇮🇹 Valle Vigezzo narrow gauge line earlier today, at (and around) S. Maria Maggiore (📷 1,2,3) and Masera (4). Pictured is the 08:48 morning service from #Locarno to #Domodossola, worked by the ABe8/8 unit #21 “Roma” (plus a plinthed tramcar).
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#genuary2023 Art Deco. In 2013/4 I (over)worked on one of the largest and most exhausting #GenerativeArt projects of my life: Co(de)factory was an interactive installation piece for the Digital Revolutions/DevArt exhibition, commissioned by Google & The Barbican Centre London. The centerpiece was a DIY 3D resin printer used to publicly fabricate objects designed by visitors via a custom WebGL-based visual programming environment (which was pain to get running on Chrome on the Nexus tablets embedded in the plinths). This design tool (written in back then still pre-mature #ClojureScript) was based around my https://thi.ng/morphogen DSL which defines 8 basic tree operators (e.g. reflection, subdivision, skewing, tapering etc.) to generate complex geometries via recursive transformations of a single arbitrary seed box. Not going to talk much more about the project here (maybe another time), other than to say the large 3D printed canopy structure/sculpture (3 meters tall, 2.4m diameter) surrounding the printer, as well as the cladding for the plinths were all created from hundreds of small modules designed with the Morphogen DSL and used the "golden era" of 1920s American Art Deco as main inspiration... You can find the entire source code for all components (incl. the design tool, server backend, fabrication files etc.) on GitHub:
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Isn't that trailer a great exercise in tabloid-style sensationalism?!? Every action scene and hint of romance from the movie is included. I especially admire the role the statue of Benjamin Franklin plays... the crusading newspaper editor smashing another guy's head into the plinth, enraged by a newspaper circulation war attack on his paper that injured a young boy.
#MovieHistory
#NewspaperHistory
#NewYorkLandmarks -
Not sure if anyone is from the #Ashbourne area on here so I hope to be cross-posting some updates from https://twitter.com/ShrovetideLive when the #Ashbourne Royal #Shrovetide #Football match kicks off tomorrow.
I've always fascinated by it, even from afar. But the big question this year is will the relocation of the Shrovetide turn-up plinth give the Down'Ards an advantage? #Shrovetide2023
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"Two Italian #ClimateChange activists who glued themselves to the base of [the #Laocoon statue] of the #Vatican Museum must pay almost 30,000 euros ($32,000) in damages and costs, a Vatican criminal court ruled on Monday.
The sculpture depicts a priest from Troy who tried to warn fellow citizens against taking in the Greeks' wooden horse.
The marble plinth was added to the Laocoon in the 19th century." -
"Two Italian #ClimateChange activists who glued themselves to the base of [the #Laocoon statue] of the #Vatican Museum must pay almost 30,000 euros ($32,000) in damages and costs, a Vatican criminal court ruled on Monday.
The sculpture depicts a priest from Troy who tried to warn fellow citizens against taking in the Greeks' wooden horse.
The marble plinth was added to the Laocoon in the 19th century." -
"Two Italian #ClimateChange activists who glued themselves to the base of [the #Laocoon statue] of the #Vatican Museum must pay almost 30,000 euros ($32,000) in damages and costs, a Vatican criminal court ruled on Monday.
The sculpture depicts a priest from Troy who tried to warn fellow citizens against taking in the Greeks' wooden horse.
The marble plinth was added to the Laocoon in the 19th century." -
"Two Italian #ClimateChange activists who glued themselves to the base of [the #Laocoon statue] of the #Vatican Museum must pay almost 30,000 euros ($32,000) in damages and costs, a Vatican criminal court ruled on Monday.
The sculpture depicts a priest from Troy who tried to warn fellow citizens against taking in the Greeks' wooden horse.
The marble plinth was added to the Laocoon in the 19th century." -
"Two Italian #ClimateChange activists who glued themselves to the base of [the #Laocoon statue] of the #Vatican Museum must pay almost 30,000 euros ($32,000) in damages and costs, a Vatican criminal court ruled on Monday.
The sculpture depicts a priest from Troy who tried to warn fellow citizens against taking in the Greeks' wooden horse.
The marble plinth was added to the Laocoon in the 19th century." -
Isn't that trailer a great exercise in tabloid-style sensationalism?!? Every action scene and hint of romance from the movie is included. I especially admire the role the statue of Benjamin Franklin plays... the crusading newspaper editor smashing another guy's head into the plinth, enraged by a newspaper circulation war attack on his paper that injured a young boy.
#MovieHistory
#NewspaperHistory
#NewYorkLandmarks -
The thread about the Twelfth Day of Christmas; the Drum and Drum House
This thread was originally written and published in December 2019.
This part in the Edinburgh and Leith themed Twelve Days of Christmas thread is preceded by a post about Pipe Street in Portobello and why it was so named.
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me; The Drum. Drum is very common in Scottish place names, and comes from the Gaelic Druim meaning literally a “back” and figuratively a ridge of raised ground; in Edinburgh there are examples such as Drum Brae, Back Drum in Leith, Drumdryan (but not Drumsheugh, which is a shortening of Meldrumsheugh). But the Drum to which I am referring is The Drum, an estate and stately home on the outskirts of Edinburgh near Gilmerton.
Drum House, façade. CC-by-SA 4.0 StephenCDicksonThe place name here refers to the “back” of high ground south of the city and is recorded as early as 1406. The earliest map to show it is John Adiar’s 1682 Map of Midlothian, and we can see it occupies the space between Edmonston, Woolmet, Sheriffhall and Gilmerton. The entire area was part of a hunting forest dating from the time of King David I and which was known as the Drumselch, or Willow Ridge.
Adair’s Map of Midlothian, 1682. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandThe lands of The Drum came into the possession of Sir Walter de Somerville, Lord Somerville of Linton and Carnwath, when he acquired them through marriage to the daughter of the landowner Sir John Herring of Gilmerton. The Somervilles are yet another Norman noble family brought to pacify and civilise Scotland by King David I. A house was first built at The Drum in 1584 for Hugh Somerville, 7th Lord Somerville, after a court case ruled ownership in his favour over another family branch in Cambusnethan. The 11th Lord , James Somerville (who did not claim the title) wrote of it; “the rooms are few, but fair and large; the entire and staircase extremely ill-placed, neither is the outward form modish, being built all in length in form of a church.”
A tragedy befell the Somerville family in 1589 when William Somerville, heir to the Lord, accidentally shot his younger brother John, while drying and cleaning a loaded pistol that had gotten wet. Their father, in a fit of grief and rage swore vengeance upon his older son, who fled before him before the Lord Somerville came to his senses. King James VI on hearing of this, reprimanded the Lord and “commanded him to send for his eldest son, and be reconciled to him, for he knew he was a sober youth, and the very thoughts of his misfortune would afflict him enough, albeit he were not discountenanced by him“. William Somerville, “the Good Master of Drum“, never got over accidentally killing his brother and when he was stricken with fever two years later he suffered with it for 10 months before passing unhappily away.
The original house was replaced in 1720 by the 13th Lord, also James Somerville, who commissioned William Adam – father of Robert and James – to build a fashionable new Palladian country mansion. Writing of Adam’s masterpiece:
Had he never executed another edifice than Drum House, this alone would suffice to merit his distinction… There is an air of refinement about this residence almost equivalent to that which pervades the “Petit Trianon” at Versailles, where Marie Antoinette sought seclusion from the excitement of French Court and the distractions of the later years of her troubled life.
The Architectural Record, Volume 47, Issue 6, June 1920The original house was remodelled into a wing pavilion; a matching reflection on the other side was never completed.
Drum House. CC-by-SA 2.0 Lisa JarvisDrum House rear elevation, a photo of 1951 by S. G. Jackman. © Edinburgh City LibrariesThe interior of the new house was as fine as the outside, the stucco being by the Dutch master Josef Enzer, who was also responsible for the interior of another of William Adam’s Palladian masterpieces in the Lothians, Arniston House.
Drum House interior, a photo of 1951 by S. G. Jackman. © Edinburgh City LibrariesDrum House interior, a photo of 1951 by S. G. Jackman. © Edinburgh City LibrariesFrom 1756 to 1866, The Drum was the location of the Edinburgh Mercat Cross after its removal to widen the High Street. An alternative reason for removal was that the Merchants of the city had persisted in meeting around it to do business, rather than using the fine new Royal Exchange built at great public expense only yards away! The cross was subsequently relocated back to a spot near its original in 1885, at the expense of William Ewart Gladstone. It was raised up on a reproduction podium and plinth to the designs of Sydney Mitchell. The head of the cross was replaced with a royal Unicorn, the original having been pulled down by the occupying forces of Oliver Cromwell as symbols of the monarchy when the city was occupied after the Battle of Dunbar.
The Edinburgh Mercat Cross at The Drum, a photograph by Thomas Keith from 1856. © Edinburgh City LibrariesThe Drum was sold by the 19th Lord Somerville, Aubrey John, in 1800 to James Hay of Bhagalpur, who worked some of its lands for coal at Drum Colliery. He in turn sold it to Robert Cathcart WS around 1809. It then went in 1820 to Gilbert Innes of Stow and on his death to his sister. On his sister’s death it went to Alexander Mitchell of Stow who sold it in 1862 to John More Nisbett of Cairnhill in Ayrshire. More Nisbett bought back the estate park and farm lands at the same time, which had been gradually split up in the earlier part of that century.
Drum House in the time of John More Nisbett, from “Old and New Edinburgh” by James Grant, published 1881More Nisbett’s second son, Hamilton, became an architect, his work mainly being monuments, church alterations and domestic. He succeeded to the estates of Drum and Cairnhill on the death of his older brother, North More Nisbett, in 1939 at which point he moved his practice from George Street to Drum House. He did much of his own work making improvements and alterations to the estate and its buildings and died there in 1955. He designed the Gilmerton Junior Friendly Society Hall, now Gilmerton Village Hall, which appropriately is on Drum Street. The Drum remains in the hands of the More Nisbett family to this day.
Gilmerton Village Hall. CC-by-SA Anne BurgessNote 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.
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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
Mr McHattie and Mr Ritchie’s Mechanical Triumph: the thread about the Princes Street Gardens Floral Clock
The Princes Street Gardens floral clock is a fine Edinburgh institution. At the time of writing (June 2023) it was being replanted to celebrate the centenary of the Flying Scotsman steam locomotive (not “the train” of the same name as the tweet below would suggest). But this year is also an anniversary for the clock itself and it will be 120 years old, having first been revealed to the public on this very day (June 11th) in 1903. It was the first floral clock not just in Scotland but also in the UK, and possibly the 3rd in the world (there being earlier examples in Paris and Detroit). The Edinburgh clock was the work of the City Superintendent of Parks & Gardens, John W. McHattie, who enlisted the help of James Ritchie & Son., the famous Edinburgh clockmaker on Leith Street who built and wound the city’s public clocks. It so happened that Ritchies had in their workshop at this time the mechanism from one of the turret clocks from Elie Parish Church in Fife, which was surplus to requirements. This was installed in the base of the Allan Ramsay Monument next to the clock, and a drive shaft was run from the clock mechanism to the time hand in a small passageway under the flowerbeds.
The First Floral Clock, as it was when revealed to the public in 1903. Photo by a Mr Robert Oliver of Murieston Crescent. © Edinburgh City LibrariesThis first clock had a single time hand – an hour hand – which was a large metal planting tray 4 feet 2 inches (127cm) long and was “delicately balanced” on account of the slope but kept time perfectly. It was described as a “beautiful study in carpet bedding, in which American aloes, echevarias, sedums and other plants” were “set out with great taste in a bold geometric pattern.” The clock face was was 12 feet in diameter, the hours delineated by two concentric circles planted of sedums and the numbers picked out in “fresh green pyrethrum“. The centre of the face was split into quarters, each denoting and planted to represent one of the seasons of the year.
The Dundee Evening Telegraph hailed it as “a mechanical triumph“. The Devon Valley Tribune called it “the great wonder of the Gardens“, the Dundee Courier was a bit less generous and went with “the quaintest of horticultural freaks“. The Town Council was so pleased with Mchattie that they voted him a raise of £100 per year (almost £10,000 in 2023 terms. His picture below can be found on the website of the Friends of Saughton Gardens as he was also the man we have to thank for the first planting of that public park, which opened in 1910. The Friends have a good write-up of McHattie and his work at Saughton on their website, here. He died in 1923 when he was still the city’s Head Gardener, after 22 years service.
J. W. McHattieThe clock has, appropriately, changed with the times. By the time the below picture was taken in 1914 it had acquired a minute hand, which was 10 feet long, and accompanied a new 6 foot long hour hand.
The Princes Street floral clock, from the City of Edinburgh Report on Public Parks & Open Spaces, 1914, reproduced by kind permission of Mike Ashworth. © Mike AshworthThe mechanism was modernised in 1936 but still required daily winding, something which took place until its platinum anniversary, when it was electrified in 1973. It was during the 1936 modernisation that a “cuckoo” sound was added to it, the sound being generated by two tuned organ pipes in the base of the Ramsay monument.
Detail of floral clock mechanism in plinth of statue to Allan RamsayIn 1943, the clock’s 40th year, it was given a wartime makeover by the Superintendent of Parks John T. Jeffrey. This featured a large Royal Navy warship decorated with anchors and other naval insignia and a profile picture of Winston Churchill smoking a cigar and surrounded by the legend The Hour, The Man. The planting incorporated beetroots and carrots so as to make an edible contribution to the Dig for Victory campaign.
The 1943 floral clock, The Scotsman, Saturday 17 July 1943In 1947, for the first Edinburgh International Festival, the names of famous composers were added in to the planting, which was repeated in 1948.
The 1948 floral clock, with Chopin, Liszt, Bhrams, Verdi and Grief in the planting. The date of 1848 next to Chopin’s name in the top left commemorates his visit to the city in that year. Picture from an ebay postcard listing.In 1949 it was planted to mark the Scottish Industries Exhibition in Glasgow that year. For 1953, the clock’s 50th birthday, the Parks Superintendent, Mr A. T. Harrison, hit upon the idea of adding a “real” cuckoo to the clock. Thus a wooden bird house was added to accommodate the bird, which popped out when it chimed. The organ pipes were replaced at this time by an electric system of tuning valves connected to a loudspeaker.
The Floral Clock Edinburgh 2017, showing the wooden birdhouse © Jennifer Petrie cc-by-sa 2.0Ritchies would go on to provide the mechanisms for many floral clocks throughout the world (“practically all” of them, claimed the Evening News in 1956), including ones in Salisbury, South Rhodesia (modern day Harare, Zimbabwe) and Sydney Zoo.
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Blackburns, BISFs, Orlits and Whitson-Fairhursts. The thread about pre-fabricated, permanent, post-war housing in Edinburgh
This thread is a bit of an A-to-Z of the different types of permanent, prefabricated, post-war housing built in Edinburgh between 1945-1950.
In the aftermath of WW2, hundreds of thousands of temporary, prefabricated houses were built across the UK, as part of a national crash-building programme to ease urban slum dwelling, replace war losses and provide housing for men returning from war until the construction of permanent housing could catch up with demand. In Edinburgh, some 4,000 temporary prefabs were built, of four types; AIROHs, ARCONs, Tarrans and Uni-SECOs. But prefab housing wasn’t just temporary, it was also for permanent construction. It was hoped that by mass-manufacturing standard designs of modern houses in factories, they could be rapidly built with limited skilled labour.
A is for Aluminium
Some of the first permanent prefab houses ordered for Edinburgh were of the Permanent Aluminium or Blackburn Mk.II design. These were based on the AIROH (Air Industry Research Organisation for Housing) single-storey, temporary, aluminium cottages – of which some 54,000 were built – but with thicker walls and insulation, designed to last 60 years instead of the AIROH‘s ten. These were developed by the British aircraft industry as a way to find use for its skills and manufacturing facilities in the postwar environment, and to make use of a glut of scrap aluminium from surplus aircraft. This material has its advantages; it is light, strong, does not rust or readily corrode and – initially – readily available from scrapped aircraft. It took 2 tonnes of aluminium to build an AIROH house frame. So a single large fighter aircraft like a Typhoon give you all the aluminium for a house. The Blackburn Aircraft Company of Dumbarton got on board.
Blackburn Aluminium House (Craigour)They have been described as an “airplane in house form“; manufactured in sections on an aircraft production line, in sections that could be transported by road, and assembled quickly on site by unskilled labour. They came pre-fitted with standard kitchens and bathrooms, all of which just needed connected together on site on a simple brick or concrete plinth. The problem for aluminium houses of all types was that the price of the material soon rebounded and they became very expensive to produce, but they filled a gap and were not the worst of the temporary prefabs by any stretch.
Edinburgh purchased 166 permanent Blackburn Aluminium Houses; 145 for the Craigour Scheme in Moredun and 21 for Muirhouse.
Aluminium House in Craigour, with a porch and extra wing added, re-roofed, insulated and re-clad.These houses are quite easy to identify, as they are small, detached cottages with 3 regularly-sized windows and an offset front door. The shallow-pitched roof has a small brick chimney stack and was originally aluminium sheeting. There were 3 overlapping joints on the façade where the 4 prefabricated modules were joined together. These houses were quite popular, they sit on large plots and have big gardens. They are detached and the frames have not been subject to corrosion. Many have been insulated, re-clad, re-roofed and even extended. Some have been demolished and new houses built on their plots.
B is for BISF
These houses were named after their manufacturer and designer, the British Iron and Steel Federation. The house is of a conventional, semi-detached design, but uses a steel frame with steel window and door surrounds and Critall-Hope steel framed windows. The lower storey was clad in render applied to a steel lath and the upper storey had steel sheeting formed to look like timber. Interior partitions were plasterboard or wooden fibreboard and insulation was glass fibre. Most have been stripped back to their frames, re-insulated and re-clad with pebble-dash, and given modern plastic double glazing units. The fibreboard walls were prone to damp and fire and most were replaced with plasterboard during refurbishments.
In Edinburgh, c. 300 of these houses were built in Southhouse / Buirdiehouse (1947) and Moredun / Fernieside (1949) Schemes and most (if not all) remain to this day. They are somewhat unusual in that they were always intended to be permanent, and have not suffered from the usual structural degradation and corrosion that have plagued other non-standard houses. As such they are one of the few prefab designs that have never been designated as defective (which means you can get a mortgage on one).
B.I.S.F. houses. That on the right is unusual in that it retains its original cladding (Southhouse / Burdiehouse)A “naked” BISF house showing the slender framework next to the completed house. There is a concrete block firebreak between the two houses in the block.Useful identification features for BISF houses are that they are always semi-detached; they have a single, squat, central chimney on a pitched roof; the re-clad houses often have a mix of brick and pebble-dash cladding; the main ground floor window extends almost to floor level; and they lack the heavy reinforced concrete door and window surrounds of the concrete houses.
B is for Blackburn Orlit
These houses were a collaboration between the Blackburn Aircraft Company in Dumbarton and the Orlit Construction Company (see under O). They were designed in 1949 and used an improved, simplified version of the Orlit reinforced concrete frame and wall panel system, combined with the lightweight aluminium roof structure and pre-fabricated internal partitions covered in plasterboard, by Blackburn. Kitchens and bathrooms were also prefabricated “pods” produced by the Scottish Myton Company, based on experience with the Tarran temporary prefab houses. Four houses were built as a prototype in Clydebank in 1949, followed by 214 in 1950-51 on the Saughton Mains Scheme in Edinburgh, as semi-detached and terraces. Around 1,300 were built in total across Scotland.
Blackburn-Orlit (Saughton Mains South)These houses have the usual heavy, PRC door and window surrounds of Orlit houses and the irregularly-spaced concrete “quoins” on the corners. The ground floor front room window is deep (deeper than standard Orlits), but has often been in-filled with a shallower window. They have a shallow-pitched, gabled Blackburn roof (the roofs of Scotcon Orlits and those added to earlier Orlits are “hipped”) and lack the usual Orlit narrow, first-floor window over the front door. Instead they have 3 windows squeezed into the façade upstairs.
B is for Blackburn Mk.IV
Another collaboration between Blackburn and Orlit. These houses were of a more traditional construction, with walls constructed out of pre-cast “no fines” concrete blocks on a concrete slab foundation and Crittal steel-framed windows. I assume given Blackburn‘s involvement there were aluminium internal components used. You will find these in Edinburgh at the West Mains Scheme in Blackford,where 134 were built in 1951 as 4-in-a-block terraces. Nearly all have now been re-rendered, hiding their original concrete blockwork structure. Because they lack the Orlit‘s PRC frame and steel joints, they have not been classed as defective.
Blackburn Mark IV (West Mains)Identification features are the blockwork walls (where you can see them); the lack of the heavy, PRC door and window surrounds of most Orlit houses; the door surround has as small concession to detail (usually absent from such houses) with a moulding line around it; the central bay windows at ground floor level originally had a copper-sheathed roof.
B is for Blackburn Permanent
Also known as the Blackburn Mk.III, as the name suggests, this was a permanent house making use of Blackburn’s prefabricated internal partitioning and shallow-pitched aluminium roof structure, which was originally covered in aluminium sheeting. The form was basically the same as the Blackburn-Orlit house, but without the heavy PRC window and door frames and walls are traditional blockwork. Edinburgh built these as semi-detached and 4-in-a-block terraces, at Moredun in 1949 and the then Midlothian County Council as semi-detached houses in Currie in 1950.
Blackburn Permanent (Moredun)Blackburn Permanent (Currie)Identification features are the shallow roof pitch, squat chimneys, and the strip of 4 windows with brick infill on the first floor. Again there is a very deep sitting room window. These houses are usually harled or pebbledashed.
O is for Orlit
The Orlit System was developed by the Czech architect Erwin Katona, a Jewish refugee who had come to London in the late 1930s. He developed a modular, pre-cast reinforced concrete (PRC) system of construction that could be built in a factory and rapidly assembled on site with limited and unskilled labour. PRC columns and beams slotted together to form the structure, in-filled with an interlocking system of concrete tiles. Floors and roofs were of concrete channels. The roof could be a flat concrete slab covered in bitumen paper or a traditional wooden, pitched structure with tiles. Windows were Critall steel-framed, set within PRC concrete frames of standard sizes. The Orlit System could build a range of buildings, from single-storey cottages and municipal buildings to tenement flats. Usually they were semi-detached houses though.
An Orlit Type 1 House with its original windows and flat roof on Mountcastle Drive South, now demolished. CC-by-NC-SA via Thelma.The System was meant to be for permanent houses, with a 60 year lifespan, but was unfortunately riddled with flaws and weaknesses. Over time, PRC deteriorates, particularly at construction joints and junctions between components, with a gradual reduction in structural effectiveness. It suffers from inadequate thermal insulation, as well as thermal bridging – making houses cold and prone to condensation on the walls. As early as 1949, people in Edinburgh were writing to the newspapers to complain about the flaws in brand new Orlit houses. The original Type 1 system was replaced with the Type 2 to try and remedy the deficiencies. By 1950, they had abandoned the pre-cast frame system almost entirely (except for the window surrounds) and moved on to modular concrete block construction, which eliminated the structural weaknesses at least! All Orlit houses built to the original Type 1 or 2 systems have been designated defective.
Orlits were popular with Scottish local authorities and set up a subsidiary – the Scottish Orlit Company – with its headquarters and factory in Sighthill. Around 6,000 were built across Scotland, of which half have been subsequently demolished. Edinburgh built around 668, 410 of which have been demolished. These were a mix of the usual 2-storey semis and tenement flats; all of the latter were built at Bingham and were demolished in 1985. 134 semis were built at Saughton Mains (in 1948) and 80 at Southhouse / Burdiehouse (in 1947), all of which remain. This post does not cover the later 1950s-built Orlits at Ratho Craigpark, Oxgangs Farm and Gilmerton Dykes.
One of the last remaining Orlits in Scotland in its original state (excepting windows), at Fintry in Dundee in 2016The Orlit (Southhouse/ Burdiehouse)Orlit (Saughton Mains North)The Orlit System evolved over time, and has a large amount of variety available due to the flexibility of the system, however the best things to look for are the heavy outlines of the pre-cast concrete window surrounds, the narrow windows over the front door and to the side, and the bulky outline of the original concrete flat roof slab to which the later hipped roofs were added to remedy the deficient nature of the structure. I believe all Orlit System houses built in Edinburgh were originally flat roofed.
S is for Scotcon Orlit
Scotcon (from Scottish Construction Company) were a subsidiary of the Scottish Orlit Company, formed expressly to undertake local authority housebuilding in Scotland. While much of their work was prefabricated tower blocks, they also built on the standard Orlit system. 296 Scotcon Orlit houses were built in Edinburgh in 1950-51, a mixture of semi-detached houses and 3-storey tenements. 126 have since been demolished, but 170 remain; in the Niddrie Marischal Scheme (tenements and semis); at Saughton Mains (only 3 semis, perhaps built as demonstration models given their proximity to the Scottish Orlit Co. factory at Sighthill); Dunsmuir Court in Corstorphine (tenements) and at Easter Drylaw (tenements).
Because they use the Orlit system of PRC beams and columns, with pre-cast interlocking concrete block walls and PRC window and door surrounds, they are designated defective. They have traditional timber-framed, pitched roofs.
Scotcon Orlit (Niddrie Marischal)Scotcon Orlit (Saughton Mains)Scotcon Orlits look like other Orlits, with the heavy PRC window surrounds, but that of the ground floor front room is much deeper. They have the trademark narrow window over the front door, and (where they haven’t been covered up with pebbledash), irregular concrete “quoins”. The “hipped” roofs were built as pitched timber and tile structures, so they lack the heavy slab of the early Orlits built with flat roofs (to which a pitched structure was later added).
Scotcon Orlit Tenement (Drylaw Mains)Scotcon Orlit Tenement in the originally finished state, before later pebbledashingThe tenements can be recognised by the heavy PRC window surrounds, with the usual wide and deep front-room window, and narrow windows over the front door. All the Scotcon Orlit tenements in Edinburgh are 6-in-a-block. The ground floor houses have their own entrance doors to the side.
S is for Swedish Timber House
The Swedish government sold 5,000 flat-pack timber houses of a standard design to to the British Government after WW2. Half went to Scotland, particularly for rural housing, and the first 350 arrived as early as October 1945. Similar houses had been built in Glasgow in 1937 by the Swedish Government to demonstrate them to Scottish local authorities. 100 were gifted to Edinburgh Corporation by Sweden as a gesture of post-war good will, with 50 each erected in West Pilton and Sighthill under the supervision of Swedish foremen, as a mix of semi-detached and 4-in-a-block terraces. An additional handful were built by the SSHA at their Sighthill Demonstration Site.
Because they are of traditional timber construction with pitched, slate roofs, they have never been designated defective. Most have been externally insulated, and re-clad with harl or render, but some retain their original timber cladding.
Swedish Timber House (West Pilton)The Swedish Timber Houses at Sightill not long after they were built Cc-by-NC-SA Bill Lamb via ThelmaThe original tongue-and-groove timber cladding of thin strips, with those of the first floor overlapping the ground floor, are the best identification feature. They have a large front room window on the ground floor and a small canopy over the door. Most of those that still retain their timber cladding have been treated with dark brown or red preservatives, but originally they were brightly painted in cream. The roof is tiled and well pitched, with a single, central chimney to the front.
W is for Whitson-Fairhurst
These houses are named after their designers, W. A. Fairhurst and Melville, Dundas & Whitson Ltd. They were of a modular, prefabricated concrete system built by the Scottish Housing Group, a post-war conglomerate of housing builders who had pooled their resources to meet government and local authority contracts for mass construction. They use a system of PRC columns and beams to form the structure of the house, which are in-filled with an outer skin of brick and an inner skin of breeze blocks. Window surrounds and door frames are relatively heavy PRC structures. A traditional timber roof structure was covered in concrete roof tiles and they were harled or pebbledashed. 3,400 Whitson-Fairhurst houses were built in Scotland,. In Edinburgh they were only built in the Southhouse / Burdiehouse Scheme, where 100 semi-detached houses were built. They are designated defective.
Whitson-Fairhurst (Southhouse / Burdiehouse)At first glance they could be confused for an Orlit house, with heavy PRC window surrounds. The biggest difference is that the roof is of the gable-type (when seen from the front, the sides of the house are flat all the way to the top of the roof), not “hipped” as in Orlits (when seen from the front, the sides of the roof are pitched towards the top) The front window is much deeper and they lack the Orlit‘s signature narrow window above the front door.
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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