A Century of Edinburgh: Events, People and Places Over the 20th Century

History

Coghill, Hamish

Europe

The History Press LTD

Edinburgh: The Old Town

Travel

John Donald

When did thousands of people last crowd into Edinburgh's High Street to witness an execution? Three brass bricks on the pavement mark the spot, but how many people notice them or know what they mean? As a fire engine roars along the road sirens blaring and lights flashing, what has that got to do with a fire of 1824? Why was Leith in mourning one bleak day in 1915 and where can you find a monument that commemorates the tragic event? 
The answers are all in an expanded and revised edition of Edinburgh Curiosties. A Capital Cornucopia, and combines both volumes. Thomson and Coghill have trawled through the city's characters to bring together a collection of the men and women who scandalized and inspired the city over the years. But in addition to the notorious, like the Porteous Riot, Deacon William Brodie-the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde-or Madeleine Smith, they look at other lesser known, but nevertheless fascinating, people and events. Stories you've maybe heard something about but don't know the detail. They also float intriguing speculation like the possibility of members of Ned Kelly's gang carrying out armed robberies in Leith after the bushranger was hanged in Australia. The result is a fascinating dip into Edinburgh's rich and varied past, which will appeal to natives and visitors alike.

Edinburgh Curiosities

Thomson, James U.

Birlinn Ltd.

What happened to Edinburgh's once notorious but picturesque Tolbooth Prison? Where was the Black Turnpike, once a dominant building in the town? Why has one of the New Town designer's major layouts been all but obliterated? What else has been lost in Edinburgh? From Edinburgh's mean beginnings - 'wretched accommodation, no comfortable houses, no soft beds', visiting French knights complained in 1341 - it went on to attract some of the world's greatest architects to design and build and shape a unique city. But over the centuries many of those fine buildings have gone. Some were destroyed by invasion and civil strife, some simply collapsed with old age and neglect, and others were swept away in the 'improvements' of the nineteenth century. Yet more fell to the developers' swathe of destruction in the twentieth century.Much of the medieval architecture vanished in the Old Town, Georgian Squares were attacked, Princes Street ruined, old tenements razed in huge slum clearance drives, and once familiar and much loved buildings vanished. The changing pattern of industry, social habits, health service, housing and road systems all took their toll; not even the city wall was immune. The buildings which stood in the way of what was deemed progress are the heritage of Lost Edinburgh. In this informative and stimulating book. Hamish Coghill sets out to trace many of the lost buildings and find out why they were doomed. Lavishly illustrated, "Lost Edinburgh" is a fascinating insight into an ever-changing cityscape.

Lost Edinburgh (The Lost History Series)

Birlinn

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