View from the North Bridge Looking South-east

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

11280

Title

View from the North Bridge looking south-east

Description

A view from the North Bridge in Edinburgh. The side of the bridge can be seen with many blocks of tall tenements in the distance.

Artist / maker

Begbie, Thomas

Date

1858

Size

16.7 x 14.5 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

City Art Centre

Copyright

The Cavaye Collection of Thomas Begbie Prints ; The City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries

Despite living in the New Town, Stevenson was well acquainted with the shabby charm of Edinburgh's Old Town. The author was known to frequent some of the less respectable establishments in this area, especially during his bohemian university days. This image reflects the Old Town at this period, before the clearance of many old buildings in the 1870s.

No.20 in volume.

The original North Bridge was completed in 1772 to provide access from Edinburgh's Old Town to the planned New Town development in the north of the city. It was widened in the 1870's to accommodate increased traffic, and was finally rebuilt between 1894-7 alongside the development at Waverley. Mid way along the bridge there is a memorial to men of the King's Own Scottish Borderers killed in the Boer War. Its even gradient was designed to make it suitable for tramcars.

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Related images

Related subjects

Homes > Residential buildings > Tenements

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Transport > Infrastructure > Stone bridges

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