Tenements in Bank Street, Edinburgh

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

11700

Title

Tenements in Bank Street, Edinburgh

Description

A wellhead stands in the littered courtyard at the back of Bank Street, Edinburgh. The wellhead has a street lamp on top and ladders and wheelbarrows are gathered around it. The tenements are in a poor state of repair with rubble and piles of wood lying up against it. A large bail of hay lies on the cobbles in the foreground.

Artist / maker

Begbie, Thomas

Date

1887

Size

8.3 x 17.1 cm

Type

Glass negative

Location

City Art Centre

Copyright

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

Bank Street was built as a way of linking the Old Town to the New Town. An earthen mound had been created by the soil being removed for the building of Princes Street and the rest of James Craig's original New Town plan. This mound soon became a shortcut leading up to the High Street. The Mound as it became known developed into a permanent feature and Bank Street was driven through the original closes radiating from the Lawnmarket, creating an official connection to the High Street. It was named after the Bank of Scotland, which moved there in 1806.

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Related subjects

Homes > Residential buildings > Tenements

Landscape > Water > Wells

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Edinburgh areas > Royal Mile

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

(55°56′58″N, 3°11′35″W)

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