St Mary's Wynd, from the Pleasance

Category

Library Item

Item no

18645

Title

St Mary's Wynd, from the Pleasance, Edinburgh

Description

St Mary's Wynd is a narrow busy street viewed from the Pleasance. There are shops in the ground floor of the buildings selling clothes and textiles. Children play in the doorway between the shops, and with dogs on the street. A man wearing a top hat and suit points towards the ship, and a couple examine dresses displayed in the window.

Artist / maker

Shepherd, Thomas Hosmer

Engraver

Allen, J B

Date

1829

Size

10.0 x 15.4 cm

Type

Engraving

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

This image comes from 'Modern Athens', a book of engravings based on drawings by Thomas Shepherd published in 1829. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Edinburgh was growing rapidly. The popular neoclassical architectural style of the time was inspired by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and Edinburgh was nicknamed 'Athens of the North'. Shepherd's engravings celebrate the beauty of Edinburgh and show many notable buildings and streets both within the city, and further afield.

St Mary's Street, formerly St Mary's Wynd, runs from the west end of the Canongate to the east end of the Cowgate. It was considerably widened in the 1860's, and gained its new name at the same time. In the 1820s St Mary's Wynd was used for a clothes market.

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Related subjects

Business > Service industry > Shops

Homes > Residential buildings > Tenements

People > Adults > Men

People > Adults > Women

People > Children > Children playing

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

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