The New John Watson's Hospital, Edinburgh

Category

Library Item

Item no

18700

Title

The new John Watson's Hospital, Edinburgh

Description

John Watson's Hospital has a Greek Doric portico held up by columns in its centre. It is two storeys tall with twenty one windows across. In front of the building is a lawn with some shrubbery.

Artist / maker

Shepherd, Thomas Hosmer

Engraver

Watkins, W

Date

1829

Size

9.4 x 14.8 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.

John Watson's Hospital was designed by the architect William Burn in the 1820s. It was originally an orphanage for desitute children. It remained a school until 1975. It is now the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art.

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