Old Fleshmarket Close, Canongate

Category

Library Item

Item no

19100

Title

Old Fleshmarket Close, Canongate

Artist / maker

Channing, William

Date

1854

Size

17.6 x 25.3 cm

Type

Pencil work

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Old Fleshmarket Close was the first close east of Leith Wynd on the north side of the Canongate, site now occupied by Jeffrey Street and Cranston Street.
Fleshmarket Close is named after the meat market which regularly met here. It ran all the way down to the Nor' Loch where an abattoir was located.

William Channing's drawings and paintings from the bound volume of his 'Sketches in Edinburgh', give an artist's impression of tenement life in the mid 19th century. His drawings are glimpses into the past down the narrow Closes and alleyways of the Old Town. We see higgledy-piggledy houses and tenements towering skywards, laundry hanging from windows across the walkways and local characters talking in the streets.

Channing's delightful sketches are particularly valued for their representation of the architectural elements and details of buildings and closes now much changed or long since disappeared.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Architectural features > Chimneys

Architecture > Architectural features > Doors and doorways

Architecture > Architectural features > Roofs

Architecture > Architectural features > Stairways

Architecture > Architectural features > Windows

Furnishings > Equipment > Washing lines

Homes > Residential buildings > Houses

Manufacturing Industry > Manufacturing equipment > Buckets

People > Adults

Places > Edinburgh areas > Canongate

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Transport > Infrastructure > Closes