High Street

Category

Library Item

Item no

19127

Title

High Street

Artist / maker

Channing, William

Date

1851

Size

26.0 x 19.8 cm

Type

Wash drawing

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

High Street timber painted house opposite head of West Bow - demolished in 1883 for additions to the Church Assembly Hall.

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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