Bell's Close, Canongate

Category

Library Item

Item no

19154

Title

Bell's Close, Canongate

Artist / maker

Channing, William

Date

1850

Size

25.2 x 17.0 cm

Type

Pen work

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Bell's Close, Canongate was one of the closes on the south side of the Canongate and to the east of St Mary's Wynd. Demolished under the Improvement Act 1866.

The 'Closes' of Edinburgh's Old Town are narrow passages branching off at right angles from the main streets. They provide access to the tenement buildings, and often to small shared courtyards. Many Closes also act as shortcuts between Old Town's main streets

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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