The Canongate Tollbooth

Category

Library Item

Item no

19187

Title

The Canongate Tollbooth

Artist / maker

Channing, William

Date

1853

Size

25.3 x 17.4 cm

Type

Pencil work

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The Canongate Tolbooth, built in 1591, is the oldest remaining building in the Canongate. It was the administrative centre for the old burgh of Canongate, originally separate from Edinburgh. It is now home to the People's Story Museum

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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