Cant's Close, High Street

Category

Library Item

Item no

19200

Title

Cant's Close, High Street

Artist / maker

Channing, William

Date

1854

Size

26.0 x 19.2 cm

Type

Wash drawing

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Cant's Close with view looking towards the High street, in a small court in the west side of the Close. The house entered by the door at the head of the stairs stood between this close and Dickson's Close.

The High Street is the section of Edinburgh's Royal Mile that runs from George IV Bridge down to its junction with Jeffrey Street and St. Mary's Street.

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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