Aird's Close, Grassmarket

Category

Library Item

Item no

19206

Title

Aird's Close, Grassmarket

Artist / maker

Channing, William

Date

1857

Size

26.5 x 20.1 cm

Type

Pen work

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Aird's Close was on the north side of the Grassmarket near the corner of Candlemaker Row, demolished in 1857. It occupied part of the site of Greyfriars Monastery.

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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