The west end of the Tolbooth

Category

Library Item

Item no

515

Title

The west end of the Tolbooth with adjacent buildings, 15 May 1815

Description

Monochrome study showing the Old Tolbooth to the left (which hides St Giles Church), the Signet Library next to it and tenements to the right. A well can be seen in the foreground.

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1880

Size

24 x 35 cm.

Type

Lithograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The interior of the Library was designed by William Stark and the exterior is by Robert Reid. The raised platform at the west gable of the Old Tolbooth, which was the city prison, was used as a place of execution of criminals. The Tolbooth and the tenements to the right were swept away in 1817.

The Tollbooth was the Edinburgh's administrative centre and prison, and was also the site of many executions. Dislike for this institution was shown by spitting on its' step, a habit which persists today at the cobbled Heart of Midlothian.

This image comes from a large volume entitled, “Edinburgh in the olden time: Displayed in a series of 63 original views between the years 1717 and 1828, reproduced in a facsimile from the original drawings”, published by Thomas George Stevenson in 1880.

46 of the images in the volume set come from a collection which belonged to Reverend John Sime. Reverend Sime was Chaplain to Trinity College Hospital and also to Magdalene Asylum in the Canongate. He died on 28 April 1864, bequeathing his whole effects to his wife. Mrs Sime died 3 September 1869 bequeathing her whole property to the Governors of James Gillespie’s Hospital. Publisher, T G Stevenson was asked to arrange the collection of manuscripts, books, prints, engravings, and drawings. It was then that he discovered 46 of the drawings.

At first, Stevenson credited the drawings to Sime, but having found no mention of them in his diaries or letters, he concluded they must have simply been collected by Sime. The originals were china ink drawings and by chance, he then learnt of 17 more “of the same series” which had been found in an old trunk in the possession of Messrs. Seton & MacKenzie, Booksellers on George Street, where they had been kept for 20 years or more.
Unfortunately, Stevenson was unable to ascertain the artist of these works.

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Related images

Related subjects

Architecture > Architectural features > Wellheads

Government > Local > Tolbooths

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Sport and leisure > Culture > Libraries

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