Home Street - Looking West from Tollcross

Category

Library Item

Item no

6135

Title

Home Street - looking west from Tollcross

Description

A busy street scene in Edinburgh with traffic and pedestrians at the junction leading into Home Street. In the centre of the cobblestone road is a large clock at the top of a metal stand surrounded by metal railings. A cyclist with a bicycle stands in front of the clock while a horse and carriage passes by the side. Tenement buildings, one with distinctive domed roofs, are all around and on the roof of another building is the statue of a horse.
This is a photograph by a member of the Edinburgh Photographic Society.

Artist / maker

Hamilton, J. R.

Date

1914

Size

9.3 x 11.9 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

In the 1870s a Royal Riding Academy was established on Home Street, or West Tollcross as it was known at the time. The academy was owned by John Player, but by 1914 had been taken over by James Fairburn Player. Above the house was a lifesize model of a horse, as can be seen in this picture. The academy building was later converted into the Cavendish Ballroom and which is still operating as a nightclub today.

The horse statue originated from the New Veterinary College (not to be confused with the Dick vet) which was situated at 41 Elm Row. This building later became the Gateway Theatre (see item 4380), and then student flats. In the courtyard was a statue of a group of animals, by John Rhind: a standing horse, a recumbent bull and a recumbent dog. After the college closed, the horse went to stand on the Royal Riding Academy at Tollcross, though it seems to have had a short life there, as it had gone by about 1930 and its subsequent whereabouts are unknown.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Architectural features > Clocks and clock towers

Architecture > Monuments > Statues

Homes > Residential buildings > Tenements

Places > Edinburgh areas > Tollcross

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Transport > Land > Bicycles

Transport > Land > Horse and carriages

(55°56′38″N, 3°12′10″W)

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