Grassmarket and Bow

Category

Library Item

Item no

1171

Title

Grassmarket and Bow

Description

A scaffold has a crowd of people around it and is being prepared for a hanging in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh. A roofed structure is next to the scaffold and is full of people too, the structure perhaps covers a well. Horses and carts make their way up the road by the West Bow, the road being bordered on either side by high tenement buildings.

Artist / maker

Skene, James

Date

1827

Size

25 x 18 cm.

Type

Watercolour

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The Grassmarket is a central area situated below Edinburgh Castle. It has been the site of many public executions. A weekly market was held there from 1477 until 1911. The Grassmarket continues to be a popular area for socialising.

Edinburgh's West Bow was zig-zagging street which led from the Grassmarket to the Lawnmarket. Its upper half was destroyed by the construction of Victoria Street and Terrace. Originally the street was filled with a quirky assortment of 17th-century tenements, with crow- stepped gables, flight-holes for doves, towers and merchants shops.

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Related subjects

Business > Service industry > Shops

Crime and punishment > Crime and punishment facilities > Scaffolds

Homes > Residential buildings > Tenements

Landscape > Water > Wells

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Transport > Land > Carts and wagons

Transport > Land > Horse and carts

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