Part of the West Side of Liberton's Wynd

Category

Library Item

Item no

518

Title

Part of the west side of Liberton's Wynd with the found of the new County Rooms, March 1816

Description

Monochrome drawing of the High Street showing the area that was to be occupied by New County House (built by 1905 by J Macintyre Henry). On the left is the Signet Library, on the right is the very edge of the Old Tolbooth Jail and behind the well is Bank Street.

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1880

Size

24 x 35 cm.

Type

Lithograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The Signet Library faces what is now West Parliament Square. Its original interior design, executed 1812-18, is by William Stark.George IV Bridge has not yet been built.

The Tollbooth was 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 which marks where it stood.

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 subjects

Architecture > Architectural features > Wellheads

Crime and punishment > Crime and punishment facilities > Prisons

Homes > Residential buildings > Tenements

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Sport and leisure > Culture > Libraries

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