Dr Sophia Jex-Blake/Lamb's House

Category

Library Item

Item no

37822

Title

Page from Leith Miscellany, volume VIII, Dr Sophia Jex-Blake/Lamb's House

Date

1985

Type

Etching; Press cutting; Reproduction

Sophia Jex-Blake was born in Hastings in 1840. Her parents prevented her from going to college so she studied with private tutors and went to America in 1865. She originally worked as a teacher, then decided to become a doctor but was refused entry to Harvard and had to return to the UK following the death of her father. She was one of five women admitted to the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1869, but although she studied and passed the exams, despite violent demonstrations from male students, the University refused to award degrees to women (a situation that continued until 1894). However, in 1877 she was awarded an MD by the University of Berne, and she became only the third woman to register with the General Medical Council.

In the 1880s she returned to Edinburgh, where she founded the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children (later Bruntsfield Hospital), and in 1886 she founded the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women. In 1889 her former student Elsie Inglis set up a rival medical school.

Dr Jex-Blake retired to Sussex in 1899, but continued to campaign for women's suffrage until she died in 1912.

The text about Lamb's House says 'On 19th August 1561 Mary, Queen of Scots, landed at Leith Shore after thirteen years in France and ''remainit in Andro Lamb's Hous be the space of ane hour'' (Edinburgh Diurnal) before proceeding to Holyroodhouse. The present house appears to be of rather later date, but was probably the finest - as it certainly is today - in the old town of Leith.

Lamb's House is of major architectural importance as a combined dwelling and warehouse, of which many more examples survive in harbour towns across the North Sea. As in Scottish castles of that time, none of its features is entirely decorative, its character depending on the arrangement of turnpike stair, tall chimneys and crow-stepped gables. Inside, it has massive fireplaces which indicate the original layout of the rooms, and ogee-arched sinks on the stair with the waste outlet at the bottom. It was already half derelict in the late 19th century and would not have survived but for its purchase in 1938 by the 4th Marquis of Bute, who secured the fabric and restored its original appearance, including the half-shuttered windows. His son Lord David Stuart gave Lamb's House to the National Trust in 1958. It is now leased to the Edinburgh and Leith Old People's Welfare Council, who raised the money to restore and convert it to an Old People's Day Centre. The Trust could not have accepted Lord David's gift if this use for Lamb's House had not been found.

Lamb's House today
(Still in South Leith Parish)
In September of this year Lamb's House will celebrate its 20th birthday as the First Old People's Day Centre of its kind in the world.'

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Agriculture and fisheries > Agricultural and fisheries facilities > Storage buildings

Architecture > Architectural features > Chimneys

Architecture > Architectural features > Crow step gables

Homes > Residential buildings > Houses

People > Adults > Women

People > Education and communication > Professors

People > Education and communication > Teachers

People > Health and safety > Doctors

People > Health and safety > Physicians

Places > Edinburgh areas > Leith

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh