The Buildings at the Head of Bess Wynd

Category

Library Item

Item no

513

Title

The buildings at the Head of Bess Wynd, Forresters and Turks Close with the seat of the Tolbooth

Description

Monochrome drawing of the buildings that occupied Bess Wynd, Forresters and Turks Close. It shows housing and shops of various sizes including tenements and includes a shop called Napier. The church at the left hand side is presumably St.Giles Church although it bears little resemblance to it.

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1880

Size

24 x 35 cm.

Type

Lithograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The closes shown were situated in the area which is now occupied by Parliament Square. Most of the buildings were destroyed in the fire which gutted this part of Edinburgh's Old Town in 1824. To the front left the engraving shows the foot print of the Tolbooth, which was demolished in 1817.

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

Homes > Residential buildings > Tenements

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Religion > Religious facilities > Cathedrals

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