General view of 52-68 St Mary's Street, Edinburgh, from NW.

Description General view of 52-68 St Mary's Street, Edinburgh, from NW.

Date 26/9/2013

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number DP 161667

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content This shows 52-68 St Mary's Street, Edinburgh. One of the earliest major redevelopments in this area was the creation of St Mary’s Street (along with Jeffrey Street to the north) as the north-south route over the ridge of the Old Town. The Lord Provost at the time, William Chambers (1800-83, Lord Provost 1865-9) implemented the widening of several narrow streets and wynds in the Old Town as part of the City’s Improvement Act 1867. Alongside this, tenements were improved and new streets were created to provide access through the area. St Mary’s Street was built more or less along the line of St Mary’s Wynd in 1867-9 as a result of this Act. The tenements on the east side replaced smaller scale houses which were severely overcrowded, and were built in the Scots Baronial style to designs by architects David Cousins (1809-78) and John Lessels (1809-83), featuring turrets, crowstepped gables and carved stone finials, with much improved facilities internally. Most of the shopfronts have been upgraded but many retain original features including decorative cast iron grilles below the windows.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1351058

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap