General view of 17-24 Rosebank Cottages, Gardner's Crescent, Edinburgh, taken from the north-west.

Description General view of 17-24 Rosebank Cottages, Gardner's Crescent, Edinburgh, taken from the north-west.

Date 5/8/2014

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

Catalogue Number DP 203788

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content The space between Gardner’s Crescent, Rosemount Works and Grove Street was given over to two notable experiments in social housing. Just to the south is the brick-built courtyard development of Rosemount Buildings, which was built in 1858 by architect William Lambie Moffatt (1807-82) to provide model industrial housing for workers from the adjacent Rosemount Cabinet Works (opened 1857). Adjacent to the former railway line, Rosebank Cottages was the second earliest of the Edinburgh ‘Colonies’ developments. In 1852, the Pilrig Model Dwelling Company built the first of the new style ‘Colonies' (in the sense of a community of people) in what is now Shaw’s Place, Street and Terrace over in the east of the city. In 1857 City Architect Sir James Gowans (1821-90) decided to extend the experiment in Gardner’s Crescent. As a result, Alexander MacGregor (c.1803-68) was appointed to design Rosebank Cottages, 18 two-storeyed buildings in three rows, providing 36 dwellings. The scheme made an instant impression and was a major exemplar for the Colonies schemes developed by the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company Ltd from 1861 onwards. Though the industries that employed the residents of Rosebank Cottages and Rosemount Buildings are long gone, these experiments continue to thrive.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1461344

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap