The Great Fire of Edinburgh was one of the most destructive fires in the history of Edinburgh. It started on Monday, 15 November 1824, and lasted for five days, with two major phases.
The Great Fire of Edinburgh was one of the most destructive fires in the history of Edinburgh. It started on Monday, 15 November 1824, and lasted for five days, with two major phases.
The fire broke out around 10pm on 15 November 1824, in James Kirkwood's engraving workshop on the second floor of the Old Assembly Close, a narrow alleyway just off the High Street. [1]
The city of Edinburgh had formed a permanent fire brigade only two months earlier under its new firemaster James Braidwood. [2] Although this new force arrived quickly with their custom-built fire engines, they had difficulty locating a water supply and did not begin to tackle the blaze until 11pm, by which time six stories of the building were ablaze. [3]
Due to the narrowness of the alleyway, the fire spread quickly to adjoining buildings, first affecting those to the east of Fishmarket Close and later spreading along the roofs of the High Street through embers carried by a southwesterly breeze. By midnight, four tenements were ablaze as the fire advanced towards the Cowgate. The Old Assembly Hall at the centre of the fire (which had given its name to the close) was destroyed during the night. Around midday on Tuesday, 16 November, the spire on the Tron Kirk caught fire and molten lead began to pour from its roof. Although firemen succeeded in reaching the roof of the church, the fierceness of the blaze forced them back.
At 10pm on Tuesday evening a secondary outbreak occurred in buildings on the corner of High Street and Parliament Close (renamed Parliament Square after the subsequent rebuilding of the affected area). This blaze started on the top floor of an eleven-story building overlooking the Cowgate. This led to claims of divine intervention and punishment from God, as well as deliberate fire-raising. It was more likely the result of a still smouldering ember. This second phase of the fire began to consume the buildings on the east side of Parliament Close. Efforts focused on saving the adjacent Parliament Hall and Law Courts, and stopping the fire leaping to St Giles Cathedral. A young David Octavius Hill made watercolour sketches during this second phase, viewing the fire from the west. By 5am on Wednesday 17 November, the fire was described as "grand and terrific". The building housing the Edinburgh Courant collapsed and the fire continued to spread down Conn's Close towards the Cowgate. Due mainly to a downpour of rain, the conflagration was brought under control by Wednesday evening, although small outbreaks continued and final smouldering did not cease until Friday, 19 November. Over the following days, engineers from the castle and navy were employed to pull down the highly unsafe remnants of buildings left precariously balanced along the closes.
The fire attracted huge crowds of spectators including a large number of Law Lords: Charles Hope, Lord Granton (Lord President of the Courts); John Boyle of Shewalton (Lord Justice Clerk); Sir William Rae of St Catherines (Lord Advocate); John Hope (Solicitor General, later Lord Hope); the Dean of Faculty; and Henry (later Lord) Cockburn.
An estimated 400 homes were destroyed, with 400-500 families left homeless. Thirteen people died including those of two firemen and many people were injured. Historic homes destroyed included that of Robert Dundas of Arniston, the Elder and George Heriot. [4]
Amidst mounting public criticism of the new fire brigade and its young firemaster, an inquiry was held after the disaster. Braidwood and his "pioneers" (as the first firemen were called) were exonerated from all blame. The inquiry found that there had been confusion as to who had been in charge of the firefighting operation. Public officials (Bailies, Law Officers and "Gentlemen of Importance"), assuming authority under older municipal regulations, were found to have issued contradictory orders to the harassed firemen. This finding prompted the passing of a new regulation whereby the City Firemaster (or, in his absence, his Deputy) was to be given complete command of all firefighting operations, a ruling subsequently adopted throughout Britain's fire services. The inquiry also criticised the inadequate number of firecocks that had been available to the firefighters and recommended improvements. Within a year the number for the whole town was increased from 45 to 97, with 88 more following later. The brigade was also fully re-equipped. [3]
The fire opened the way for a more formal completion of the Scottish Law Courts in Parliament Square. This had been proposed as early as 1807, but blocked since 1810 by owners on the east side of the square. The fire destroyed the buildings they had been trying to retain and may have been viewed as a "happy accident". The remodelling of the buildings was completed to the original plan in 1829.
The south side of the Royal Mile from the Tron Kirk to Parliament Square was rebuilt as a planned run of well-proportioned but plain five-storey Georgian tenements. Some of the eastern blocks, which suffered less fire damage, incorporated some earlier fabric such as turret stairs. [5] To the west a large surviving building was nicknamed "Salamander Land" (due to the legend that salamanders can survive fire). This survived until the 1860s when it was replaced by the Police Chambers. [6]
St. Giles Cathedral was refaced in ashlar a few years later (1829–33), partly to repair and conceal major scorching from the fire.
The steeple of the Tron Kirk was rebuilt in 1828, with a tall stone spire in the Wren style.
In 2008, a statue of James Braidwood, master of the newly formed Edinburgh fire brigade which had fought the fire, was unveiled in Parliament Square. The spot was chosen to mark the stand made by the fire brigade to save St Giles Cathedral from more serious damage. The statue was created by the Glasgow sculptor, Kenneth Mackay, and paid for from a fund set up by the late Dr Frank Rushbrook CBE, then 93-year-old former Firemaster at Lothian & Borders Fire Brigade.
Newhaven is a district in Edinburgh, Scotland, between Leith and Granton and about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the city centre, just north of the Victoria Park district. Formerly a village and harbour on the Firth of Forth, it had a population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants at the 1991 census. Newhaven was designated a conservation area, one of 40 such areas in Edinburgh, in 1977.
The Royal Mile is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century (1901), describing the city "with its Castle and Palace and the royal mile between", and was further popularised as the title of a guidebook by R. T. Skinner published in 1920, "The Royal Mile (Edinburgh) Castle to Holyrood(house)".
The Palace of Westminster, the medieval royal palace used as the home of the British parliament, was largely destroyed by fire on 16 October 1834. The blaze was caused by the burning of small wooden tally sticks which had been used as part of the accounting procedures of the Exchequer until 1826. The sticks were disposed of carelessly in the two furnaces under the House of Lords, which caused a chimney fire in the two flues that ran under the floor of the Lords' chamber and up through the walls.
The Cowgate is a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, located about 550 yards (500 m) southeast of Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street is part of the lower level of Edinburgh's Old Town, which lies below the elevated streets of South Bridge and George IV Bridge. It meets the Grassmarket at its west end and Holyrood Road to the east.
Sciennes is a district of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated approximately 2 kilometres south of the city centre. It is a mainly residential district, although it is also well-known as the site of the former Royal Hospital for Sick Children. Most of its housing stock consists of terraces of four-storey Victorian tenements. The district is popular with students, thanks to its proximity to the University of Edinburgh. Its early history is linked to the presence in the area of the 16th-century Convent of St Catherine of Scienna, from which the district derives its name.
This article is a timeline of the history of Edinburgh, Scotland, up to the present day. It traces its rise from an early hill fort and later royal residence to the bustling city and capital of Scotland that it is today.
James Braidwood (1800–1861) was a Scottish firefighter who was the first "Master of Engines", in the world's first municipal fire service in Edinburgh in 1824.
The Tron Kirk is a former principal parish church in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a well-known landmark on the Royal Mile. It was built in the 17th century and closed as a church in 1952. Having stood empty for over fifty years, it was used as a tourist information centre for several years in the mid 2000s and, more recently, was the site of the Edinburgh World Heritage Exhibition and John Kay’s book and gift shop.
The Old Town is the name popularly given to the oldest part of Scotland's capital city of Edinburgh. The area has preserved much of its medieval street plan and many Reformation-era buildings. Together with the 18th/19th-century New Town, and West End, it forms part of a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Assembly Hall is located between Castlehill and Mound Place in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the meeting place of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
George IV Bridge is an elevated street in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is home to a number of the city's important public buildings.
Events from the year 1824 in the United Kingdom.
South Bridge is a road bridge and street in Edinburgh, Scotland, between the High Street, where it meets the North Bridge, to Nicolson Street at the south. It forms a continuous roadway over the steep valley scoured parallel to the High Street when the crag and tail landscape of the city was formed. The bridge dips down from the High Street to the Cowgate, which runs under the largest arch of the bridge, before climbing back up to its terminus at Nicolson Street.
Lady Yester's Kirk was a parish church of the Church of Scotland and one of the burgh churches of Edinburgh. Founded in 1647, it served the south-eastern part of Edinburgh's Old Town until its union with Greyfriars Kirk in 1938.
Walter Chepman was a Scottish merchant, notary and civil servant active in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Chepman served at the Scottish court during the reigns of James IV and James V. In partnership with Androw Myllar he established Scotland's first printing press in 1508. Chepman was also a significant patron of Saint Giles' Kirk in Edinburgh.
Parliament Square, Edinburgh, Scotland, is located off the High Street, part of the Royal Mile. The square is not a formal square, but consists of two sections surrounding St Giles Kirk on three sides: an L-shaped area to the east and south and another area on the west side of the church called West Parliament Square. The Edinburgh Mercat Cross is located on the east side of the square while an equestrian statue of Charles II of Scotland stands in front of the entrance to the Supreme Courts of Scotland adjoining Parliament House, on the west side. The Queensberry Memorial to the 5th Duke of Buccleuch, stands in West Parliament Square.
Events from the year 1824 in Scotland.
Advocates Close is a narrow and steep alley in Edinburgh of medieval origin, redeveloped in the early 21st century. With a multiplicity of steps it is not accessible to disabled persons.
The Collegiate Church of St Mary in the Fields was a pre-Reformation collegiate church in Edinburgh, Scotland. Likely founded in the 13th century and secularised at the Reformation, the church's site is now covered by Old College.
