Marchmont
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Tenements with shops in Marchmont Road | |
Location within the City of Edinburgh council area Location within Scotland | |
OS grid reference | NT254721 |
Council area | |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Edinburgh |
Postcode district | EH9 |
Dialling code | 0131 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Marchmont (Scottish Gaelic : Marc-Mhonadh [1] ) is a mainly residential area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It lies roughly one mile to the south of the Old Town, separated from it by The Meadows and Bruntsfield Links. To the west it is bounded by Bruntsfield; to the south-southwest by Greenhill and then Morningside; to the south-southeast by The Grange; and to the east by Sciennes.
The area is characterised by four- and five-storey tenements blocks built in the Scots Baronial style. Most of the area was developed in the 1870s and 1880s and there has been little change to its structure since then. Marchmont remains popular with older residents, young professionals and students. It was designated as a Conservation Area in 1987 along with Bruntsfield and the Meadows. [2]
Marchmont was named after the 5th Earl of Marchmont, Hugh Hume Campbell, whose title in turn derives from the hill on which Roxburgh Castle was built. The name is Brittonic and probably means “the hill-pasture for horses”. [3]
The area was developed as a planned middle-class suburb by Sir George Warrender (the son-in-law of Hugh Hume Campbell), who owned Bruntsfield House and the surrounding estate (which was also known as the Warrender Park) in the middle of the 19th century. This was at a time of rapid population growth in Edinburgh, stimulating a significant increase in the demand for housing. The original feuing plan laid out by architect David Bryce in 1869 called for mainly terraced villas, with a number of large, detached villas on Marchmont Road. [4] However, this was superseded by a more comprehensive plan prepared by the firm of John Watherston & Sons. This proposed that all buildings were to be four- or five-storey tenements, some with commercial premises on the ground floor frontages. [5] [6]
Most of the buildings were completed in the 1870s and 1880s. [7] The first tenements to go up were mostly in pink sandstone in the Scots Baronial style; these are by architects such as Edward Calvert. [8] The later buildings, which were often in blonde sandstone and in a plainer, more uniform style, include works by Hippolyte Blanc, John Charles Hay and Thomas P. Marwick. [9] [10] [11] Key buildings such as churches are mainly by the then city architect, Robert Morham.
Originally, the area was not allowed to have any premises selling alcohol,[ citation needed ] although that is no longer the case.
As was the usual practice at the time, the area's street names were derived from members of the developer's family or places associated with them. Sir George Warrender's wife, Helen, was the daughter of the 5th Earl of Marchmont, hence the name of the district. Thirlestane Street and Lauderdale Street were named in honour of Sir George's mother, who was the daughter of the Earl of Lauderdale and whose family seat was at Thirlestane Castle. Spottiswoode Street and Spottiswoode Road were named for John Spottiswoode, another Warrender relation, while Arden, as in Arden Street, was the family name of the Earl of Haddington, who married one of the Warrender daughters. [12]
Due to its proximity to the city centre, the presence of local amenities, and generally being considered a pleasant area, Marchmont is considered a desirable location in which to live. This is reflected in its generally high property prices. It is popular with students, with both the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University within easy walking distance, as well as with young professionals. This has resulted in a certain friction between permanent residents and temporary ones (many of whom are students), with the Marchmont Action Group Promoting Initiatives for the Environment (MAGPIE) unsuccessfully petitioning the Scottish Parliament in 2005 to impose quotas on shared accommodation by restricting the number of licences for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) granted for the area. [13]
The Warrender Baths building in Thirlestane Road, was opened in 1887 on land donated by Sir George Warrender. It houses a swimming pool and a fitness complex. It is noted for its neo-Jacobean frontage, its mosaic tiling and its old-fashioned poolside changing facilities. [14] The building is a Category B listed building. [15]
Marchmont St Giles Church is situated to the immediate south of the area, at the north end of Kilgraston Road. It has been described as one of the most prominent landmarks of south Edinburgh. [16] Designed by Robert Morham, it opened in 1871, replacing a previous iron building. [17]
James Gillespie's High School has occupied its present site between Lauderdale Street and Warrender Park Road since the 1960s. Most of the school buildings on the site were demolished in 2013 to make way for new premises which opened three years later. The site incorporates Sir George Warrender's original Bruntsfield House, which was refurbished as part of the building project. [18] [19]
Arden Street is home to Ian Rankin's fictional Detective Inspector John Rebus.
In Muriel Spark's 1961 novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the Marcia Blaine School for Girls is based on James Gillespie's High School. The title character is based on Christina Kay, a teacher at the school. Spark herself attended Gillespie's from 1923 to 1935. [26]
Pat McGregor, a character in Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series, lives in Spottiswoode Street in the novel Love Over Scotland
The former Royal Burgh of Lauder is a town in the Scottish Borders in the historic county of Berwickshire. On the Southern Upland Way, the burgh lies 27 miles (43 km) southeast of Edinburgh, on the western edge of the Lammermuir Hills.
Edinburgh South is a constituency of the House of Commons of the UK Parliament created in 1885. The constituency has been held by Scottish Labour since 1987, being represented by Ian Murray since 2010. Murray was the only Labour MP in Scotland to retain his seat at the 2015 and 2019 general elections and this is one of only three seats never held by the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Bruntsfield is a largely residential area around Bruntsfield Place in Southern Edinburgh, Scotland. In feudal times, it fell within the barony of Colinton.
Edinburgh South was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. Also, however, it was one of nine constituencies in the Lothians electoral region, which elected seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
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.
Newington is a neighbourhood of southern Edinburgh, Scotland. Developed from the early 19th century, it is an affluent, predominantly residential area.
Merchiston is a residential area around Merchiston Avenue in the south-west of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Tollcross is a major road junction to the south west of the city centre of Edinburgh, Scotland which takes its name from a local historical land area.
Knots and Crosses is a 1987 crime novel by Ian Rankin. It is the first of the Inspector Rebus novels. It was written while Rankin was a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh. In the introduction to this novel, Rankin states that Rebus lives directly opposite the window in Marchmont that he looked out of while writing the book.
Greenhill is a small area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Situated south of the city centre, Greenhill is normally taken to be part of Bruntsfield, which skirts it to the north. Greenhill borders Marchmont and The Grange to the east, Morningside to the south, and Merchiston, beyond Holy Corner, to the west. It comprises a mixture of Georgian and Victorian villas and some tenement housing.
Bruntsfield Links is 35 acres (14 ha) of open parkland in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh, immediately to the south-west of the adjoining Meadows.
The Burgh Muir is the historic term for an extensive area of land lying to the south of Edinburgh city centre, upon which much of the southern part of the city now stands following its gradual spread and more especially its rapid expansion in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The name has been retained today in the partly anglicised form Boroughmuir for a much smaller district within Bruntsfield, vaguely defined by the presence of Boroughmuir High School, and, until 2010, Boroughmuirhead post office in its north-west corner.
Warrender Swim Centre – traditionally known as Warrender Baths – is a swimming pool and fitness complex that opened in 1887 in Marchmont, Edinburgh.
Edward Calvert was a Scottish domestic architect.
James Gillespie's High School is a state-funded secondary school in Marchmont, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a comprehensive high school, educating pupils between the ages of 11 and 18, situated at the centre of Edinburgh. Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace are within the catchment area of James Gillespie's High School.
Dumbiedykes is a residential area in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. It mainly comprises public housing developments.
The Meadows is a large public park in Edinburgh, Scotland, to the south of the city centre.
Thomas Purves Marwick was a Scottish architect based in Edinburgh operating in the late 19th and early 20th century. He specialised in buildings in the Free Renaissance and Neo-Baroque styles and is particularly important to the architectural character of the Marchmont area.
A Song for the Dark Times is the 23rd installment in the Inspector Rebus series written by Ian Rankin. The phrase "dark times" was meant to refer to the era of Brexit, autocratic leaders, and so on, as of 2019, but the book was published in 2020, in a period of COVID-19 lockdowns. The title is from one of the book’s epigraphs, Bertolt Brecht on “singing in/about the dark times”; also, “Songs for the Dark Times” is the title Siobhan Clarke gives to a CD compilation she has burned for John Rebus, which he plays while driving north in his car.
West St Giles' Parish Church was a parish church of the Church of Scotland and a burgh church of Edinburgh, Scotland. Occupying the Haddo's Hole division of St Giles' from 1699, the church was then based in Marchmont between 1883 and its closure in 1972.