Ramsay Garden | |
---|---|
General information | |
Architectural style | Scots Baronial |
Location | Castlehill |
Town or city | Edinburgh |
Country | Scotland |
Construction started | 1733, 1890 |
Completed | 1893 |
Client | Patrick Geddes |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Stewart Henbest Capper, Sydney Mitchell |
Ramsay Garden is a block of sixteen private apartment buildings in the Castlehill area of Edinburgh, Scotland. They stand out for their red ashlar and white harled exteriors, and for their prominent position, most visible from Princes Street.
Developed into its current form between 1890 and 1893 by the biologist, botanist and urban planner Patrick Geddes, Ramsay Garden started out as Ramsay Lodge, an octagonal house built by the poet and wig-maker Allan Ramsay the Elder in 1733. [1] The house was also known variously as Ramsay Hut and Goosepie House (due to the roof shape). It was complemented by the addition of Ramsay Street, a short row of simple Georgian Houses in 1760. [2] The latter (in revamped form) stand on the north side of the access to the inner courtyard.
Geddes' work on Ramsay Garden began in the context of an urban renewal project that he had embarked on in Edinburgh’s Old Town. The area had fallen into disrepair, and Geddes hoped both to improve the living conditions of the working class, and to increase the number of wealthier residents. He was also involved in improving buildings for use as student accommodation. To these purposes Geddes rehabilitated a significant number of tenement buildings in slums along the Royal Mile, [3] including Abbey Cottages, Whitehorse Close and Riddle’s Court. [4]
The Ramsay Garden development also served these aims. It was partly financed by the prospective buyers of the apartments, and partly by 2000 pounds that Geddes's wife, Anna Morton, had inherited from her father. Geddes engaged the architect Stewart Henbest Capper to remodel Ramsay Lodge, and to build six large new blocks onto it at right angles to each other. [5] By this time Geddes had acquired a position at a university in London, but he continued to supervise the design of Ramsay Garden on his frequent trips to Edinburgh. The final year of building work was overseen by Sydney Mitchell, who had taken over as architect, due to Capper's poor health. [6] and was also permitted to add some additional detailing. The result of these partnerships was a combination of traditional Scottish domestic architecture and a rather fanciful proliferation of balconies, towers and eaves. [5] Geddes referred to Ramsay Garden in later years as the "seven-towered castle I built for my beloved". [7] Guide books like to attribute the bulk of the design to the better-known Sydney Mitchell but the bulk of both the concept and design is that of Capper.
As a result of his own experiences in universities, and inspired by the better student facilities he had seen in Europe, [5] Geddes was also concerned with the provision of quality accommodation for students. By the time Ramsay Garden was being built he had already established other student Halls of Residence in partnership with the Town and Gown Association. [8] By the end of the 19th century he had managed to provide enough housing for more than 200 university students and staff. [9] The Halls of Residence were intended to be self-governing, with responsibility for drawing up house rules left to the students themselves. [3] The Ramsay Lodge section of the Ramsay Garden development was used for this purpose. [10] Murals painted by John Duncan on the walls of the dining and common rooms depicted images from Celtic myth and history. [11] Lectures and seminars were sometimes held on the premises. [12]
Other parts of Ramsay Garden were available to the public. The Geddes family lived in number 14, a twelve-room apartment on the fourth storey. By all accounts it was an impressive residence. The drawing-room was two rooms connected by an archway, with the whole measuring 20 by 40 feet. The sweeping views, which reached as far as the old Kingdom of Fife, [13] could be admired through the bay and turret window spaces at each end. This room was regularly used for large gatherings. [7] Frescoes by Charles Mackie graced the master bedroom. [14] The lease of the apartment was eventually sold to the Town and Gown Association due to Geddes's financial difficulties. [15] Although he later wished to repurchase it, his desire for the apartment to remain in the family was not fulfilled. [16]
Ramsay Lodge was the last of the University Halls to be sold off by the Town and Gown Association. When it was purchased in 1945 by the Commercial Bank of Scotland, it was a condition of sale that the murals be retained. The Bank went on to use the Lodge as a residential hostel and training centre. [17]
Ramsay Garden is considered a very desirable address. Despite its position adjacent to the Castle Esplanade and overlooking Princes Street Gardens it is normally very peaceful, particularly in the inner courtyard and upper garden. Some of the apartments are let out as holiday accommodation. [19] It is a minor feature in some guides to Edinburgh.
The National is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by William Henry Playfair, and first opened to the public in 1859.
Sir Patrick Geddes was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, Comtean positivist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology. His works contain one of the earliest examples of the 'think globally, act locally' concept in social science.
Cosmo Nelson Innes FRSE was a Scottish advocate, judge, historian and antiquary. He served as Advocate-Depute, Sheriff of Elginshire, and Principal Clerk of Session.
Inveresk is a village in East Lothian, Scotland situated 5⁄8 mi (1 km) to the south of Musselburgh. It has been designated a conservation area since 1969. It is situated on slightly elevated ground on the north bank of a loop of the River Esk. This ridge of ground, 20 to 25 metres above sea level, was used by the Romans as the location for Inveresk Roman Fort in the 2nd century AD.
John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland, was a British politician in the Scottish Liberal Party, a soldier, peer, administrator and Privy Councillor who served as the Secretary of Scotland from 1905 to 1912 and the Governor of Madras from 1912 to 1919.
The phrase "Think globally, act locally" or "Think global, act local" has been used in various contexts, including planning, environment, education, mathematics, business and the church.
Princes Street Station was a mainline railway station which stood at the west end of Princes Street, in Edinburgh, Scotland, for almost 100 years. Temporary stations were opened in 1848 and 1870, with construction of the main station commencing in the 1890s. The station was closed completely in 1965 and largely demolished in 1969–70. Only its hotel remains, but it is no longer in railway ownership.
The College Des Ecossais was founded by Patrick Geddes in 1924 as an international teaching establishment located in Montpellier, in the south of France.
Sir Frank Charles Mears LLD was an architect and Scotland's leading planning consultant from the 1930s to the early 1950s.
John Duncan (1866–1945) was a Scottish Symbolist painter. Much of his work, apart from portraits, depicted Arthurian legends, Celtic folklore, and other mythological subjects.
James Cadenhead was a Scottish landscape and portrait painter.
This is a list of the halls of residence at University College London in London, England.
Victor Branford was a British sociologist. He was the founder of the Sociological Society and was made an Honorary member of the American Sociological Society, now the American Sociological Association.
The Geddes plan for Tel Aviv was the proposal of Patrick Geddes presented in 1925. It was the first master plan for the city of Tel Aviv. The Geddes Plan was an extension to the north of the first neighborhoods of the city reaching to the Yarkon River.
Housing in Scotland includes all forms of built habitation in what is now Scotland, from the earliest period of human occupation to the present day. The oldest house in Scotland dates from the Mesolithic era. In the Neolithic era settled farming led to the construction of the first stone houses. There is also evidence from this period of large timber halls. In the Bronze Age there were cellular round crannogs and hillforts that enclosed large settlements. In the Iron Age cellular houses begin to be replaced on the northern isles by simple Atlantic roundhouses, substantial circular buildings with a drystone construction. The largest constructions that date from this era are the circular brochs and duns and wheelhouses.
Stewart Henbest Capper was a prominent architect in the Arts and Crafts style closely associated with Sir Patrick Geddes with much of his work mislabelled as Geddes'. Due to ill health he did not achieve much that he might have, and his contemporary Sydney Mitchell completed much of his most public works. His style cleverly mimics medieval and Renaissance details, and, as it sometimes includes either original or faked medieval date-stones, is regularly accepted as being several centuries older than its true age.
Charles Hodge Mackie (1862–1920) was a Scottish artist. He was a co-founder, and the first president, of the Society of Scottish Artists in 1900.
Norah Geddes (1887–1967) was a Scottish landscape designer.
Anna, Lady Geddes was an English social environmental activist, musician and partner in the work of Sir Patrick Geddes. During the marriage, she provided organizational and intellectual support to many of his projects, and they traveled extensively during their work together.
The Taking of Excalibur is an oil painting by John Duncan in 1897. It is currently placed at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh. This Dundee-born, Symbolist painter was known for his work on Arthurian Legends, Celtic folklore and various other mythological subjects.