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Edinburgh from Calton Hill

The Book

Thank you to Peter Grootes, Best, The Netherlands for allowing me to reproduce photos from his book:

'Photograph from View Album of Edinburgh and District'

published by Patrick Thomson, Cash Drapery Store, North Bridge, Edinburgh, around the 1890s.    Here are a few more photos from the same book.

The View

This view looking to the west from the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill looks very much the same today, over a hundred years after this photo was taken  -  apart from the large building in the foreground, Edinburgh Jail, which was demolished in 1938 to allow the government offices, New St  Andrew's House, to be built.

The turreted  building in darker stone, above and immediately behind the jail in this photo in this photo is the Governor's House.  This building is still standing.

The prominent buildings and steeples on the skyline (left to right) are:

-  The Tron Kirk, Royal Mile

-  St Giles Church, Royal Mile

-  Tolbooth St John's Church (now 'The Hub'), Royal Mile

-  Edinburgh Castle

-  Scott Monument, Princes street

The North British Railway Hotel (now the Balmoral hotel) opened in 1902.  It had not yet been built when this photo was taken.

Princes Street lit by Gaslight

Below is another view looking to the west from Calton Hill, towards Edinburgh Castle and Princes Street, lit by gaslight.  I don't know when this photo was taken.  Electric light was first installed in Edinburgh in 1895.