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Gayfield Square School for Girls |
Where was this photo taken?
Answer: Hillside Crescent Gardens. See Reply 3
© Reproduced with acknowledgement to Trustees of National Museum of Scotland (Photo is from their Scottish Life Archive.)
Please click here to read restrictions applying to the use of this photo.
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Gayfield Square School for Girls |
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1865 Thank you to John Dickie for providing this copy of a Scottish Life Archive photo from the Broughton History Society's collection. A copy of this photo was included in a Broughton History Society Exhibition in 2006. John added that he had not been able to find any mention of this school in old editions of Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory, but had found mentions in Scotsman Archive of what might have been earlier versions of the same institution. i.e. - Gayfield Square Ladies' School Sep 1835, 12 Dec 1835, 10 Dec 1836 - Gayfield Square Ladies' Institution 22 Sep 1838, Adverts 1838, Oct 1839 - Gayfield Square Academy 11 Sep 1852 |
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Questions John asks:
1. Is this photo likely to have been taken at Gayfield Square?
2, Where was this school based? John has found schools with similar names, but not an exact match, in the Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directories, but not found any school listed at Gayfield Square. 3. What was the occasion when this photo was taken? Looking at the number of people in the photo, it seems that the school may have been quite a large establishment in 1865. Acknowledgement: John Dickie, Broughton, Edinburgh: June 8, 2010 |
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Reply to John Dickie? If you know the answers to any of John's questions above, please email me, then I'll pass your message on to him. Thank you. Peter Stubbs: June 8, 2010 |
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Replies |
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1. |
Gary Gray |
- Hopetoun Crescent? |
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2. |
Ben |
- Hillside Crescent |
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3. |
Ben |
- Gayfield Square School for Girls |
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4. |
Danny Callaghan |
- Hopetoun Crescent - Old Maps |
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5. |
Bryan
Gourlay |
- Hopetoun Crescent |
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6. |
Graham Hogg |
- Book Plate |
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Reply 1. Gary Gray Craigour, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Gary Gray, Craigour, Edinburgh, who wrote: |
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Hopetoun Crescent? "Might this photograph have been taken just down the road in Hopetoun Crescent? There is a building halfway along the Crescent with a similar design (although it isn’t an end building as in the picture)." Acknowledgement: Gary Gray, Craigour, Edinburgh: June 15, 2010 |
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Hopetoun Crescent The Gardens on the south side of Hopetoun Crescent were the site of Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden, before the garden moved to Inverleith in 1820. |
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Reply 2. Ben Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Ben, Edinburgh, who wrote: |
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Hillside Crescent "The old school photo was taken in Hillside Crescent, very near to where this recent Google Street View photo was taken. The building in the background in the old photo is no longer present, but the surrounding buildings are still standing. I hope to take some pictures tomorrow, to give you a better update. The pillars windows and doors in the old photo match those in the buildings slightly farther north.. Some of the original Playfair-designed park railings from 1822 have survived the war. They are at the North and South ends of the gardens." Ben, Edinburgh: June 16, 2010 |
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Reply 3. Ben Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Ben for providing the comprehensive reply below, backed up by some of his recent photographs of the area, on his Flickr web site, which I have reproduced (converted to monochrome) below. It now seems to me to be almost certain that the 1865 Gayfield Square School for Girls would have been taken in the gardens on the south side of Hillside Crescent. |
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Gayfield Square School for Girls "The railings in the original shot reminded me of the last time I was on Hillside Crescent Gardens, waiting to get into the RAF club.
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Photograph from Scottish Life Archive,
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Hillside Crescent and West side of Brunswick Street I believe that this picture was taken from the same spot as the 1865 photo above. Sadly, the railings have been removed and the old building has been replaced, but the tree looks right, albeit about 150 years older now. The trees were planted about 1840 as part of the garden improvements, so this seems possible.
© Ben, Edinburgh Photograph taken 2010
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Hillside Crescent and West side of Brunswick Street "The house below, with its distinctive double Doric columns between windows and doors, and the first floor grid railings, is on the corner of Hillside Crescent and West side of Brunswick Street. It seems to be a good match for the one that would have stood opposite on the east side of Brunswick Street, that can be seen in the background of the 1865 photo."
© Ben, Edinburgh Photograph taken 2010
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"Just to finish it off, at the start of the crescent, is a small patch of very distinctive William Playfair railings that escaped wartime scrappage. They have octagonal (not round as everywhere else) decorative tops that match the old picture. The house in the background (No 4) has the 12-panel lower and 15- panel first floor windows from almost two hundred years ago."
© Ben, Edinburgh Photograph taken 2010
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Ben added: Recent Developments "The new building in the first picture (Elliot House) was built in 1967, the lot being available due to the earlier houses built in the area suffering badly from subsidence. The park area was finally compulsorily purchased by the council in 1952 due to the lack of funding for upkeep by the local residents and general decay." |
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Ben, Edinburgh: June 17, 2010 |
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Reply 4. Danny Callaghan Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland |
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Thank you to Danny Callaghan who wrote: |
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Hopetoun Crescent Old Maps "Ben (Reply 3) comments about waiting to get into the RAF club. The building in the picture behind the ladies is the RAF club. The first floor railings are missing. The building to the left of it, where Elliot House now stands, had clearly been demolished by time of 1865 picture. You can see the ragged ends of masonry. I was involved in installing office furniture when Elliot House was first occupied by Standard Life, about 1969. I remember that before we could install the shelving system we had to steel-plate the floor to help spread the load." Danny Callaghan, Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland: June 28, 2010 + Aug 24, 2010 |
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Reply 5. Bryan Gourlay Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland |
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Thank you to Danny Callaghan who wrote: |
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Hopetoun Crescent "I have no specialist knowledge of the area. However, the 1876 Ordnance Survey map shows there was no building on the east corner of Brunswick Street at its junction with Hillside Crescent - or on the west side, for that matter. The 1876 map shows only one building on Hillside Crescent to the east of Brunswick Street. It was about 40 yards from the corner – which could still be the one in the photo, of course - some way to the right of Ben’s recent photo of the east corner. Perhaps this building is still there. By the time of the 1894 map there were buildings on both corners of Brunswick Street. Zooming in on both maps above, there are steps down to the lower level, and leading up, presumably to the front entrance. There were also other bits sticking out the front, which are not obvious in the photo." Bryan Gourlay, Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland: June 30, 2010 |
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Reply 6. Graham Hogg National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Dr Graham Hogg who wrote: |
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Book Plate "I have just received a donation of a book with this bookplate of the library of Gayfield Square Ladies’ School." "The donor’s late husband was related to people who ran the school.
The donor gave me the following
information:
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Teacher "In an Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory for the 1850s, a Robert Anderson is listed at 7 Gayfield Square as a 'Teacher of Natural History and Physical Science'." |
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School Name "I'm assuming that in 1838 Gayfield Square Ladies School was renamed the Gayfield Square Ladies' Institution, before becoming the Gayfield Square Academy in the 1850s." |
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Graham Hogg, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh: December 3, 2010 |
