Northfield is a suburb of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, the capital of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It lies east of the city centre and west of

Portobello Portobello, Porto Bello, Porto Belo, Portabello, or Portabella may refer to: Places Brazil * Porto Belo Ireland * Portobello, Dublin * Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin formerly ''Portobello Barracks'' New Zealand * Portobello, New Zealand, on Ot ...

. The area was laid out at low densities as local authority housing but the city employed private architects for its design -

Reginald Fairlie Reginald Francis Joseph Fairlie LLD (7 March 1883 – 27 October 1952) was a Scottish architect. He served as a commissioner of RCAHMS and on the Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland. Life see Born at Kincaple, Fife, he was the son of J. Ogi ...

and

Reid and Forbes Reid and Forbes was a firm of Scottish architects specialising in school buildings in central and southern Scotland from 1920 to 1964. They had a very distinctive style and many of their buildings are now listed buildings. History The firm was a ...

. It was laid out from 1921 and took around three years to complete. Due to the high quality of the buildings it was a very popular area for tenants to purchase under the "Right to Buy" scheme and the area is now largely in private ownership. The quality is also reflected in that several of the groups are now

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The area was planned out from 1921 following Edinburgh's reorganisation of its boundaries to controversially encompass Portobello, the fiercely independent

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

and certain areas of

Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, ...

in 1920.

This area was laid out very generously at very low densities, an attitude seemingly derivative of Edinburgh having gained the land for free. Unusually, although built as Council Housing it was not designed by the city architect, as might be normal but was given as private commission to a prominent local architect,

aided by the more practical local firm of

. Building began in 1922 and was largely completed in two years. Northfield Grove (7943733190)

In the 1960s, a further development of

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

housing was constructed to replace prefabs at nearby Mountcastle.Northfield – a centenary to be celebrated
The Edinburgh Reporter, 10 May 2021. Retrieved 30 January 2022

References

Areas of Edinburgh Housing estates in Edinburgh 1920s establishments in Scotland {{Edinburgh-geo-stub