Bellevue, Edinburgh
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Bellevue ( ) is a district of
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, the capital of
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. It lies to the south east of
Canonmills Canonmills is a district of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It lies to the south east of the Royal Botanic Garden at Inverleith, east of Stockbridge and west of Bellevue, in a low hollow north of Edinburgh's New Town. The area was formerl ...
, west of
Leith Walk Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the main road connecting the east end of the city centre to Leith. Forming most of the A900 road, it slopes downwards from Picardy Place at the south-western end of the str ...
and south of
Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...
, incorporating the easternmost extent of Edinburgh's
New Town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
heritage site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...
. The area was formerly open fields which became the second and penultimate location of the Royal Botanic Garden in 1763 .


History


Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

In 1763, the Edinburgh
botanic garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...
moved away from the city's pollution, from St. Anne's Yard, near
Holyrood Palace The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly known as Holyrood Palace, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood has s ...
, to a larger plot in then open fields between the city and its port,
Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...
, to the west of the main thoroughfare,
Leith Walk Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the main road connecting the east end of the city centre to Leith. Forming most of the A900 road, it slopes downwards from Picardy Place at the south-western end of the str ...
, under the direction of Prof John Hope. After sixty years, in the early 1820s under the direction of new Curator, William McNab, the garden moved to its present location, in
Inverleith Inverleith (Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Lìte'') is an inner suburb in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the fringes of the central region of the city. Its neighbours include Trinity, Edinburgh, Trinity to the north a ...
.


The Royal Edinburgh Zoological Gardens

Scotland's first zoo was called The Royal Edinburgh Zoological Gardens, preceding the current
Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo (), formerly the Scottish National Zoological Park, is an non-profit zoological park in the Corstorphine area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The zoo is positioned on the south-facing slopes of Corstorphine Hill, giving extensive vie ...
by nearly a century. It was situated south of East Claremont Street, in the gardens of Broughton Hall, then owned by James Donaldson and opened as a zoological park nine years after his death in 1830. The Zoological Gardens were also frequently used as a venue for concerts, acrobatics shows and displays of
fireworks Fireworks are Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large numbe ...
and Montgolfier balloons . With the animals suffering from disease, cramped cages - the whole site covered only - and unsuitable climate, the park was closed after less than 20 years. In 1857 the house was demolished and the gardens redeveloped as new tenement buildings, the residents of which continued to pay feuduty to the Donaldson Trust until its abolition in Scotland on 28 November 2004.


Buildings


Bellevue Crescent

Bellevue Crescent is a classical 34-bay sweeping curved terrace, part of the first extension of the New Town planned by Robert Reid and William Sibbald in 1802, designed by architect
Thomas Bonnar Thomas Bonnar (d. 1847) was a Scottish interior designer and architect of note, working in the Edinburgh area. He is particularly remembered for his outstanding ceilings. Thomas was the father of the artist William Bonnar (1800–1853) and t ...
in 1818. Construction started the following year in 1819. However, the design had to be radically revised after the finalisation of the location of Bellevue Church at the apex of the sweep of the crescent in 1822. The southern section was completed in 1832, but the northern section was not built for another 50 years, until 1882–4, still following the original facade design, but slightly modified by
David Cousin David Cousin (19 May 1809 – 14 August 1878) was a Scottish architect, landscape architect and Urban planning, planner, closely associated with early cemetery design and many prominent buildings in Edinburgh, Scotland, Edinburgh. From 1841 to ...
.


Broughton St Mary’s

Originally the structure was known simply as Bellevue Church (not to be confused with the smaller
Bellevue Chapel Canonmills is a district of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It lies to the south east of the Royal Botanic Garden at Inverleith, east of Stockbridge and west of Bellevue, in a low hollow north of Edinburgh's New Town. The area was former ...
, directly north of Bellevue Crescent), then named St Mary's Parish Church. It finally became Broughton St Mary's in 1992 as a result of the union with Broughton McDonald Church. Designed by architect Thomas Brown (then Superintendent of City Works for Edinburgh), the site for the Church was finalised on 11 September 1822 at the northern extent of Edinburgh's New Town development. Although the Church was opened for public worship on 12 December 1824, the striking and unusual colonnaded tower was not finished until the following year and the clock was not installed for another year after that. Other notable features include the stained glass windows installed in 1864, the unusual heavily embossed wallpaper added in 1897 to resemble wooden panelling around the gallery and the organ, built by Thomas Lewis of London, and installed in 1882. The pulpit, based on the Athenian
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was erected by the ''Choregos (ancient Greece), choregos'' Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus, to commemorate the prize in the dithyram ...
, is one of the few surviving pulpits of the 1820s and reputedly the highest in Scotland.


The Botanic Cottage

At the entrance to the Royal Botanic Garden in its Bellevue based incarnation, in 1764, the "Botanic Cottage" was built, designed by John Adam and
James Craig James or Jim Craig may refer to: Entertainment * James Humbert Craig (1877–1944), Irish painter * James Craig (actor) (1912–1985), American actor * James Craig (''General Hospital''), fictional character on television, a.k.a. Jerry Jacks * J ...
(designer of Edinburgh's New Town plan). It served as a home for the principal gardener, a classroom where medical student were taught botany and the main entry point to the gardens through doors in the wing walls. Despite the Garden's further relocation, this time to Inverleith in 1820, the cottage remained on the garden's original site, facing Leith Walk, for nearly another two hundred years, in an increasing state of disrepair and in the early 2000s it was earmarked for demolition, its significance forgotten. In 2008, after a community campaign, the building was painstakingly relocated stone by numbered stone over 8 years to a site within the current gardens.


Edinburgh Central Bus Depot

Originally designed by G M Holmes and the prolific
Ebenezer James MacRae Ebenezer James MacRae (18 January 1881 – 15 January 1951) was a Scottish people, Scottish architect serving as City Architect for Edinburgh for most of his active life. Life He was the son of Rev Alexander MacRae of the Free Church of Scotl ...
, and constructed of red brick with ashlar red sandstone dressings and incorporating a large, central, circular glass dome cupola in just a remarkable few weeks in 1922 for the Edinburgh Exhibition Association as Edinburgh's Industrial Exhibition Hall, the building briefly played host to many large national shows through the 1920s, including the Scottish Motor Show and Edinburgh's Christmas Fun Fair. The building was extended in 1933 to become a bus depot the following year, and extended again 1963.


East Claremont Street drill hall

East Claremont Street drill hall was designed by
Thomas Duncan Rhind Sir Thomas Duncan Rhind (14 July 1871 – 24 April 1927) was a Scottish architect and military figure. He was knighted in 1919 for services to his country. Life Thomas was the son of John Rhind a prominent Edinburgh sculptor. His older brothe ...
in the free Renaissance style, facing on to East Claremont Street, directly west of Claremont Crescent.


Claremont Crescent

Originally designed by
William Burn William Burn (20 December 1789 – 15 February 1870) was a Scottish architect. He received major commissions from the age of 20 until his death at 81. He built in many styles and was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial Revival, often referred ...
in 1823, sited at the summit of Sandy Hill (lead to by the later added West Annandale Street), allowing it to look across the grounds of Broughton Hall to the then Royal Botanic Garden and beyond that,
Calton Hill Calton Hill (; ) is a hill in central Edinburgh, Scotland, situated beyond the east end of Princes Street and included in the city's United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Views of, and f ...
, Claremont Crescent is an
A listed This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Scotland, which are among the listed buildings of the United Kingdom. For a fuller list, see the pages linked on List of listed buildings in Scotland. Key The organization of the lists in th ...
small, neo-classic crescent terrace, completed in 1860 by
Charles Kinnear Charles George Hood Kinnear FRIBA Royal Scottish Academy, ARSA FRSE (30 May 1830 – 5 November 1894) was one half of Peddie & Kinnear partnership, one of Scotland’s most renowned and prodigious architectural firms. They were noted for their ...
and
John Dick Peddie John Dick Peddie (24 February 1824 – 12 March 1891) was a Scottish architect, businessman and a Liberal Party politician. Biography John Dick Peddie and his twin brother William were the second and third sons of James Peddie WS and Margaret D ...
.


Mansfield Traquair Centre

The murals inside the former Catholic Apostolic Church, designed by
Robert Rowand Anderson Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, (5 April 1834 – 1 June 1921) was a Scottish Victorian architecture, Victorian architect. Anderson trained in the office of George Gilbert Scott in London before setting up his own practice in Edinburgh in 1860. ...
- regarded as his most ambitious ecclesial project - and built in 1893 are
Phoebe Anna Traquair Phoebe Anna Traquair (; 24 May 1852 – 4 August 1936) was an Irish-born artist, who achieved international recognition for her role in the Arts and Crafts movement in Scotland, as an illustrator, painter and embroiderer. Her works included larg ...
's best-known work and led to the building to become often referred to as "Edinburgh’s Sistine Chapel" and confirmed her international recognition.


McDonald Road Power Station

Designed by John Cooper and built in 1899, this former Coal Fired Power station highly unusually had an Italian Renaissance basilica style sandstone frontage. The station originally powered the Leith Walk tram system and although it still houses an operational sub station, the building is in such poor repair, with the frontage now badly disintegrating, that it was put on the Buildings at Risk register in 2009, where it remains. The towering red brick chimney stack, however, is well preserved.


Claremont Court Estate

Claremont Court is a rare example of a Modernist style municipal flatted housing scheme (surrounding a landscape courtyard) situated this close to the New Town UNESCO zone. The scheme was designed by Basil Spence and Partners (Peter Ferguson, partner in charge; Richard Cassidy, job architect; T Harley Haddow, engineers), constructed between 1959 and 1962 and Grade C listed 19 July 2011 as an important example of Scottish post-war housing.


Famous Residents

*
Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
’s grandfather,
Robert Stevenson Robert, Rob, or Bob Stevenson may refer to: * Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer * Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Scottish writer ("Treasure Island"), grandson of lighthouse engineer Robert Stevenso ...
, was an Elder of Bellevue Church from 1828 to 1843 whilst also Engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board. *
Sir George Makgill, 9th Baronet Sir George Makgill, 9th Baronet of Kemback and Fingask, ''de jure'' 9th Viscount of Oxfuird FRSE (1812-1878) was a Scottish peer. Life He was born on 23 December 1812 the son of John Makgill of Kemback and Fingask and his wife Eliza Dalgleish. ...
, resident at 12 Claremont Crescent during the 1850s. * Thomas Brumby Johnston, resident at 9 Claremont Crescent.


References

{{Coord, 55.9604, -3.1934, region:GB-SCT, format=dms, display=title Areas of Edinburgh