Northfield is a suburb 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 east of the city centre and west of Portobello. 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 is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

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

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 The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...

and certain areas of

Midlothian Midlothian (; ) is registration county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, 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 council ar ...

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. In the 1960s, a further development of

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

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