South Bridge is a road bridge and street in the

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins. In some cases, newer developments on t ...

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 ...

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 ...

, between the

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

, where it meets the North Bridge, to Nicolson Street at the south. It forms a continuous roadway over the steep valley scoured parallel to the High Street when the

crag and tail A crag (sometimes spelled cragg, or in Scotland craig) is a rocky hill or mountain, generally isolated from other high ground. Origin Crags are formed when a glacier or ice sheet passes over an area that contains a particularly resistant r ...

landscape of the city was formed. The bridge dips down from the High Street to the

Cowgate The Cowgate (Scots language, Scots: The Cougait) is a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, located about southeast of Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street is part of the lower level of Edinburgh's Old Town, Edinburgh, ...

(the roadway along the bottom of the valley), which runs under the largest arch of the bridge, before climbing back up to its terminus at Nicolson Street. The concept of the bridge was raised in 1784 by James Hunter Blair in his capacity as

Lord Provost of Edinburgh The Right Honourable Lord Provost of Edinburgh is elected by and is the convener of the City of Edinburgh Council and serves not only as the chair of that body, but as a figurehead for the entire city, ex officio the Lord-Lieutenant of ...

, as a logical southward extension of the pre-existing North Bridge, which connected Edinburgh's Old Town to its New Town. The southward bridge, set on the same alignment, was to improve connection to the southward land, and spanned over the

. The works necessitated the loss of many buildings including the old Edinburgh Poultry Market. The bridge was designed by Robert Kay and built by Alexander Laing. The South Bridge Act 1785 was passed in the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

on 21 April 1785 and in 1789 taxes were raised to fund the South Bridge to a plan prepared by

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (architect), William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and train ...

. The foundation stone was laid on 1 August 1785 by

George Gordon, Lord Haddo George Gordon, Lord Haddo (28 January 1764 – 2 October 1791) was a Scottish Freemason and the eldest son of George Gordon, 3rd Earl of Aberdeen. On 18 June 1782, Haddo married Charlotte Baird (d. 8 October 1795) a sister of Sir David Baird, ...

in his capacity as Grand Master Mason of Scotland. The incomplete bridge was opened to foot traffic on 19 November 1786 using planks of wood resting on the completed arches. The bridge was completed in 1788. It is constructed of nineteen arches, but is almost entirely enclosed by buildings on both sides, exposing only the largest arch where the street crosses the Cowgate. Below deck level are many buildings and vaults, the latter are now something of a tourist attraction. Most of the buildings on the deck level have separate entrances (and sometimes entirely separate functions) at the level of the street passing below (the Cowgate) or parallel to the bridge (Niddry Street and Blair Street). The only older element incorporated into the South Bridge streetscape was Adam Square, which occupied the extreme south-west section and was built around 1770. This section has been twice rebuilt since its demolition around 1870 to build Chambers Street. In 2002 the "Cowgate Fire" destroyed a section of the original buildings in the south-west quadrant. This section has now been rebuilt as a hotel and supermarket. The historic structure contains one interior of great significance: Goldsmiths Hall, a relatively intact room linked to the old trade guilds. This attic level space is wholly unseen from the exterior and is also now only accessed via a characterless corridor entered from Blair Street.Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh by Gifford, McWilliam and Walker Initially, town plans such as John Ainslie's 1804 map showed the street name as "South Bridge Street", by the 1850s the name had been shortened to "South Bridge".

References

External links

''Unbuilt Britain'': Episode 3
{{Transport in Edinburgh Streets in Edinburgh Category B listed buildings in Edinburgh Edinburgh South Bridge Bridges in Edinburgh Bridges completed in 1788 1788 establishments in Scotland

See also

References

External links