India and Edinburgh: The Old Town
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1. Bristo Port Bedlam Theatre is on the site of the old Poorhouse, which included rooms for those who had ‘lost their reason’. Read more… |
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2. Greyfriars Kirkyard Of 670 grave plots here, at least 60 have Indian connections.Read more… |
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3. George Heriot’s Hospital John Borthwick Gilchrist (1759-1841), former pupil and donor of George Heriot’s, went to India as a surgeon in 1782. Read more… |
![India House](http://curiousedinburgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/OT-IndiaBuildings-Exterior-09.jpg") |
4. India Buildings, Victoria Street The name of this building, erected 1864-6, was possibly copied from a Liverpool office block, built in 1833-34 and named by Liverpool merchants celebrating the end of the East India Company’s monopoly on trading with India. Read more… |
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5. Riddle’s Court Restored as his publishing house by Patrick Geddes, activist, sociologist, Professor at Bombay University (1919-23), who corresponded on education with Nobel prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore. Read more… |
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6. Castle Esplanade War memorials on the Esplanade include one to Colonel Mackenzie (92nd Highlanders) who quelled a mutiny of the 5th Bengal European Regiment in 1859. Read more… |
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7. Milne’s Court In the 1690s Scots spent over £9,000,000 (2016 money) on Eastern goods, and in 1695 the Scottish ‘Company Tradeing to Affrica and the Indies’ was licenced. Read more… |
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8. Old Edinburgh Tolbooth Commercial rivalry and anger over English involvement in the failure of the Scottish ‘Company Tradeing to Affrica and the Indies’ boiled over into political violence in 1704. Read more… |
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9. St Giles’ High Kirk Wellesley Bailey, born in Ireland 1846, went to India in 1869. As an American Presbyterian Mission teacher, he visited some lepers’ huts in Punjab and decided to care for them and proselytise. Read more… |
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10. Thistle Chapel There are some striking examples of India links in this sacred meeting place of Scotland’s chivalric order. Read more… |
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11. Craig’s Close First mentions of Indians in Edinburgh appear in newspapers. Read more… |
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12. Old College The India links of Edinburgh University staff and students started in the 1750s and strengthened in the 19th century. Read more… |
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13. Minto House Here lived (1725-1878) the Elliots of Minto, important East India Company shareholders. Read more… |
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14. National Museum of Scotland From courtly dress to contemporary art, to birds, minerals and fossils, India’s natural world and her culture have been collected by the Museum since its inception in 1854. Read more… |