Niki Vermeulen

‘Heave Awa Hoose’

 History of Public Health  No Responses »
Nov 252020
 

Paisley Close, 97 High Street, EH1 1SG

'Heave Awa Hoose'
‘Heave Awa Hoose’

Population growth, particularly in the area within the medieval burgh wall, required the city to expand vertically. Multiple-story buildings were common in the 16th century and by the 18th century, buildings on High Street were often six to ten stories tall and could reach up to 14 stories towards the back where the land sloped down. On 24th November 1861, a 7-story building at Paisley Close collapsed, killing 35. Local newspapers of the day reported the successful rescue of a little boy, Joseph McIvor, who was heard crying ‘Heave awa’ lads, I’m no’ deid yet!’ from under the debris. The public scandal that followed highlighted the need for structural safety of tenement buildings in Old Town and helped gain support for the 1867 Improvement Act. You can still find the boy at the entrance of the close.

Horizontal expansion of buildings at West Bow on the Royal Mile by Archibald Burns, late 19th century (Scottish National Portrait Gallery)
Horizontal expansion of buildings at West Bow on the Royal Mile, photograph by Archibald Burns, late 19th century
(Scottish National Portrait Gallery)
Contemporary illustration of the building collapse at Paisley Close (source: The Scotsman)
Contemporary illustration of the building collapse at Paisley Close (source: The Scotsman)

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45 Blackfriars Street

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Nov 242020
 

45 Blackfriars St, EH1 1NB

45 Blackfriars Street
45 Blackfriars Street

Struck by the mid-19th-century potato famine, impoverished rural workers from Ireland and the Scottish Highlands moved to Edinburgh and into the dilapidated buildings left behind by the local nobility and middle class who, by then, had relocated to New Town. Larger homes previously occupied by the wealthy were subdivided into small lodgings, often shared by multiple families. Severe overcrowding and poor sanitation created a fertile ground for the spread of disease. In his 1850 survey on the living conditions in Blackfriars Wynd, Dr George Bell reported 10 Irish immigrants, including a child dying of consumption, sharing a single room. The situation raised much discussion among Victorian sanitary workers, who lamented the misery of the poor just as keenly as their moral failings. In 1867, the City Improvement Act made provisions to demolish all buildings on the east side, widen the roadway, and erect new tenements in Blackfriars Wynd (subsequently renamed Street). 45-51 Blackfriars Street, at the junction of New Skinner`s Close, displays a plaque to commemorate the Blackfriars Building Association of 84 working men, a co-operative effort to finance and erect two buildings on clearance sites under the Improvement Act.

Faint inscription on the façade of 45-51 Blackfriars Street: 'These were the first dwelling houses erected to provide accommodation for the industrial classes on the site of those demolished by the city authorities under the Improvement Act 1867'
: ‘This and the adjoining tenement were built by the Blackfriars Building Association, composed of 84 working men, in 1871. These were the first dwelling houses erected to provide accommodation for the industrial classes on the site of those demolished by the city authorities under the Improvement Act 1867’.
Cardinal Beaton's House before the demolitions, by Archibald Burns, 1868
Cardinal Beaton’s House at the junction of Cowgate and Blackfriars’ Wynd before the demolitions, photograph by Archibald Burns, 1868
(National Portrait Gallery)
Dereliction in Bulls Close, Cowgate, photograph by Archibald Burns, 1858 (National Portrait Gallery)
Dereliction in Bulls Close, Cowgate, photograph by Archibald Burns, 1858 (National Portrait Gallery)

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The Netherbrow Wellhead

 History of Public Health  No Responses »
Nov 242020
 

near John Knox House, High Street, EH1 1SR

The Netherbrow Wellhead
The Netherbrow Wellhead

In 1681, water was brought in by a ‘leaden pipe’ from the burns south of the town to a reservoir on Castle Hill. The reservoir supplied six wells in the High Street, including the one at Netherbrow Port. The rich, who lived on the upper floors of tall tenements, employed ‘water caddies’ to carry water upstairs.  However, by the late-18th century, the water coming to the city was not enough to provide for the rapidly growing population and supply to the wells was restricted to only three hours a day. In the early 19th century, water companies were established and new pipes introduced. Nonetheless, water supply remained inadequate both in quantity and quality. During droughts, impure surface water was pumped into the wells. The 1867 Improvement Act introduced by William Chambers, and the Improvement Scheme that followed, had considerable success in tackling these issues.

Plaque on the wellhead
Plaque on the wellhead

2 St Mary`s Street

 History of Public Health  No Responses »
Nov 242020
 

2 St Mary’s St, EH8 8AA

2 St Mary`s Street
2 St Mary`s Street

2 St Mary’s Street was the first building erected under the 1867 Edinburgh Improvement Act. The act was the achievement of William Chambers (1800-1883), Lord Provost of Edinburgh and Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn (1826-1914), the first Medical Officer of Health for the city. In 1765, Littlejohn published his Report on the Sanitary Condition of the City of Edinburgh, in which he demonstrated, using innovative statistical methods, the effects of population density, poverty, and sanitary conditions on the health and life expectancy of people. The Report helped persuade city officials to act. Legislation was passed to widen streets, clear congested housing sites, improve water supply, and monitor more closely the quality of food, among other things. However, in practice, the Improvement Act was used to legally demolish the poorest tenement dwellings in Old Town, which were replaced by housing for artisans, tradesmen, and the `superior` working classes. The large-scale slum clearance, although celebrated for its sanitation improvements, reduced the amount of available housing and displaced much of the city’s poor, ultimately shifting, rather than solving, the housing problem.

Upper College Wynd before demolitions, by Archibald Burns, 1871 (Scottish National Portrait Gallery)
Upper College Wynd before the demolitions associated with the City Improvement Scheme,
photograph by Archibald Burns, 1871
(Scottish National Portrait Gallery)
Crumbling houses on Cowgate by William Donaldson Clark, c.1860 (Scottish National Portrait Gallery)
Crumbling houses on Cowgate near the pillars of George IV Bridge, photograph by William Donaldson Clark, c.1860
(Scottish National Portrait Gallery)

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Chessel’s Court

 History of Public Health  No Responses »
Nov 242020
 

240 Canongate, EH8 8AD

Chessel's Court
Chessel’s Court

The High Street was the main public space and spine of the original town structure, with enclosures (or ‘closes’) situated on either side. Each enclosure consisted of a dwelling at the top and gardens behind, extending towards the fields further down the valley. As the population grew, the gardens were built over, and, by the 17th century, virtually all green space had disappeared. Dwellings off the street front were accessed through narrow ‘wynds’ and ‘closes’. Chessel’s Court is one example of the 19th-century urban regeneration efforts led by the botanist, philanthropist, pioneer sociologist and town planner, Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) and the Edinburgh Social Union. Geddes and other members of the Union worked closely with architects and local residents to rescue derelict inner-city tenements and transform them into livable spaces; an approach he termed ‘conservative surgery’. This involved creating a network of small community gardens on available open spaces in Old Town, bringing inner-city residents back in touch with nature, light, and air. A botanist by training, Geddes believed that people and their environment evolved together, and the human misery and degradation seen in Edinburgh`s Old Town could be reversed by the systematic improvement of the living conditions of its inhabitants.

More green space towards the top left end of the courtyard.
More green space towards the top left end of the courtyard
Edinburgh Bird`s Eye View looking West c.1450 AD. By Sir Frank Charles Mears, member of the Edinburgh Social Union, 1910.
Edinburgh Bird`s Eye View looking West c.1450 AD, speculative sketch of the historical town showing gardens and fields behind the closes on High Street. By Sir Frank Charles Mears, member of the Edinburgh Social Union, 1910
(© The University of Edinburgh).
Patrick Geddes in Lasswade (© The University of Edinburgh)
Patrick Geddes in Lasswade
(© The University of Edinburgh)
Children working in garden, photograph by Patrick Geddes (© The University of Edinburgh)
Children working in garden,
photograph by Patrick Geddes
(© The University of Edinburgh)

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The Statue of Robert Ferguson

 History of Public Health  No Responses »
Nov 242020
 

145 Canongate, EH8 8BN

Scottish poet Robert Ferguson (1750-1774)
Scottish poet Robert Ferguson (1750-1774)

The famous Scottish poet Robert Ferguson (1750-1774) died tragically when he was just 24 years old. In the years before his premature death, he suffered from bouts of depression taking the form of debilitating religious guilt. While out on the town with his friends he took a fall, which caused a serious head injury. Because his mother (then his only living parent) was unable to care for him, he was committed to the Edinburgh Asylum for Pauper Lunatics, where he later died in his cell. Fergusson’s incarceration and death inspired physician and joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Andrew Duncan (1744-1828), to establish Edinburgh’s first public lunatic asylum in Morningside. Duncan had been one of the physicians treating Fergusson and was appalled by the conditions in the asylum. In a letter to the Scottish Sheriff Deputy he wrote of his experience of his visits with the poet that it “afforded me an opportunity of witnessing the deplorable situation of Pauper Lunatics even in the opulent, flourishing, and charitable Metropolis of Scotland”. By establishing the asylum in Morningside, Duncan contributed to Fergusson’s legacy, not just as a brilliant poet, but as someone who had a lasting impact on public health in Scotland.

Portrait of Robert Fergusson by Alexander Runciman, about 1772. (National Galleries Scotland)
Portrait of Robert Fergusson by Alexander Runciman, about 1772.
(National Galleries Scotland)

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The Museum of Edinburgh, Hunty House

 History of Public Health  No Responses »
Nov 232020
 

142-146 Canongate, EH8 8DD

The Museum of Edinburgh

The Museum of Edinburgh is dedicated to telling the history of the city through its unique collection of objects, ranging from the precious to the mundane. In the first-floor exhibition space, in the third room to the left of the staircase, there is an early 17th-century chamber pot on display, excavated from below the buildings of Old Town. Before the introduction of water closets, human waste collected in chamber pots was often tossed onto the streets by maids calling out `guardyloo` (from the French expression `prenez garde à l`eau` or `watch out for the water`), a custom going back to the Middle Ages. This lack of efficient waste management created major problems as the population grew. In 1749, the `Nastiness Act` was passed, restricting the tossing of refuse (or `fulsies`) to the hours between 10 pm and 7 am. Dust carts were introduced and scavengers employed to clean up the streets. Nonetheless, poor sanitation in Old Town remained an issue well into the 19th century, leading to frequent outbreaks of cholera and fevers.

`If any one, from his windows, or doors, or otherwise, shall throw sweepings, foul water, or other nastiness, … by which he tears or defiles the cap or coat of any one passing, that passenger, so injured, may demand and make good in law a double compensation for his damage. But this double reparation cannot be awarded, if the way was not a public one, or if the individual solemnly and fairly proclaimed what was coming, by crying, “Garde l`eau.”` From the 16th-century Flemish manual of criminal law Praxis rerum criminalium by Joost de Damhoudere (Louvain, 1554), cited in Reekiana, or Minor Antiquities of Edinburgh by Robert Chambers (Edinburgh, 1833).

Early 17th-century chamber pot (The Story of Edinburgh in 101 Objects https://edinburgh.org/101/
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