Granton - Curious Edinburgh

Madelvic Electric Car Factory

Jan 152019

Waterfront Avenue, Edinburgh EH5 1RS

Photograph of the Madelvic Car Factory from 2019 — The Madelvic Car factory as it is today

We have now returned to Madelvic, the legacy of Sir William Peck (1862 – 1925) who was a Scottish astronomer, scientific instrument maker, and a prolific inventor. He was the director of the Edinburgh City Observatory from 1889 until his death in 1925. Peck was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a man with vision: not only did he invent telescopes (one can still be seen in the Stirling Highland Hotel) but he also came up with the idea of an electric car, a most astonishing concept in 1899. This electric car, which he named ‘The Brougham’, was produced in this factory building. It was driven by a three-wheeled tractor-style front axle unit, comprising a motor, batteries and a small central wheel, set behind the axle, which propelled the vehicle. This unit was mounted to the front of a chassis, creating a five-wheeled automobile and could be attached to any horse-drawn carriage. To gain publicity Peck used it to provide public transport between Granton and Leith. For a brief period, the Postmaster General of Edinburgh employed Madelvic to carry the mail between the General Post Office and Leith. The fifth wheel is such an iconic design, Peck had it incorporated into the façade of the office building, Madelvic House, which is now the base of granton:hub.

Sepai photograph of the Brougham model from the Madelvic Motor Carriage Co. Ltd. brochure in 1899 — Illustration taken from The Madelvic Motor Carriage Co. Ltd. original brochure, 1899

Sepia photograph of the royal mail delivery between Leith and Graton taken from The Madelvic Motor Carriage Co. Ltd. original brochure, 1899 — Illustration taken from The Madelvic Motor Carriage Co. Ltd. original brochure, 1899

Sepia photograph of Sir William Peck — Sir William Peck FRSE FRAS (3 January 1862, Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire – 7 March 1925, Edinburgh) was a Scottish astronomer and scientific instrument maker and founder of the Madelvic Motor Carriage Company

5th Wheel on the Facade of Madelvic House

The artwork "Madelvic Car Factory" by Cecile Grey — “Madelvic Car Factory” by Cecile Grey

Granton Industries

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Jan 152019

This Powderhall Bronze sculpture "Going to the Beach" by Vincent Butler, which shows a man, woman, two children, and a dog walking

This Powderhall Bronze sculpture is entitled ‘Going to the Beach’ by Vincent Butler (1933-2017).

Waterfront Avenue, Edinburgh EH5 1RS

Near this site, lots of industrial activity took place. AB Fleming introduced rosin oil in 1852, a by-product of refining turpentine from dead pine wood. Due to expansion, Fleming leased a large area of land from the Duke of Buccleuch and built a new factory. ‘Granton Oils’ became popular all over the world. Later on, the company manufactured inks for books, newspapers, fine half tone work, letterpress and lithography, and had the largest capacity anywhere in the world, operating globally. Next to AB Fleming was Caroline Park Foundry, started in 1880 by Robert Mushet, who was instrumental in perfecting a forerunner of today’s steels. The Granton Ice Company (1906) was also nearby and supplied the fishing industries of Granton and Newhaven, with premises originally located on the Middle Pier of Granton Harbour. A new factory was built near the site of Granton Castle. By 1952 it was the most modern factory of its kind in Britain. Water to make the ice came from Granton Burn’s, stored in a pond behind Caroline Park, and piped down in lead pipes which still run beneath Granton Castle’s walled garden.

Advertisement for the A.B. Fleming & Co Scottish Printing Ink Factory

Advert for A.B. Fleming & Co Scottish Printing Ink Factory

Advert for The Granton Ice Co.

Granton Castle Walled Garden

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Jan 152019

Photograph of the exterior of Granton Castle's Walled Garden — The wall, please walk along this stretch and view Social Bite village and Granton Gasworks

Path, Caroline Park Avenue, Edinburgh EH5 1QJ

With the building of Granton Harbour in the mid 1800s, the Duke of Buccleuch saw great financial opportunity with land either being leased or sold off for commercial and industrial development in the area. As a result, the Castle became neglected and by the mid 18th century it was already described as being in a ruinous state. Following the First World War, the Castle was bought in 1928 by a quarrying company Bain and Brown who demolished it to quarry the stone underneath it, but left sections of the wall in place. The Walled Garden survived and was bought by John Smith, market gardener and the business stayed in the family until 2005 when it was sold to the City of Edinburgh Council. Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden are now working to ensure that this beautiful community asset is safeguarded for the future.

Black and white engraving of the ruins of Granton Castle in the 19th century — The castle already lying in ruins in the 19th century

Photograph of the Social Bite village with the Gas Works behind it — The new Social Bite village in the shadows of the Gas Works. Photo from the John Dickson collection

Close-up photograph of a section of the Granton Castle Walled Garden — Detail of Granton Castle Walled Garden. Photo from the Gina Fierlafijn Reddie collection

Painting, titled "Granton Castle Walled Garden" by Harry Mafuji — The walled garden by Harry Mafuji

Find out more:

Canmore website, with more photos of Granton Castle

Caroline Park House

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Jan 152019

The gates to Caroline House Park

Caroline Park Avenue, Edinburgh EH5 1QJ

Caroline Park House, originally known as Royston House, was built around 1585 by Andrew Logan. In 1683 it was bought by Sir George Mackenzie of Tarbat, and in 1739 it was sold to the 2nd Duke of Argyll who renamed it Caroline Park after his daughter who married the Earl of Dalkeith. Through this marriage the house and estate passed in 1793 to the Duke of Buccleuch, a pivotal event in Granton’s history. The house was altered in 1740s by the architect William Adam, father of Robert and John Adam. Subsequent tenants of the house have included Archibald Cockburn (father of Lord Cockburn, the conservationist who lamented the development of Granton Harbour) and Lady John Scott (1810-1900), who produced the standard version of the old Scottish song ‘Annie Laurie’. The house (and adjacent Granton Castle), increasingly disturbed by industrial activity, became less attractive as a formal residency. The Duke initially leased the house as an office to AB Fleming & Co Ltd. which owned the printing ink and chemical works located further west of the house. In 1872 the company bought the house and it remained their HQ until 1966 when the company moved to Corstorphine. Since 1988 the house is in private hands.

The elegant Caroline Park House

Granton Gas Works Train Station

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Jan 152019

Photograph showing the Gas Works holder is on the left, Scottish HQ across the road on the left and the original station on the right

Once you arrive at the crossing, the Gas Works holder is on the left, Scottish HQ across the road on the left and the original station on the right

Waterfront Avenue, Edinburgh EH5 1JD

The Gas Works had railway networks with two types of lines serving goods and workers. An internal system of narrow gauge lines used steam locomotives and dealt with the ashes from the production process and with other waste and by-products. In addition, standard trains, part of the Caledonian Railway Granton Branch, operated from the Princes Street Station. This meant that coal deliveries could be taken into the Gas Works conveniently, and coke and other products sent away. The Granton Gas Works Station was opened on 27 February, 1903. This was a substantial station built to take the workers to and from the Gas Works. As there was no other form of transport to this area at this time, it is suspected that more than just the gas workers took advantage of the service. The station was closed in 1942 by the LMS Railway as transport links to the area improved. During the World War II, the Gas Works was a target for bombing, although it was not actually hit.

Granton Gas Works Station about 1903

Black and white photograph of a Scottish Gas Works, Granton Works locomotive inside the Gas Works

Scottish Gas Works, Granton Works 0-4-0 2′ 0″ locomotive inside the Gas Works

Granton House

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Jan 152019

Photograph of a field near the gasworks where Granton House once stood — The nearby location of Granton House (now demolished)

Forth Quarter, Edinburgh EH5 1FH

Near this site once stood Granton House, a 24-room three-storey mansion with a balustraded roof, built by the Earl of Hopetoun in 1807 on the Duke of Buccleuch’s land as part of a 99-year lease. In 1883, the house became the property of Lord Gifford (1820 – 1887) the Scottish advocate and judge. Visitors to the house included Sir Walter Scott and Florence Nightingale who, following her visit, wrote to the family and said “I think Granton House the most poetic place I ever saw.” The house was purchased by the Edinburgh and Leith Corporations Gas Commissioners around the time that Granton Gas Works was built (opened in 1902), for use as the official residence of the Chief Engineer and Manager. The first Chief Engineer and Manager to occupy the house was Mr W. R. Herring. When Edinburgh and Leith amalgamated in 1920, the house passed to Edinburgh Corporation. From 1946 Edinburgh Corporation used the property to house homeless families following World War II. On 1 January 1954 it was destroyed in a disastrous fire and what was left demolished.

Black and white photograph of Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford — Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford (1820-1887)

Photograph of the edge of a walkway bordered by reeds, titled "Turning Point" by Stuart Ogilvie — “Turning Point” by Stuart Ogilvie

Granton Gasworks

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Jan 152019

The entrance to Forthquarter Park, the location of Granton Gas Works

West Shore Road, Edinburgh EH5 1RH

In the 1890s, gas was being produced in Edinburgh, Leith, and Portobello and the sites were operating at full capacity. It was decided to build a substantial new single-site gasworks capable of future expansion. Following negotiation with the 6th Duke of Buccleuch, a 106¼ acre site at Granton was purchased for £124,000. An impressive structure, the most elegant gas holder in Scotland in terms of its external framing was erected as part of a £450,000 state-of-the-art coal gasworks between 1898 and 1903 under the direction of Dutch engineer W. R. Herring. Gas Holder Number 1, still standing today, had a maximum capacity of 7,000,000 cubic feet. Gas manufacturing stopped in 1987 and the building is now listed. The possibility of retaining this Gas Holder as an outstanding example of Scotland’s industrial heritage is under consideration.

Sepia photograph of the three separate gas holders at Granton Gasworks.. — The three separate gas holders at Granton Gasworks. Photo from the John Dickson collection.

A black and white aerial photograph of Granton Gas Works showing the gasworks, the Caledonian Railway lines going into the site and the station building. — An aerial picture of Granton Gas Works showing the extent of the gasworks, the Caledonian Railway lines going into the site and the station building (bottom right corner)

Photograph of the gasworks — Picture by Gareth Hutchison

Painting of the gasworks — Gasworks by Harry Mafuji

Granton Sea Quarry

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Jan 152019

Photograph of a field with the harbour in the background; this was the original location of the quarry — The original location of the quarry, now near-invisible

West Shore Road, Edinburgh EH5 1QT

This stretch of grassy fields (Gypsy Brae) was the location of Granton Sea Quarry. The earliest recorded use of stone from this quarry is for Holyrood Palace (1532) and Leith Bulwark (1552-53). Later, the stone was used for Granton Harbour’s pier and breakwater, the Granton Hotel, and even the statue on top of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London. The quarry, nearly 80 feet deep and over eight acres, collapsed and flooded after a storm in 1855. In 1884, it became the headquarters for the Scottish Marine Station for Scientific Research. This organisation carried out research on marine life in the quarry both from a floating platform and nearby buildings. The inconspicuous rock beds along the Forth shoreline are known as the Muirhouse ‘shrimp-bed’, in which geologists made a major discovery: a complete conodont, an eel-like creature whose teeth are the earliest found in the fossil record. The first trace fossils of the body of a conodont was unknowingly collected in the quarry in the 1920s. Starting in the 1980s, 11 more near-complete conodonts were found and identified, and then more again in 2013.

Extract from Mechanic’s Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal & Gazette, Jan-June 1842, p480

Black and white illustration of the Scottish Marine Station for Scientific Research in the quarry — Scottish Marine Station for Scientific Research in the quarry

Portrait of Patrick Geddes Inga Mantle — Patrick Geddes was the director of Education & Zoology of the Royal Scottish Marine Station (Laboratory) based at Old Sea Quarry in Granton 1884.

Charles Darwin in Granton

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Jan 152019

Granton Harbour wall in the distance and the outlying rock beds

Walking Path, West Shore Road, Edinburgh EH5 1QG

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and entered Edinburgh University to study medicine in 1825. Interested in natural history, he joined the Plinian Society, a University student club, and collected specimens along the shores of the Firth of Forth. The book The Berwick and Lothian Coasts, by Ian Campbell Hannah (1913), refers to Darwin and notes that, “About this point the coast again becomes rocky, and Charles Darwin found it a convenient spot for the study of seaweed and shells.” In 1859, a little over two decades after he started university, Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species would be published and go on to become a worldwide bestseller.

Black and white photograph of Charles Darwin taken in 1868.

Charles Darwin. Photo taken by Julia Margaret Cameron during the Darwin family’s 1868 holiday in her Isle of Wight cottage

WWII Air Raid – 16 October 1939

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Jan 152019

The entrance to the shore path

Walking Path, West Shore Road, Edinburgh EH5 1QG

On October 16th, 1939, the skies over Granton’s shoreline were filled with enemy bombers. In the first major raid against Britain of WWII, the German Luftwaffe sent twelve Junkers Ju88A-1s to intercept Royal Navy Battleship HMS Hood. Approaching from the west, the bomber crews saw they were too late – a battleship already safely docked in Rosyth Dockyard. Seeking alternative targets, the Junkers dived to attack shipping in the river below. With total surprise they dropped their bombs unopposed, narrowly missing HMS Edinburgh and HMS Southampton. Wave after wave of bombing harried the desperately zig-zagging ships. Then a shock… Spitfires! The raiders had been briefed there were no Spitfires in Scotland. Now two squadrons of them swarmed in defence. The bombers broke and fled for their lives, chased back down the river or across Edinburgh at rooftop height. Citizens dived for cover as machine guns rattled and bullet casings cascaded onto the streets. Two bombers were shot down into the Forth, their surviving crew rescued by local fishing boats. The 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron had claimed the first ever Spitfire victory. Edinburgh’s skies were safe, but disaster had only narrowly been averted.

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