Curious Edinburgh - Curious Edinburgh

Wong Fun Statue

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Oct 192020

The Confucius Institute for Scotland, 1 Marchhall Crescent, Edinburgh EH16 5HP

Wong Fun Statue at the Confucius Institute for Scotland

The Confucius Institute for Scotland at the University of Edinburgh promotes the “educational, economic, and cultural ties between Scotland and China.” In the 1850s, the University of Edinburgh was one of the first destinations for Chinese students pursuing overseas study. This statue depicts Dr. Wong Fun (Huang Kuan), who was educated as a medical student at the University of Edinburgh between 1850 and 1855. The Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society (EMMS) granted financial support to overseas students studying medicine in Scotland, and aided Dr. Wong financially from 1852. Upon completing his studies, Dr. Wong became the first Chinese student to graduate from any institution across the whole of Europe, as well as the first Western-trained doctor in China. Dr. Wong’s thesis was entitled ‘On Functional Disorders of the Stomach’ and Yung Wing, a former classmate and one of the first Chinese students to graduate in America, remembered him as “one of the ablest surgeons East of the Cape of Good Hope.” After his graduation, Wong was appointed as a clinical clerk to Professor James Miller in the New Surgical Hospital, and later took a position in a missionary hospital in Kum-Lee-Fow.

A Plaque to Wong Fun also stands at 8 Buccleuch Place.

Colonial House

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Oct 152020

2 Palmerston Road, Edinburgh EH9 1TN

2 Palmerston Road, site of Colonial House

In the 1940s, ‘Colonial House’ at 2 Palmerston Road was the residence of “all sorts of colonial persons” and was the location for meetings of both the Afro-Scottish and the Edinburgh African Association. These hostels were cheaper than private accommodation and offered relief from loneliness. “Above all, the hostels eliminated that spectre of colonial student life: ‘the intolerant or grasping landlady.” Julius Nyerere stayed at Colonial House when he arrived to study Economics and History at Edinburgh on a colonial scholarship in 1949. At the time, he was one of only two East African students in Scotland. Nyerere led Tanganyika to independence in 1961 and was President of Tanzania (the name given to the territory after the 1964 union with Zanzibar) until 1985. At Edinburgh, Nyerere took courses in Political Economy, Social Anthropology, Economic and British History, and Moral Philosophy. Margaret Bell, who taught him British History, commented that his writing style was often “the best in her group.” According to historian Tom Molony, “Edinburgh was a place where Nyerere enjoyed new levels of intellectual freedom.” Today, Nyerere is remembered for his elaboration of African Socialism, which informed his plans for the social and economic development of Tanzania.

International Students’ Hostel

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Oct 132020

5 Grosvenor Crescent, Edinburgh EH12 5EP

5 Grange Road, site of the old International Students’ Hostel

The YMCA Indian Students’ Hostel was established at Grosvenor Crescent in 1920. In 1933, it became the International Students’ Hostel, accommodating “men from India, Sudan, South and East Africa, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and Parsis.” By 1939, residents included Ghanaian doctor and artist Edward Oku Ampofo. Ampofo studied in Edinburgh from 1933 as the first Ghanaian to receive a government scholarship to study medicine. At the same time, he attended night classes for art. According to Emmanuel Evans-Anfom, Ampofo was on the University hockey team, and played matches against Aberdeen and Glasgow. After returning to Ghana from further studies in China, Ampofo founded the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine in 1975. His ground-breaking studies led to the identification of over 300 plant-based remedies for diseases such as sickle-cell anaemia, diabetes, arthritis and even some forms of cancer. As an artist, Ampofo was instrumental in the formation of the Akwapim Six, a group of diverse artists in Ghana. His own sculptures featured traditional African materials, including ebony. Ampofo insisted that art was intertwined with the politics of decolonization, saying: “art had a function in the political struggle, because our artistic achievements showed that we are ready for political independence.”

Old Medical School

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Oct 082020

Old Medical School, The University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG

Edinburgh’s medical school has attracted many international students throughout its history, including Dominican-born Clara Christian, the first black woman student enrolled at the University in 1915. When her mother passed away when she was 11, Christian moved to Edinburgh and attended a convent school. In 1915, she began her medical degree, but left University after falling pregnant with the child of fellow Caribbean medical student, Edgar Gordon. The couple emigrated back to the Caribbean in 1921. Living in the British Empire, they faced institutional barriers within Bermuda’s employment sector, frequently being overlooked for roles that were handed to white colonials. Their marriage deteriorated, resulting in divorce. Despite not graduating, Christian was capable, intelligent, and hard-working. Nevertheless, as a single mother, she had to turn down roles that required her to relocate permanently while promising little opportunity for promotion. Esme Allman captures the importance of remembering Christian, whose experience, “embodies the simultaneous invisibility and hyper-visibility of being the first black woman enrolled at Edinburgh, at odds with the possibility of falling by the wayside whilst navigating a predominantly white institution during the colonial period.”

7 Grange Road

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Oct 082020

7 Grange Road, Edinburgh EH9 1UH

South African Kesaveloo Goonam Naidoo lived with the Dewar family at 7 Grange Road in the early 1930s. In her autobiography, Goonam fondly remembered “the cold wintry evenings spent cuddled up with Aunt Mary near the glowing fire, listening to her tales of Scotland.” When Goonam graduated from Edinburgh’s Medical School, she became the first Indian female doctor in South Africa. Reflecting on her time at the University, Goonam remembered Edinburgh’s Indian students as “intensely patriotic, highly critical of the British, and passionately supportive of Gandhi.” When she returned to South Africa in 1936, Goonam galvanized women’s involvement in Indian nationalist activities. She was the first woman to attain the vice-presidency of the Natal Indian Congress, and became a leading political force in the Passive Resistance Campaign, launched in 1946 by fellow Edinburgh alum Dr. Monty Naicker against the Asiatic Land Tenure and Representation Bill. This Bill, enacted by the South African Parliament, “declared war on (South African) Indians” by segregating them into ghettos, and thereby earning the nickname “the Ghetto Act.” When Goonam passed away at 92, Nelson Mandela offered his condolences, saying that South Africa had lost a great freedom fighter and an outstanding champion of democracy.

Kesaveloo Goonam graduated from Edinburgh in 1936.

High School Yards

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Aug 102020

High School Yards, Edinburgh EH1 1LZ

surgeon's square — High School Yards with Old Surgeon’s Hall.

The four buildings inside High School Yards have a long history of medicine and surgery within Edinburgh. Old Surgeons’ Hall (OSH), built in 1697 by Scottish architect James Smith, was designed as an anatomy theatre and the first public dissection occurred in 1703. By 1832, the surgeons moved to New Surgeons’ Hall on Nicolson Street and OSH and the New High School building (where the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation is currently located) were converted to surgical hospitals. The current School of Geoscience was built in 1853 as a surgical hospital. Known as Drummond Street Surgical Hospital, it was built as part of the Royal Infirmary. When the Royal Infirmary moved to Lauriston Place in 1879, the already established surgical hospitals and Chisholm House were converted into medical facilities for contagious patients. Under the control of Sir Henry Littlejohn, Edinburgh’s Medical Officer, this group of buildings became known as the City Fever Hospital. In 1903 the City Fever Hospital moved to a new location on Coliston Mains and the buildings at HSY were sold to the University of Edinburgh.

Postcard of a painting by J Sanderson of the old Royal Infirmary Edinburgh building at Infirmary Street.

An etching (published in 1829) of Old Surgeon’s Hall and adjacent buildings.

Perspective View of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Infirmary Street.

Queensberry House

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Aug 102020

64 Canongate, EH8 8BS

Queensberry House (2010, CC-SA by Kim Traynor)

Queensberry House is currently part of the Scottish Parliament buildings and contains the office for the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament. From 1803 until 1996, however, the house was used as a hospital. In 1801, Queensberry House, previously a private residence, was repossessed by the government and used as an emergency hospital. The house then acted as an army base from 1808-1815, with a third storey was added to the house to accommodate army barracks and the pavilions converted into marching areas. The house returned to its use as emergency public hospital between 1815-1833, caring for homeless patients. In 1833, Queensberry House officially became a House of Refuge for the homeless population of Edinburgh. It remained one until the foundation of the NHS in 1948, at which point it became a specialised care facility for the elderly as Queensberry House Hospital. The hospital closed in 1996 and the site was purchased by the Scottish Parliament in 1997 where it became integrated with the Holyrood building.

Trinity House / South Leith Parish Church

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Aug 102020

99 Kirkgate, Leith, EH6 6BJ

The Maritime Museum (formerly the South Leith Parish Church and Trinity House), is the site of Leith’s first hospital, St. Anthony’s, founded in 1430 by Sir Robert Logan. The hospital consisted of two parts: hospital and the chapel, and the hospital would have stretched all the way to Henderson Street. In 1560, the Siege of Leith led to the hospital falling into ruin. After the Scottish Reformation, a new hospital, King James’, was erected on the same site in 1614, where it remained until 1822. A memorial stone commemorating the original hospital can be found in the kirkyard, with a small stretch of the original wall from 1614. In 2009 an archaeological excavation of Constitution Street just outside of the church discovered 260 graves, dating from the time of the original hospital on this location.

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The collection records for the original seal of St Anthony’s Hospital.
Details of the excavation in 2009.

Chalmers Hospital

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Aug 102020

45 Lauriston Place/2a Chalmers Street, EH3 9HQ

In 1836, George Chalmers, a plumber and burgess of Edinburgh, passed away, leaving the residue of his estate “for the express purpose of founding a New Infirmary or Sick and Hurt Hospital, or by whatever name it may be Designed.” Unfortunately, Chalmers did not leave enough funds to build a hospital, so the total value of his estate was invested in government stock. By 1860 the stocks had increased in value enough to pay for the conversion of Lauriston House into a hospital. Architect J. Dick Peddle designed the hospital to have four separate wards with 48 beds. The first two of these wards opened in February 1864 for free patient care, and in 1872 the second two wards were opened for paying patients. In 1939 the hospital was requisitioned by the government for the care of civilian casualties during WWII. Chalmers Hospital became part of the NHS in 1948 and with it turned its two private patient wards into wards for free hospital care. In 2009 the hospital was redesigned, incorporating the original building with a glass annexe to accommodate a sexual health centre.

Designs for the extension to the Chalmers Hospital.

Royal Public Dispensary of Edinburgh

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Aug 102020

20 W Richmond St, Edinburgh EH8 9DX

The current MacKenzie Medical Centre was once the site of the Royal Public Dispensary of Edinburgh, Scotland’s first public dispensary. In the early 1770s, Andrew Duncan taught at the University of Edinburgh, using chronically ill patients unable to pay for treatment. As the number of patients at these sessions kept increasing, Duncan proposed a public dispensary that would provide free healthcare in large numbers to the poor. When the dispensary opened in 1783, teaching was a key element of its practice and, as practical experience became a requirement in medical education, from 1890 onwards it was compulsory. In 1963, the dispensary building was donated to the University of Edinburgh. It is now a GP training practice, where students still have the opportunity for hands-on experience.

Mackenzie Medical Centre in 2017 (CC-SA by David Hawgood)

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