Scott Monument, Princes Street

 India (New Town)  No Responses »
Apr 242018
 

Scott MonumentScott Monument, E. Princes St Gardens, Edinburgh EH2 2EJ

In 1821, Scott wrote: India is ‘the corn chest for Scotland, where we poor gentry must send our youngest sons as we send our black cattle to the South’. Scott’s novella, A Surgeon’s Daughter, is partly set in India and friends serving there helped with details. Family, like brother Robert and cousin James Russell, were in the East India Company; his wife Charlotte received about £40,000 annually (today’s value) from her brother in India. Walter helped his nephew to an Indian position – but discouraged his sons: Walter went to Madras only after his father’s death, and died en route home.

Statue of Sir Walter Scott.

Statue of Sir Walter Scott.

 

Watercolour portrait of Sir Walter Scott's son Walter in Hussars' uniform.

Watercolour portrait of Sir Walter Scott’s son Walter in Hussars’ uniform.

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India Buildings, Victoria Street

 India (Old Town)  No Responses »
Apr 242018
 

India Buildings.

India Buildings, Victoria St, Edinburgh EH1 2EX

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. The Buildings have a dramatic interior, with a domed, balconied rotunda. In January 1906, Pandurang Mahadev ‘Senapati’ Bapat (1880-1967) is said to have read an essay ‘British rule in India’ at a meeting here of the Independent Labour party. Bapat lost his Indian government scholarship, travelled to Paris in 1907, joined Indian radicals, returned to India in 1908 and became a freedom fighter.

India Buildings plaque.

India Buildings sign.

 

Postage Stamp of Senapati Bapat.

Postage Stamp of Senapati Bapat.

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George Heriot’s Hospital

 India (Old Town)  No Responses »
Apr 162018
 

George Heriot's.George Heriot’s School, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9EQ

John Borthwick Gilchrist (1759-1841), former pupil and donor of George Heriot’s, went to India as a surgeon in 1782. An early introducer of indigo, and farmer of sugar and opium, he also started the teaching of Hindustani and use of Devanagari letters at Fort William College Calcutta, 1801. Returning to Edinburgh, he joined the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Horticultural Society, the East India Club, and the Scottish Military and Naval Academy. He erected an aviary containing exotic birds outside his house on Nicolson Square. After his banking enterprise failed, he moved to London, taught Hindustani, and died in Paris.

 

Plaque to George Borthwick Gilchrist.

Plaque to George Borthwick Gilchrist.

 

Portrait of John Borthwick Gilchrist.

Portrait of John Borthwick Gilchrist.

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Greyfriars Kirkyard

 India (Old Town)  1 Response »
Apr 162018
 

Greyfriars KirkyardGreyfriars Kirkyard, Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh EH1 2QQ

Of 670 grave plots here, at least 60 have Indian connections. Henry Mackenzie wrote essays against men with Indian fortunes coming back to lord it over Scotland with rubies and fiery curries, but his gravestone mentions three of his own sons who themselves served in India. Famous Latin poet George Buchanan was the earliest Scot to criticise colonialism in India in his ‘Polyonymum’ (1552) and ‘De Sphaera’ (1555). Isabella Hope survived shipwreck off Madagascar in 1792. In 1825, John Adam, acting Governor General of India, died aboard ship in the same seas, according to his memorial in the family mausoleum.

Grave of Isabella Hope.

Grave of Isabella Hope.

Grave of George Buchanan

Grave of George Buchanan.


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Old College

 India (Old Town)  No Responses »
Apr 162018
 

Old CollegeOld College, University of Edinburgh, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL

The India links of Edinburgh University staff and students started in the 1750s and strengthened in the 19th century. Principal William Robertson (1762-93, mausoleum in Greyfriars’ Kirkyard) wrote an early history of India; Principal William Muir (1885-1903, bust in the Playfair Library), supported Muslim and female education in Northern India. Edinburgh University, long the preferred British university for Indians, has awarded Honorary Degrees to Nehru’s sister and Shah Rukh Khan. In the Playfair Library stairwell are a marble bas-relief of Bombay philanthropist Cowasji Jehangir, friend of Principal Alexander Grant (1868-84), and a painting of wealthy Anglo-Indian and philanthropist Margaret Tyndall Bruce.

Statue of Cowasji Jhangir.

Statue of Cowasji Jhangir.

 

Portrait of Margaret Tyndall Bruce.

Portrait of Margaret Tyndall Bruce in the Playfair Staircase.

 

Pandit Nehru at his sister's honorary degree ceremony.

Pandit Nehru at his sister’s honorary degree ceremony.

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Castle Esplanade

 India (Old Town)  No Responses »
Apr 162018
 

India Cross.Castle Esplanade, Edinburgh EH1 2NG

War memorials on the Esplanade include one to Colonel Mackenzie (92nd Highlanders) who quelled a mutiny of the 5th Bengal European Regiment in 1859. The events of 1857-58 are commemorated by the large ornate Celtic cross erected in 1862 by officers and soldiers of the 78th (Ross-shire) Highlanders in memory of their comrades. Another mutiny started right here. In 1778, 400 Seaforth Highlanders refused orders to embark for South India. Supplied by Edinburgh well-wishers they barricaded themselves on Arthur’s Seat for a week. Tricked into going to India afterwards, only 390 out of 1100 reached there able to fight.

Memorial to Colonel Mackenzie (92nd Highlanders)

Memorial to Colonel Mackenzie (92nd Highlanders).

 

'72' cipher of the Seaforth Highlanders' in honour of Kenneth Mackenzie, comander at the time of the Edinburgh mutiny.

’72’ cipher of the Seaforth Highlanders’ in honour of Kenneth Mackenzie, comander at the time of the Edinburgh mutiny.

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Harry Younger Hall

 History of Brewing  No Responses »
Jan 292018
 
Exterior of Harry Younger Hall

Harry Younger Hall

3 Lochend Close Edinburgh EH8 8BL

The Harry Younger Hall  belongs to the Canongate Kirk next door. It was originally built as a gymnasium for the young boys who lived in the area. During the Edinburgh International Festival it transforms into ‘Venue 13’. It was designed by the renowned architect Sir Basil Spence and its construction was completed in 1969. Spence was also responsible for Edinburgh University’s library, Coventry’s twentieth-century cathedral and parts of the New Zealand parliament. The hall is named in memory Harry Younger, of the notable Edinburgh brewing family, who served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Lothian and Borders Yeomanry during the Second World War and was killed in action at St Valery in 1940. His family and its brewing enterprise had been associated with the neighbourhood for generations. There are two remembrance plaques in the mearby Cannongate Kirk for the employees of William Younger brewery who fell in the Firet World War.

Black and white portrait of Sir Basil Spence

Sir Basil Spence (1907-76)

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Craigwell Brewery

 History of Brewing  No Responses »
Jan 292018
 

Nether Craigwell, Calton Road, Edinburgh EH8 8DR

One of many breweries in the area, Craigwell Brewery was founded in 1822 by John Blair. The original buildings do not survive, although some later nineteenth-century brewery buildings have now been converted into flats. These were built by Charles Blair, the son of John, who took over the firm in 1873.  John Blair’s son Charles built a maltings, where barley for use in the brewing process could be converted into malted barley. This building can still be seen standing opposite the brewery itself. Many breweries bought in the malt from an outside supplier rather than producing it themselves. The hoists which were used to pull the malted barley and other raw materials up to the brew house can still be seen. In 1898 Blair merged with the brewery of James Gordon in Glasgow to form Gordon and Blair. The brewery ceased production for a time the early 1900s when the well used to supply water for the brewing process became contaminated. However, a new well was dug and the brewery continued production until 1953.

Craigwell Brewery gates

The main gate of Craigwell Brewery.

Craigwell Brewery maltings

Maltings opposite main Ctraigwell Brewery buildings.

Label from Scotch Ale, brewed by Gordon & Blair.

Label from Scotch Ale, brewed by Gordon & Blair.

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Calton Hill Brewery

 History of Brewing  2 Responses »
Jan 292018
 
The exterior of Calton Hill Brewery

Calton Hill Brewery

63 Calton Road, Edinburgh EH8 8FJ

This brewery, owned by John Muir, was the first in Britain to brew lager in 1835. Muir had enjoyed lager while on a visit to Germany and decided to try brewing it himself on his return to Scotland. This style of beer requires a different type of yeast from traditional Scottish beer, and he had this sent to him in Edinburgh by a German friend. The difference between lager and the traditional dark Scottish beer, combined with the challenges presented by the need to store the lager at a cool, even temperature in the days before refrigeration, meant that it did not become widely established at this time. However, lager brewing was revived towards the end of the nineteenth century, by which time the technology had moved on. The original brewery buildings are now flats.

Label for Muir & Son's Sparkling Edinburgh Ale.

Label for Muir & Son’s Sparkling Edinburgh Ale.

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Waverley Station – Louis Pasteur’s visit to Edinburgh

 History of Brewing  No Responses »
Jan 292018
 
A view of Waverley Station from above, looking fowards Princes Street

Waverly Station

Edinburgh EH1 1BB

When the great French biologist Louis Pasteur visited Edinburgh in 1884 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the city’s University he arrived, as many visitors do today, at Waverley station. You can get a magnificent view of the station from this spot on west side of North Bridge. The brewing industry had benefited greatly from Pasteur’s research and discoveries on fermentation, and Henry Younger, the great-grandson of the founder of the Younger brewing dynasty, not only invited Pasteur to stay at his house, but also arranged for a special carriage for him to be attached to the London to Edinburgh train which pulled into Waverley Station. Pasteur was horrified by the public health situation in Edinburgh, and Alexander Low Bruce, a senior manager at Younger’s, decided that a new chair of public health should be created at the University of Edinburgh as a direct result of his conversations with Pasteur. Bruce himself made a bequest of £5000 for this purpose. This chair was jointly endowed, in a move that might seem somewhat ironic today, by the proprietors of William Younger’s brewery and Usher’s distillery. A total sum of £15,000 was donated by the family of  Bruce, Younger’s brewery and Sir John Usher. The Bruce and John Usher chair of Public Health was established in 1898 and still exists at the University of Edinburgh today.

Black and white portrait of Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur (1822-95)

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