Edinburgh College of Art

3 Bruntsfield Place

Oct 192020

3 Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh EH10 4HN

Theodore Clerk, the first professionally certified Ghanaian architect, lived at 3 Bruntsfield Place between 1940 and 1942. Coming from a large family of pioneering scholars and clergy, Theodore secured a government scholarship to study Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art in 1938. Whilst still a student, Clerk worked for both the Scottish National Buildings Record and the Department of Health for Scotland, undertaking measuring work and housing surveys. Upon completing his examinations in 1943, Clerk was admitted as an associate by the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) and was awarded the Rutland Prize by the Royal Scottish Academy. When Clerk returned to Ghana, he was, for a time, the only Ghanaian architect in the country. Clerk is best known for his work on the port city of Tema, the largest seaport in Ghana. Commissioned by President Kwame Nkrumah, he designed and built affordable housing for low-income dockworkers at the harbour. Clerk was also the first president of the Ghana Institute of Architects and authored its first constitution. Theodore’s sister, Matilda J. Clerk, was also a student at Edinburgh. She was the second Ghanaian female doctor and the first Ghanaian woman to be awarded a scholarship for university education abroad.

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Oct 192020

Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF

Records of Finandra Nath Bose’s time at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) exist from 1908, and he was awarded his diploma in 1911. Born in Calcutta, India, Finandra Nath Bose trained as a sculptor at ECA under Percy Portsmouth. Portsmouth recalled that, “Bose excelled in small sculpture; he had a phenomenal control of minutiae […] he was an excellent craftsman, a true artist, showing delicacy and taste in everything he did.” After completing his studies at Edinburgh, Bose moved to Paris to work under Auguste Rodin. He became part of the “new sculpture movement” in Britain, whose small figurative statues focused on realism, movement, and symbolism. Bose’s sculptures can be seen in multiple locations across Scotland, including a War Memorial (1925) on the Main Street of Ormiston, East Lothian, as well as ‘St John the Baptist,’ designed for St John’s Church, Perth. He has been described as the first Indian to achieve recognition in Britain and was one of the first international artists to become a member of the Royal Scottish Academy.

New Curious Edinburgh tours

For International Women’s Day on March 8, we are launching a new tour featuring locations in Edinburgh connected to amazing women in STEM. Celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion in STEM by taking a look at Edinburgh-connected women who have made an impact in a wide range of STEM fields.

Check out our new bird trail! We are currently working on the development of coastal trails, in collaboration with Traveltech for Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy Scotland’s Coastal Knowledge map. Here you can upload your own experiences of the coast, including birds you have spotted.

Last year we added the Second World War tour developed by academics from the schools of Social and Political Science and History, Classics and Archeology.