Curious Edinburgh - Curious Edinburgh

The Royal Society of Edinburgh

India (New Town) Comments Off

Apr 242018

Royal Society of Edinburgh

The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 22-26 George St, Edinburgh EH2 2PQ

The RSE, created in 1783 for “the advancement of learning and useful knowledge” moved into this building in 1909. About 240 of its Fellows worked in India, including Sir Ronald Ross, who documented the link between mosquitoes and malaria, and Viceroy Lord Linlithgow. About 40 Fellows had Indian names, the earliest being educator, jurist, barrister and mathematician Asutosh Mukhopâdhyay in 1886. Several fellows gave the RSE Indian materials. Notably, Frances Simpson in 1819 gave four sculptures from Bihar/Bengal. George Swinton, in 1827, gave three Burmese sculptures; the head of a dugong; snakes; corals; an alligator and many other items.

Letterbox of Royal Society.

Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee.

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Edinburgh India Institute: Royal Society of Edinburgh

Scott Monument, Princes Street

India (New Town) Comments Off

Apr 242018

Scott 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.

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

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Edinburgh India Institute: Sir Walter Scot’s India Network

India Buildings, Victoria Street

India (Old Town) Comments Off

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 sign.

Postage Stamp of Senapati Bapat.

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Edinburgh India Institute: National Library of Scotland

George Heriot’s Hospital

India (Old Town) Comments Off

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.

Portrait of John Borthwick Gilchrist.

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Edinburgh India Institute: Edinburgh’s Schools

Greyfriars Kirkyard

India (Old Town) 1 Response »

Apr 162018

Greyfriars 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 George Buchanan.

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Edinburgh India Institute: Greyfriars Church and Graveyard

Old College

India (Old Town) Comments Off

Apr 162018

Old 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.

Portrait of Margaret Tyndall Bruce in the Playfair Staircase.

Pandit Nehru at his sister’s honorary degree ceremony.

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Edinburgh India Institute: India and the University of Edinburgh

Castle Esplanade

India (Old Town) Comments Off

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).

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

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Edinburgh India Institute: India and Edinburgh Castle

Summer house, Moray House

History of Brewing Comments Off

Jan 292018

Summer House inside the gates of Morray House

Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8BA

If you look through the gates of Moray House on the north side of Holyrood Road from this spot you can see the summer house where a historic event took place in 1707. In that year the threat of a riotous mob, enraged by the decision of the Scottish Parliament to sign the Treaty of Union with England, prevented the representatives of the two countries from signing the Treaty in the Scottish Parliament. For their own safety they retreated to this summer house in a private garden off Hollyrood Road, where they could sign away Scotland’s independence in peace. However, it proved one step too far for the Scottish representatives that Article 13 of the treaty imposed a malt tax on Scotland which had originally been established in England to pay for war with France. This tax on the brewing industry was too much for the Scottish parliamentarians and it was finally agreed that Scotland would be exempted from it. However, after the Union the tax was eventually imposed on Scotland anyway in 1725, leading to riots in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, where nine people died.

View of Moray House summer house from across Holyrood Road.

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The University of Edinburgh, Moray House School of Education: The Summer House

Harry Younger Hall

History of Brewing Comments Off

Jan 292018

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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Canmore: Harry Younger Hall

Craigwell Brewery

History of Brewing Comments Off

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.