Couldn’t be bothered doing anything today so decided to visit the Edinburgh Room, within Central Library on George the 4th Bridge in Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh room contains books, maps, prints, old newspapers and other stuff relating to Edinburgh’s past. My main reason for visiting was to have a look at old maps of Edinburgh - something I find facinating.
The Edinburgh rooms is actually a lot smaller than I imagined it would be. The rooms can be found down a set of stairs off the main entrance. Found the maps section quickly but found the “please do not touch maps - please ask at desk” message. Given I didn’t know what I was looking for how could I ask???
Anyway, found a map on one of the walls that dated from about 1812. I found it facinating. The map was drawn before the Canal or trains arrived in Edinburgh - the map showed 3 possible routes for the canal as it entered Edinburgh. The first route passed roughly along the lines of Dalry Road, through the west end, along Princes Street Gardens, through what is now Waverly Station and down towards Lieth docks. Route 2 was roughly as it is now, but instead of terminating at Lothian Road, it joined up with Route 1 roughly where the Caledonian Hotel is now. Route 3 passed further to the south - between Polwarth Terrace and Colinton Road, passed through the meadows and down to Leith. Sadly the map finished short of where my flat is now…
Next I found the Tram plans from 2003. I’ve looked at them many times on the Trams for Edinburgh website but it was different seeing them in colour in a printed form. One interesting point I found was at Haymarket Junction. Currently there are 4 lanes of traffic running eastbound - when the trams are there will be just one! 1 Lane for cars, 2 lanes for the trams, and one lane for a bus lane running westbound. Morrison street will become 2 way from Haymarket up to it’s junction with Semple Street. If your coming in to town on the A8 you ill be able to turn left up Dalry Road without having to go round the one way system. Not sure if anybody would actually need to do this as their are quicker routes. I still can’t see how their going to squeeze 2 tram lines, a pedestrian footpath and a cycle lane down the Roseburn corridor.
Next I found old airial photographs of Edinburgh taken between 1960 and 1990. Places like Sighthill and Longstone were brand new and looked very sparce. No sign of plants or trees. Sighthill didn’t yet have the dual caridgeway but did have it’s tower blocks. To the north of the city the gass works at Granton looked like a major operation. Telford College was just beeing built - which today is just being demolished!
Next was the various books that have been writen about Edinburgh. Found one about the old Colinton Railway line - a route I often walk. Amazing to see photos of where the stations used to be and the vast industries that once thrived there. None of the platforms exist today and most of the industry has long since gone and been demolished.
Just as I was leaving I spoted some more maps sitting round the corner. Hadn’t a clue how they were organised so picked a few up at random. The folders contained photocopies of a much larger map of arround 1900. Finally I found a map of the area I now live. Back then it was owned by “Watson Hospital” - as was much of the land arround Merchiston and Dalry. By the looks of it my flat was on farmland and had never been developed before then. One interesting thing was a large lake that used to be in the area of Watson Crescent with a river running down towards the Dalry / Gorgie junction. No sign of this today.
