Welcome to Edinburgh (2)
The 1603 Union with England led to the Scottish King leaving Edinburgh and the city ceasing to be the location of the court. However, the Scottish Parliament continued to be based here, in Parliament House - now the centre of the Scottish legal system: housing the Court of Session, the Court of Criminal Appeal, and the Advocates Library (building began in the 1630's). But Edinburgh continued to Grow. It was overcrowded, noisy and filthy. By the 1700's people complained that they could smell the stench from Dalkieth, 8 miles away. It is from around this time the name "Auld Reekie" began to be used to describe the city. This crammed, rat infested world where people lived in squalor and where hygiene was practically non existent, was prone to epidemics. Unsurprisingly the 1644-1646 plague outbreak hit Edinburgh hard, even forcing the parliament to move temporarily to Stirling. One Street, Mary King's Close below the City Chambers, was particularly badly effected, prompting the authorities to seal it off in 1645, locking both sick and healthy in together to await their deaths. For an insight into Edinburgh's 17th century living conditions guided tours of this perfectly preserved close, supposedly haunted by the victims of the plague, have been proving popular ever since its recent reopening.
When, in 1707, the Scottish parliament voted to abolish itself in favour of one United Kingdom parliament the vote did not take place in the parliament house but in a pub cellar at 177 High Street. Perhaps this was a fitting place for Robert Burns' "Parcel of Rogues" to go about their treacherous business: perhaps drunkenly toasting to each others good fortune, having been in receipt of substantial bribes from the English authorities. But while Edinburgh ceased to be a centre of political importance it flourished as a cultural centre. Edinburgh's Old Town, where the tightly packed population was concentrated in the many storied buildings, brought all levels of society together. The vacuum left by the migration of the politicians to London meant that the upper floors of these buildings would be filled by a new professional and intellectual elite. It is claimed that this environment is one of the factors contributing to the birth of Scotland's Enlightenment, which would be based largely in Edinburgh. Certainly, in the 200 years that followed Edinburgh became one of Europe's leading intellectual centres. Philosophers such as David Hume (1711-76), Adam Smith (1723-90) and Adam Ferguson (1723-1816) could be found discussing their ideas in halls and taverns; James Boswell (1740-95) was planning his work on Samuell Johnson; poets and writers such as Allan Ramsay (1686-1758), Robert Burns (1759-96) and Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) were coining unforgettable phrases; artists Allan Ramsay jr. (1713-84), Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823), David Wilkie (1785-1841) and Alexander Naysmyth (1758-1840) were reinvigorating art; and architects like Robert Adam (1728-92) were pioneering the neo-classical style. The " Athens of the North" came to describe Edinburgh at this time and to many the city seemed to be a new cornucopia of learning, as Athens itself had been 2000 years earlier.
In many ways Edinburgh prospered. The loch below the north side of the castle, now the location of Edinburgh Waverly train station, was deemed to be insanitary and filled in and by the end of the 18th century the construction of a new city was underway: Edinburgh's New Town, across the ravine to the north. The New Town was designed in grand classical fashion with crescents and squares and, together with the old medieval town, has left the city as one of the most architecturally beautiful in the world. For an insight into the style of life afforded to inhabitants of the New Town; 7 Charlotte Square, has been restored to how it would have looked in the 1790's, when it was the property of the Lamont family. However, the New Town was where Edinburgh's elite were to move, abandoning the Old Town to the poor, and to suffering and vice. Robert Loius Stephenson's "Jekyll and Hyde" and Arthur Conan Doyle's tales of Sherlock Holmes owe a lot to their experiences of this kind of Edinburgh. It was here that the famous body snatchers and serial killers, William Burke and William Hare, were to commit their crimes: supplying Surgeons Square medics with dead bodies for dissection, stolen or murdered, for around 10 pounds for each "subject".
The 19th century brought a population explosion to Edinburgh. The population quadrupled to 400,000, caused by general trends in urbanisation as well as the arrival of Irish immigrants fleeing famine. A new ring of crescents and circuses sprang up as well as Edinburgh's Victorian terraces. But while Glasgow became an industrial monster, Edinburgh remained the home of professionals, at least in the New Town. The Mid 20th century brought a policy of slum clearance and the inhabitants of the Old Town were moved to newly built schemes which now foster the kinds of social problems Irvine Welsh describes in his successful book, and later a successful film, "Trainspotting".
The other side of the coin is that over the same time period Edinburgh's reputation as a cultural centre has continued to grow. Commencing in 1947, the Edinburgh Festival has become one of the world's premier cultural and artistic events and every August attracts people from all over the world. Edinburgh's Universities have gained an international reputation for excellence in fields such as teaching, research, medicine, electronics and artificial intelligence. Recently, political power has returned to Scotland's capital too. Following the 1997 devolution referendum the Scottish Parliament has been reconvened after a gap of almost 300 years. Despite catastrophic mismanagement leading the cost of the building to spiral out of control, and a general disillusionment with politics in Scotland as a whole, for many the return of the parliament marks an exciting new era in Edinburgh's society.
Edinburgh is beautiful. Walking through the city sometimes feels like walking through some giant museum. The Old Town is one of those places where you can get lost round little narrow wynds and imagine for a second that you have actually stepped into the past. Amongst the neo-classical grandeur of the New Town too you can be caught out daydreaming about Edwardian or Victorian times. And yet, the city is alive: it's positively buzzing around the time of the festival. Despite its long history, this city is as much about the future as it is about the past. Back<<<
Related topics:
A Brief History of Scotland |
