A new exhibition showing rarely seen photos and documents of Comely Bank opens Friday 1st September at Stockbridge Library to celebrate 200 years since the first homes of the new Edinburgh neighbourhood were built to the west of Stockbridge.
“Comely Bank 1817 – 2017” has been curated by local residents and documents the fascinating history and development of the neighbourhood by businessman and philanthropist, Sir William Fettes from the 1800s, to the present day. Sir William, who became Lord Provost of Edinburgh, purchased Comely Bank Estate and House as a country seat in 1800 to provide a rural retreat away from the hustle and bustle of his Princes Street home. At that time, the area was made up of vast meadows and fields. As Edinburgh spread northwards, Fettes devised a plan to provide a major architectural scheme in this quiet suburb, but the development was never finished.
Thomas Carlyle House
The exhibition is the story of the unfinished terrace of Georgian houses at Comely Bank and some other features of the neighbourhood, discovered while researching.
Today Sir William Fettes is well known as the founder of Fettes College, a leading Independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh. Some perhaps know of him as the one time Provost of Edinburgh. In fact his bequest to this area is greater than he may ever have anticipated or comprehended.
Architectural drawings of Comely Bank by Thomas Brown
In 2017, we celebrate the bicentenary of the architectural drawings made by Thomas Brown for William Fettes’ speculative venture for major Georgian suburb. This spectacular scheme was to radically extended Edinburgh’s residential boundary to the north and west of Henry Raeburn’s development in Stockbridge and right into the surrounding countryside.
In a quest to understand why barely half of one terrace was built, much more was discovered …
Present day Comely Bank Neighbourhood Boundary Map. City Of Edinburgh Council. (Source)
Comely Bank 1817-2017
September 1st – 30th
Stockbridge Library
11 Hamilton Place EH3 5BA
13:00 – 20:00 Mon
10:00 – 17:00 Tue
13:00 – 20:00 Wed
10:00 – 17:00 Thu Fri Sat
edinburgh.gov.uk/stockbridge_library
stockbridge.library@edinburgh.gov.uk
