IMPROVEMENTS IN EDINBURGH

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 241, 10 February 1860, Page 3

IMPROVEMENTS IN EDINBURGH

(From the Mercury, Sept.)

Seldom has there been so much activity in building operations in Edinburgh and its suburbs as at present. The great and every year increasing demand for house accommodation.has created an extraordinary degree of enterprise on the part of builders; and in all directions operations for the erection of new houses of every possible variety of style and magnitude are going on with briskness and vigor. Within the city, this enterprise is principally manifested in the erection of public edifices, and the renovation of old business establishments. In Princes-street especially there has been several houses demolished on whose sites handsome and showier structures are to he built. The tenement which adjoined the New Club on the west has been taken down, to extend the premises of the club, and a new dining-room, drawing-room, and capacious billiard-room, will be added to the original apartments. The tenement on the east side of the Clarendon Hotel is to be taken down to allow of an extension of the Clarendon. Another building, a little to the west of the Clarendon, has also been pulled down, and upon its site there is, now being erected a handsome edifice.with an ornate front elevation. It is intended for shops. When these buildings are finished, it will further improve the appearance of Princesstreet.

The work, of demolishing^ the old tenements in Shakspeare-square is rapidly approaching completion, and in a few weeks there will not be a vestige remaining of that venerable group of which the TheatreRoyal was the centre and the chief. When the Theatre-Royal itself is to share the fate of its neighbors is not yet decided, but it must also soon be removed.

In various localities throughout the city private dwelling houses are going up with great activity, and will assist to supply the existing demand for accommodation. At St. Leonard's there have recently been erected several handsome little cottages, with small plots of ground in front, and enclosed with iron railings. Lord Russel Place and East Preston-street are being extended by the erection of houses on the same plain as those already built in these localities; while a field adjoining Gilmoreplace on the north-west, has been feued for building purposes, and the line has been traced out for a range of commodious dwelling houses. The gap in the line of Castleterrace, which so long detracted from the appearance of that thoroughfare is now being filled up by the erection of spacious buildings uniform with the others. Perhaps the most important of all the building enterprises now being carried into effect, is that which is intended to supply cheap house accommodation to the working man. An enterprising contractor, some years ago, built on a vacant space of ground between Gardner's Cresent and Grovestreet, a large block of neat little cottages, for the accommodation of working people. The block goes under the name of Rosebank. The cottages were built of stone, and consisted of two self-contained flats, the lower being entered by a I'ront door, and the upper by an outside stair at the back. Compared with the miserable tenements in the Old Town, with which the working man was at a very recent*]period, obliged to be contented, as the "best his means could afford, the Rosebank cottages were magnificant, luxuriant residences. But they by no means sufficed to meet the growing demand to which the demolition of old closes and wynds at the back of the High-street, and of the old houses in Shaks-peare-square, and the process of demolition and reconstruction in other localities, gave a great impetus. Accordingly, schemes to provide extended and improved accommodation for the working classes were entered into— the most promising and successful of which is that projected by the Rosemount Association. This association directed their attention to the district adjoining Fountainbridge and the Grove, in the neighborhood of which there are a number of extensive factories, employing several hundreds of working men, many of whom had to go long distances into the city to find house accommodation of any kind for their families. An association was accordingly formed, to raise capital in shares of £10 each for building working men's houses, and a piece of, ground between the Rosebank cottages and the Gutta Percha Company's works was secured on which they proposed to build a square of houses. A sufficient amount of capital having been subscribed to enable the association to go on with half the square, building operations were commenced in March last (1859). Half of the sum required to build the other half of the square has since been subscribed, and in a few months it is expected that the whole capital will be paid up. The square is to be three stories high, and to consist of ninety-six houses, fitted up with grates, and supplied with gas, water, and other conveniences, and a washing house for every eight houses. These houses, it is expected, will let at rents varying from £6 10s. to £10 a-year. According to the original plans, there will be thirty houses, of three rooms each, at £10; twelve houses, with the same number of rooms, but a shade smaller —the space on which they are built being curtailed by the formation of passages into the interior of the square-*at £9 155,; forty-two houses, of two rooms and a light bed-closet each, at £8; and twelve houses, of two rooms each, at £6 10s. The whole square is to be surrounded by a space of ground thirty feet broad, part of which will form a roadway round the quadrangle, and part will be divided and laid out in small gardens to be let to the tenants. In the centre of the quadrangle will be a large bleaching-green, 130 feet square. The buildings are going on briskly; the material used is brick, which being cheaper than stone, enables the Association to carry through this project safely and prudently,

and to let their houses at a cheap rent, without being losers to any extent by the transaction. As proof of the demand that exists among working men for comfortable house accommodation, the Association have already several offers from working men both as purchasers and as tenants of the new buildings.