Kirjahaku

A Century of Edinburgh offers an insight into the daily lives and living conditions of local people and gives the reader glimpses and details of familiar places during a century of unprecedented change. Many aspects of Edinburgh's recent history are covered, famous occasions and individuals are remembered and the impact of national and international events is witnessed. A Century of Edinburgh provides a striking account of the changes that have so altered the city's appearance and records the process of transformation. Drawing on detailed local knowledge of the community, and illustrated with a wealth of black-and-white photographs, this book recalls what Edinburgh has lost in terms of buildings, traditions and ways of life. It also acknowledges the regeneration that has taken place and celebrates the character and energy of local people as they move through the first years of this new century.

From mean beginnings – ‘wretched accommodation, no comfortable houses, no soft beds’, visiting French knights complained in 1341 – the city of Edinburgh went on to become one of the architectural wonders of the world. But over the centuries many of its fine buildings have gone. Although invasion and civil strife played their part, some buildings simply collapsed of old age and neglect. Others were swept away in the ‘improvements’ of the nineteenth century; yet more fell in the developers’ swathe of destruction in the twentieth century as shifting patterns of social habits, industry, housing and road systems demanded change on a massive scale. Few buildings were immune as much of the Old Town’s medieval heritage was destroyed, Georgian squares attacked, Princes Street ruined, old tenements razed in huge slum clearances, and once familiar and much-loved landmarks disappeared. In this informative and stimulating book, Hamish Coghill sets out to trace many of Edinburgh’s lost buildings – from imposing city centre edifices to domestic dwellings – and to find out why they were doomed. Lavishly illustrated, Lost Edinburgh is a fascinating insight into a cityscape that has been constantly reinvented over the years, and which continues to develop in the most unexpected and dramatic ways in the twenty-first century.