John Learmonth

He was born on 26 May 1789 the son of John Learmonth or Learmont, an Edinburgh coach-builder based at 4 Princes Street on the site presently occupied by the Balmoral Hotel, and was a man of independent means before becoming a property speculator and politician, becoming a city Bailie in 1830.

At this time he was living at 38 Charlotte Square but moved to 6 Moray Place in 1830 at the start of his political career, remaining there until death.

[3] In 1829 he commissioned Thomas Telford to design a huge bridge over the Water of Leith to allow expansion of the city onto lands to the west (much owned by himself).

Due to rival projects the Dean estate was not properly begun until the 1850s when John Tait was commissioned to lay out the area between Ann Street and Queensferry Road.

His son (by an earlier marriage) Lt Col Alexander Learmonth (1809–1867) commissioned John Chesser to continue the second phase of the Dean Estate, south of Queensferry Road (Buckingham Terrace, Belgrave Crescent etc.).