Stockbridge, Edinburgh
The painter Henry Raeburn (1756–1823) owned two adjoining estates, Deanhaugh and St Bernard's, which he developed with the assistance of the architect James Milne.
This stands at the north end of St Vincent Street, its tower visible from the first New Town on the higher slope to the south.
Originally intended to stand in the centre of Circus Place, it was redesigned and squeezed into its current restricted site on ground which falls sharply at the southern edge of the Silvermills area.
A small spur on its north side, St Stephen Place, leads to the old Stockbridge Market, of which the original entrance archway still stands.
The main road through Stockbridge is Raeburn Place, a street of mixed character, with numerous small shops at ground-floor level.
Gloucester Lane marks the line of the medieval road from the village to St Cuthbert's Church at the west end of Princes Street.
This formal space was never completed due to ground level problems and Glenogle Baths (1898)[2] To the north, St Bernard's Row leads out past another little Georgian cul-de-sac, Malta Terrace, to Inverleith and the Botanic Gardens.
Between Glenogle Road and the Water of Leith are twelve parallel streets, collectively known as the "Stockbridge Colonies", built between 1861 and 1911 by the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company to provide low-cost housing for the artisan class.
The colony houses are now coveted properties, due partly to their location near the Royal Botanic Garden and Inverleith Park, and ease of access to the city centre.
[4] In 1884 the lands (including the well) were purchased by the Edinburgh publisher William Nelson, who commissioned the current statue of Hygieia from David Watson Stevenson and presented the improved well to the city as a landmark.
In the opening years of the 19th century George Lauder of Inverleith Mains also acquired parts of these lands as evidenced by a charter whereby "Henry Raeburn, as retoured heir to Sir Henry Raeburn, Knight, Portrait Painter, Edinburgh, his father, was seised on the 19 March 1824 in a piece of ground for the purpose of making a communication by a stone bridge across the Water of Leith from the New Street called Atholl Street, now India Place, to the grounds of St Bernards, parish of St Cuthberts, which piece of ground had previously been sold by George Lauder residing at Inverleith Mains, to the said (deceased) Sir Henry Raeburn on 28 June 1823".
His eldest surviving son is described in the Edinburgh Annual Post Office Directories as "William Lauder of St.Bernards Well, farmer" until his death in nearby Saunders Street in 1858.
In 1884 St. Bernard's Well was purchased and presented to his fellow Edinburgh townsmen by the publisher William Nelson, after it had been restored and redecorated by Thomas Bonnar, with a new statue of Hygieia, carved by David Watson Stevenson.
[8] Raeburn Place is the main retail thoroughfare, and the playing fields there were the location of the first international rugby match when the Edinburgh Academy sports ground hosted the game between Scotland and England on 27 March 1871.
The Edinburgh Academy's sports grounds are adjacent to The Grange Club, which is home turf of the Scottish cricket team.
For example: – Mary Reilly; North & South; Women Talking Dirty (directed by Coky Giedroyc); Rebus; Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
It was a run-down second-hand clothes shop which occupied for many years a basement area in South East Circus Place, now Frame Creative, a design agency, and the Doubtfire Gallery.
