West End, Edinburgh

West End
Shandwick Plack and the West End Tram Stop
Council area	City of Edinburgh
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Postcode district	EH
Dialling code	0131
Police	Scotland
Fire	Scottish
Ambulance	Scottish
List of places UK Scotland Edinburgh

The West End of Edinburgh, Scotland, forms a large part of the city centre. The West End boasts several of the city's hotels, restaurants, independent shops, offices and arts venues, including the Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh International Conference Centre and the Caledonian Hotel.^[1] The area also hosts art festivals and crafts fairs.^[2]

The northern half of the West End forms part of Edinburgh's World Heritage Site.^[3] As can be inferred by its inclusion in this, this area of the city contains many buildings of great architectural beauty, primarily long rows and crescents of Georgian terraced houses.

History[]

West End streets looking northwards along Walker Street towards the roundabout on Melville Street.

In 1615 John Byres the city Treasurer built a new house called Coates Hall to the west of the city. The house had a truly huge estate, stretching to St Cuthbert's Church.^[4]

Around 1800, the estate was bought by William Walker who sought to develop the east section of the estate, adjacent to the then newly built New Town.^[5] In 1808 a plan for the West End was devised by the architect Robert Brown and construction began in 1813 on Coates Crescent.^[5] New streets included William Street and Walker Street, named after William Walker. He also developed Melville Street and Atholl Crescent.^[6] Melville Street was largely completed by the 1830s although the corner plots remain unfinished until the 1860s.^[5]

Walker left the land north and south of his home as garden ground and it remained such until the 1870s, when streets to the north such as Drumsheugh Gardens were completed.^[5] The estate was inherited by his two spinster daughters: Mary and Barbara Walker. They began to sell off the western section of the estate for development around 1860. Devout Episcopalians, they donated their own garden and fully underwrote the entire cost of building an Episcopalian Cathedral as a centrepiece for the whole West End. This begun in 1873 and opened in 1879 and was named St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. The Walker's funds did not cover the cost of all three spires. The two front spires were not added until 1917.^[7]

The southern area of the West End was developed separately under several different landowners.^[5] In 1806, Shandwick Place was developed by John Cockburn Ross, of Shandwick in Easter Ross.^[5] This soon joined up with the newly built Maitland Street (started 1807), named after its developer and owner Sir Alexander Charles Maitland, 2nd baronet of Cliftonshall.^[8] The area west of Manor Place remained undeveloped until the 1860s, however Rutland Square was developed from the 1830s under the auspices of its owner Provost John Learmonth who also owned much of the nearby Dean Village.^[8]

Although built as a residential district, from the mid 20th century most of the buildings were predominantly used for offices. Retail uses are concentrated on Shandwick Place, West Maitland Street, William Street and Queensferry Street where the area abuts the Moray Estate. William Street is the only street which has a continual commercial ground floor of 19th century character.

Edinburgh's first power station was built on the southern edge of the West End at Dewar Place off Morrison Street between 1894 and 1895.^[9][10] The power station was coal-fired using fuel from the adjacent Caledonian Railway yards adjacent to Edinburgh Princes Street railway station.^[9] While the power station has since been dismantled, the area still serves as one the main electricity substations in Edinburgh and the site is covered with a false frontage.^[10]

Geography[]

Map of the city, showing the West End (in orange) as well as New and Old Towns

The West End is located at the western edge of the centre of Edinburgh, to the west of the Old Town and New Town. Dean Village lies on the northern edge of the West End but has a distinct village aspect. The northern half of the West End itself forms part of Edinburgh's World Heritage Site.^[3] Haymarket and Coates are directly west of the West End. Dalry and Fountainbridge are the districts to the south. The Water of Leith is the main river near the West End, flowing beside Dean Village.

Economy[]

The West End is home to a large number of offices, shops, restaurants, bars and cultural venues.^[1] The Edinburgh International Conference Centre is located in the West End in the Exchange District, a regenerated business district that opened in the mid 1990s. Large employers in the West End include Standard Life, whose headquarters is located on the western side of Lothian Road.^[11]

The West End contains several consulates and High Commissions, including those of Germany (on Eglinton Crescent), Switzerland (on Manor Place), Turkey (on Drumsheugh Gardens), India, Norway and New Zealand (on Rutland Square), and Italy, Russia and Taiwan (on Melville Street).^{[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]}

The West End has several hotels and hostels, including the Bonham (on Drumsheugh Gardens), the Edinburgh Grosvenor (on Grosvenor Street), the Guards Hotel, and the Haymarket Hub hotel (on Haymarket Street), and the Thistle Hotel (on Manor Place).

Culture and Community[]

Georgian town houses seen along Stafford Street in the West End.

The West End has a heritage trail that includes signs exploring famous places and residents of the West End.^[3]

The West End contains several parks and gardens but the majority are in private ownership. Private green areas include Drumsheugh Gardens (named after the Earl of Moray's home Drumsheugh, later part of the Moray Estate), Rothesay Terrace Gardens, Rutland Square, and Eglinton and Glencairn Crescents’ Gardens (opened 1877).^[21][22][23] Atholl Crescent Gardens (sometimes known as Coates Crescent Gardens) are public communal gardens laid out in a two crescent form in the 1820s, divided by Shandwick Place.^[24] The gardens contain a large memorial statue of William Ewart Gladstone by James Pittendrigh Macgillivray.^[25] The statue was unveiled in Edinburgh in 1917 and moved to its present location in 1955.^[25] Rutland Square is a private square gardens completed in the 1830s.^[26]

The West End Medical Practice is the local GP surgery under NHS Scotland.^[27] Designed by Page\Park Architects, the practice opened in 2014 in a new purpose built complex at a cost of £4 million.^[28]

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art lies on the far north-western edge of the West End, adjacent to Deans.^[29] The Gallery is split across two buildings; the former John Watson's Institution known as Modern One and Modern Two in a former orphan hospital.^[29]

Transport[]

Palmerston Place and Palmerston Place Church (completed 1875)

Rail[]

Haymarket station is in the West End and the main railway station for the area. The station opened in 1842 and was the original terminus of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, however as the line was extended it became an intermediate station on the extension to Princes Street Railway Station and later Edinburgh Waverley.^[30] An extensive refurbishment of Haymarket Station, with the addition of a new concourse and entrance was completed in 2013.^[31]

Tram[]

The island tram stop at Coates Crescent on Shandwick Place was named West End - Princes Street prior to opening at the request of local traders.^[32] As this stop sits on a switching point, it can act as an eastern terminus when Princes Street is closed to traffic. The Princes Street suffix was dropped in 2019 and the stop is now known as West End.^[33]

Buses[]

The Shandwick Place/ Maitland Street corridor is well-served by Lothian Buses and other operators with destinations outwith Edinburgh.

All buses eastwards go to Princes Street, where there are easy links to the Lothian Road corridor. Westward routes split at Haymarket: either to the Gorgie/Dalry district or westwards to Roseburn, Murrayfield and Corstorphine.

Education[]

St Mary's Music School is a mixed music school in the West End, established in 1880.^[34] The Song School and Walpole Hall are listed buildings, containing murals by Phoebe Anna Traquair and designed by the architects Robert Rowand Anderson and Robert Lorimer respectively.^[35]

The West End has no State primary or secondary schools within its geographical area; the nearest primary schools are Dalry Primary School in Dalry and Tollcross Primary School in Tollcross, and the nearest secondary schools are Boroughmuir High School and Broughton High School. Torphichen Street School was a combined infant and juvenile school in the West End built in 1887, but it was closed in the 20th century and converted to offices.^[36]

Religion[]

St Mary's Cathedral, seen from Melville Street in the West End

St Mary's Cathedral is a late 19th century cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Church in the West End.^[37] It is designed in the Gothic style by Sir George Gilbert Scott and is a Category A listed building.^[38] Reaching 90 metres (295 ft), its spire makes the building the highest in the Edinburgh urban area.^[39]

St George's West Church of the Church of Scotland is located on the corner of Shandwick Place and Stafford Street in the West End. Construction of the church began in 1867 to designs by David Bryce in the Roman Baroque style.^[40][41] The 56m tower in the south-west corner was completed by 1882 under Robert Rowand Anderson, in the form of a Venetian campanile, modeled on that of San Giorgio Maggiore.^[40][41]

Palmerston Place Church is an Italianate style church designed by John Dick Peddie and Charles Kinnear, and completed in 1875.^[42][43] Services are provided by the Church of Scotland.^[44]

References[]

External links[]

• About the West End Fair

Coordinates: 55°56′53″N 3°12′52″W / 55.94814°N 3.21453°W / 55.94814; -3.21453