Some of Edinburgh’s most famous statues and monuments are to be restored as part of a new Edinburgh World Heritage initiative.
The three year project is expected to cost £550,000, which will be funded by EWH, the City of Edinburgh Council and external sponsorship.
David McDonald, World Heritage Site Project Manager said: "I think it’s difficult to overstate just how important Edinburgh’s statues and monuments are in making the city so distinctive. The monuments on Calton Hill are of national significance, and can rightly claim to be amongst the most iconic symbols of Scotland. Their architecture also gave Edinburgh its famous title ‘the Athens of the North’. The city’s statues remind us of some of the key characters in Edinburgh’s history, and add real drama and interest to the streetscape. Altogether they add enormously to the beauty of the World Heritage Site, and help to make Edinburgh truly unique.”
David added: “As most of the monuments were paid for by public and commercial subscription it is seems only fitting that business, public and cultural societies are all contribute towards the work."
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Councillor Deidre Brock, Culture and Leisure Convenor said: “I am delighted to see this restoration project become a reality, thanks to the efforts of the Council, Edinburgh World Heritage and external supporters. Edinburgh’s statues and monuments help create a unique city skyline that is one of our most distinctive and precious assets. These monuments are iconic images that contribute to the rich, complex character of the Old and New Towns as much as many of the city’s distinctive buildings. They have enormous public value, and add to the quality of life within the city. So it is important that we take action now to preserve these monuments and statues for the benefit of future generations.”
In 2007-8 the focus will be the Melville Monument in St. Andrew Square, and the Bow Well in the Grassmarket, adding conservation value to on-going public realm improvements in both areas. The Melville Monument will benefit from conservation works to the elevated statue at the top of the monument. A crow’s nest scaffold will be erected in the coming weeks to allow for the full scope of the works to be understood. The Black Watch War Memorial on the Mound will also benefit from restoration, with contributions from the Black Watch Association.
The second year will focus on three monuments of national importance on Calton Hill, the National Monument, the Burns Monument and the Nelson Monument.
The final year of the project will see the restoration of St Bernard’s Well on the Water of Leith, along with work to some prominent city centre statues. These will include George IV and William Pitt on George Street, David Livingstone and Allan Ramsay in Princes Street Gardens, and the equestrian statue of Charles II statue in Parliament Close.
Contact: David Hicks, EWH, 0131 220 7723
- Bow Well
In 1674, the city’s first piped water supply was put in place by Lord Provost, Sir Andrew Ramsay. The work involved Sir William Bruce (architect of Holyrood Palace), George Sinclair as surveyor, Peter Brauss, a German engineer who made the lead pipe-work, and Robert Mylne, the King’s Master Mason who built the well-heads. A number of wells were built on the High Street. The Bow Well sits at the bottom of Victoria Street, near the Grassmarket.
Previously water was sourced from springs and delivered to houses by water caddies. The ‘gravitational’ water-supply for the wells was piped from Comiston Springs on the south side of the city and flowed to a large cistern at the head of the West Bow, from where it was piped through elm-wood pipes to the well heads down the High Street and presumably the Bow Well.
- Black Watch War Memorial
The Black Watch War Memorial was commissioned by the Black Watch, on a site given by the Bank of Scotland in 1906. It was designed and built by sculptor William Birnie Rhind, R.S.A. and unveiled on 27th June 1910. It commemorates General Wauchope and the men of the Black Watch regiment who fell in the South African War 1899-1902.
- Melville Monument
The statue is of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742 - 1811) who was a dominant force in British politics for over four decades. He held office as Treasurer for the Navy (under Pitt), Home Secretary, Secretary for War, and Lord Advocate. The movement to erect a monument originated with a group of naval officers who admired his work at the Admirality. A committee was formed in1817 and almost £3500 was raised. The architect, William Burn, used Trajans Column in Rome as a model. He was assisted by Robert Stevenson, the builder of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, in the preparation of the foundation. The 4.2m statue stands at the top of the 26m column.
- National Monument
The idea for a National Monument was first aired at a meeting of the Highland Society in 1816. Charles Robert Cockerell was appointed architect for the monument, and William Henry Playfair was taken on as his assistant. The Duke of Hamilton laid the foundation stone in August 1822.
It was decided the monument would take the form of a National Memorial Church, to commemorate Scottish servicemen who died in the Napoleonic wars. The design is based on the Parthenon at Athens. Some of the largest pieces of stone ever taken from the Craigleith Quarry in Blackhall were incorporated. It would also serve as a National Mausoleum where illustrious Scotsmen would be laid to rest in the catacombs. It was estimated that £42,000 was required. The subscription received the support of many eminent people including George IV, the Duke of Atholl and Sir Walter Scott, but after 16 months only £16,000 had been raised. During the first phase 1826-29, the twelve pillars cost £13,500, and due to the lack of further funds the impetus was lost.
- Burns Monument
Originally the Burns Monument contained a white marble statue of Robert Burns (1759 to 1796) which is now located in the National Portrait Gallery on Queen Street. The idea to erect a monument to Burns was first proposed by Mr. John Forbes Mitchell in Bombay in 1812 and expatriates raised a subscription. However the idea was not taken up at home until 1819, when a meeting at the Free Mason's Tavern in London, noblemen and gentlemen - admirers of the Bard - formed a committee under the chairmanship of the Duke of Atholl.
Thomas Hamilton, the architect was appointed as he had already designed the Burns Monument at Alloway in 1820 and the nearby Royal High School, Edinburgh. Hamilton designed a circular Neo-Greek temple which has a Corinthian peristyle and lyre reliefs on cella walls. It is built of Ravelston sandstone. He did not charge for the design work. The interior decoration and surrounding planting of laurels, hollies and Ayrshire roses were also donated by Mr. Robert Buchan, house painter and Mr. Eagle Henderson, nurseryman. The foundation stone of the monument was laid on the 8th of September 1831. The Subscribers Committee looked after the monument until 1839, when it was handed over to the city. At this time it was suggested the internal statue (designed by John Flaxman R.A. in 1824) should be moved (see above) due to soot from the gasworks below was affecting the marble.
- Nelson Monument
This Craigleith stone tower was erected to commemorate the death of Nelson after the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The public subscription and relief fund for the wounded and relatives of the war dead lead to the site being granted by the Town Council on the 21st October 1807, on the second anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
The Monument Committee adopted the plan of Robert Burn for a signal tower at a cost of £2000, and the foundation stone was laid in 1807. Insufficient funds hampered progress and work stopped by the end of 1808. In 1814 a new committee was formed and the monument taken into Town Council care. It was completed in 1816.
It is a ‘signal tower’ surmounted by a ‘time-ball’ – which [when working] is raised each day and drops in conjunction with the One O’clock Gun – which is fired at the Castle. The ball dropping is a visible signal and the gun was an audible signal for sailors in Leith docks to be able to set their chronometers which were used for accurate navigation.
The circular tower has an internal staircase with 143 steps to the viewing platform or ‘bartizan’ which rises 28m from the pentagonal ground floor building, which originally sold ‘soup and sweetmeats’. Above the entrance are two panels, the lower with the date of Trafalgar in Roman numerals – MDCCCV i.e. 1805, and above a representation of Nelson's crest stating: "Upon waves of the sea, the stern of a Spanish man of war, inscribed San Josef".
- St. Bernards Well
The mineral springs , which later became St. Bernards Well are said to have been discovered by three boys from Heriot's Hospital. The mineral waters, similar to those at Harrogate, became popular and in 1760 the area was roofed over. In 1789, the owner, Francis Garden of Troup (Lord Gardenstone), then a Senator of the College of Justice, commissioned a new pump house.
Architect Alexander Naismith’s design was based on Sybils Temple at Tivoli with an open rotunda of Roman Doric style, with ten columns in a circle surrounding a statue of Hygeia, executed by Coade of London.
In 1887 the building was extensively renovated, at the expense of the then owner, William Nelson (the publisher). Thomas Bonnar was commissioned to carry out the work. The original statue of Hygeia had fallen into such a bad state of repair it was replaced by a new marble figure, sculpted by DW Stevenson. After completion, Nelson's Trustees offered the well to Edinburgh Town Council as a gift.
The original Coadestone statue of Hygeia was replaced by a new white marble figure, sculpted by DW Stevenson. After completion, it was also offered to Edinburgh Town Council as a gift.
- George IV Statue
This pedestrian bronze statue of George IV on a granite plinth was funded by public subscription under the chairmanship of Lord Meadowbank. Sir Francis Chantry was the sculptor and it was unveiled on 26th November 1831. It was erected to commemorate the visit of George IV to Edinburgh in 1822, the first visit by a monarch since the Union of the Crowns.
- Charles II Statue
The lead equestrian statue of King Charles II, is the oldest statue in Edinburgh, and one of the oldest lead statues in Britain. It was erected in 1685 at the expense of the Edinburgh Town Council, "formed in the Roman manner, like one of the Caesars". The statue was reputed to have come from the Netherlands and recent evidence attributes the statue to the workshop of the famous Dutch sculptor and master carver, Grinling Gibbons.
The plinth, in Craigleith sandstone was executed by Robert Mylne, the Kings Master Mason in Scotland. The statue was not completed until a month before the King's death; and the plinth was not ready until after his demise in February 1685. The burgh records read "the King's majesties statu in metall is raddie to be put up in parliament close". In total the statue and plinth cost £3,557- 2s-4d Scots, exclusive of a gratuity paid to William Clerk for his composition of a Latin eulogy to the King, which is inscribed on the east side of the base.
In 1766 it was "in great disrepair and in hazard of falling" and in 1769 £8- 12s-6d was paid to Alexander Nicholson for "repairing Charles II and plumber work…" (plumber from the Latin 'plumbum' - lead). And in 1786 John Donaldson painted the statue and pedestal with three coats of ‘strong [white lead] paint’. The inscription plaque was removed in 1817 to a vault in Parliament House, and in 1824 when the statue and pedestal were in a poor state of repair they were removed to Calton Jail, while St. Giles was being rebuilt. In 1835 when it was rebuilt, £30-6s-6d was paid to the superintendent who was thanked "for his kind and gratious services in supervising the repairs on the Horse, whose symmetry has been rendered more perfect than ever by his attentions". Major repairs were also undertaken in the 1920s when cracks in the lead allowed water to corrode the internal iron armatures, which burst the leadwork.
- David Livingstone Statue [4]
David Livingstone was born in 1813 in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, to working class parents, and worked in a cotton factory. At the age of 20 he became a Christian and in 1840, after two years study in London he was ordained as a missionary. He was sent to South Africa on missionary work and became a noted African explorer, journeying to Lake Ngami, the Zambezi River and the Victoria Falls. Upon his return in 1856 he was awarded the Gold medal of the Royal Geographic Society for his discoveries. He died in 1873 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
The commemorative pedestrian bronze statue shows the missionary wearing a cloak and haversack, having cast off a lion skin. He is holding a walking stick and a Bible, with a pistol and compass at his waist.
The statue was sculpted by Amelia Paton Hill (1820-1904), one of the few women sculptors in 19th century Edinburgh. She also completed three character statues on the Scott Monument. Amelia Paton Hill was a gifted artist, but has been overshadowed by her more famous artist brothers, Sir Noel Paton and Hugh Waller Paton, and her husband – pioneering photographer David Octavius Hill. The statue was cast by R. Masefield and Co brassfounders of London.
- Allan Ramsay Statue [5]
Allan Ramsay (1685 -1758) was involved in the early eighteenth century revival of Scots vernacular poetry and is best remembered for his five-part work 'The Gentle Shepherd'. In 1725 he opened what is generally regarded as Britain's first circulating library on the Royal Mile.
The ten-foot high statue depicts the poet and publisher standing with a plaid over his shoulder, holding a book in his left hand, and a pencil in his right. It was sculpted by Sir John Steell from an eighteen ton Carrara marble block and stands on an ornate Binny sandstone plinth.
The pedestal is decorated with medallions of Ramsay’s relatives – Lord Murray; Mrs Ramsay (Margaret Lindsay) his Daughter-in-law, General Ramsay – grandson of the poet; and Lady Campbell and Mrs Malcolm, the poet’s grand daughters.
The monument was built at the instigation of Lord Murray, a descendant of Allan Ramsay’s, who met the costs personally. It was originally to be sited in Ramsay Garden where the poet lived in Goose Pie House (from its unusual eight-sided shape). The Goose Pie House is now incorporated as part of the residential buildings at Patrick Geddes, Ramsay Garden.
The statue was unveiled by Sir John McNeil on the 25th March 1865, at a dual ceremony to inaugurate the Professor John Wilson statue on the other side of the Royal Academy. Another ‘Ramsay Monument’ – an obelisk stands near Penicuik, south of Edinburgh.
- William Pitt Statue
This is a pedestrian bronze statue of Pitt draped in a cloak, by Sir Francis Chantrey, on a Craigleith stone plinth, erected in 1833. Commemorating William Pitt (1759-1806), the statesman who became Britain's youngest Prime Minister at the age of 21. Pitt introduced Income tax, largely to help pay for the Napoleonic Wars. Pitt was a descendant of the early Stuarts, his grandmother descended from James I. The statue was built at the instigation of the Pitt Club (membership 675) of Edinburgh, under the chairmanship of Lord Meadowbank.
