Thread by @cocteautriplets

There's a building on the Edinburgh skyline which is as unusual as it is instantly recognisable. It looks ancient, but, relatively, is not. It's interesting in its own right. But perhaps more interesting is what it barely conceals, what you've maybe never noticed. 🧵👇

The building about which I talk is of course Ramsay Gardens, Patrick Geddes' 1890s fantasia on medieval and early modern Scottish architecture, a Victorian experiment in redevelopment and modern building and social ideas.

But it wasn't always so. Edinburgh is of course much older than that - so what's going on here? And why is it Ramsay's Garden? And what hides in plain sight within it?

If we go all the way back to 1750 or so, we can see what was once here, because our good friend Paul Sandby painted a spectacular watercolour from the Castle's gatehouse, looking north across the city.

(You can read more about that painting here, from an earlier thread - threadinburgh.scot/2022/11/09/the… )

What we see inhat picture is a prominent and intriguing building: a tall octagonal structure with a wing and portico to its front. This building was "Ramsay Lodge" or "Ramsay Hut", the home of the romantic poet and stalwart figure of the Edinburgh enlightenment, Allan Ramsay.

Ramsay was born in Leadhills, Lanarkshire, the son of the superintendent of the lead mines that gave the settlement its name. As a boy, he was apprenticed to a wigmaker in Edinburgh and it was in this trade that he would first find success, both financial and professional.

A man of broad interests and intelligence, in 1720 he entered the book selling trade from his shop on Niddrie's Wynd and in 1722 he relocated himself and the business to the Luckenbooths - 18th century Edinburgh's premier retail space.

It was from the first floor here,in 1725, that he opened Scotland’s first circulating library. This establishment had over 30,000 titles available to borrow and it became the hangout for city’s literati.

As well as a businessman, Ramsay was something of a wit and a writer, and published his own work. His romantic poetry, exemplified by The Gentle Shepherd brought him critical acclaim and he found himself desiring a "poet's nest" as befitting a bard of his standing.

He needed something at once in the heart of the Old Town but at the same time outwith its confines. He found such a spot on the slopes of the Castle Hill, commanding views over the fields: past the smudge of Leith and across the Forth and Fife to the distant Highland mountains.

In 1733, Ramsay acquired a portion of garden at this location from Robert Hope, a surgeon. In "Memorials of Edinburgh", a story is related that he desired "as much land as he could get [to build] a cage for his burd" - his wife, which is why it had a tall, octagonal tower.

From an architectural point of view, it is thought the house may be inspired either by the "Tower of the Winds" in Athens or the 1720 "Octagonal Room" at Orleans House in Twickenham by Scottish architect James Gibb for James Johnston, a former Secretary of State for Scotland.

Ramsay's social circle included the finest architect in the land - William Adam - but it may be that he designed his house himself.

Ramsay wanted the whole town to admire his mansion but the wags of the city derided his hubris and it the "Guse Pye", after the shape of the traditional Scottish Christmas dish.

Ramsay's pride was hurt and he complained to Patrick Murray, 5th Lord Elibank, who retorted "Indeed, Allan, when I see you in it, I think the wags are not far wrong".

The ownership of the house was transferred to his son, also Allan Ramsay, in 1741. This Allan Ramsay is as famous as his father, but as a portrait painter, and he had designs on using the building as his studio (although he would spend most of his time away from his native City).

In 1742, Ramsay the Poet retired to his "Guse Pye", shutting up his house and bookshop in the Luckenbooths. He intended to spend what would be the final 12 years of his life in "ease and tranquil enjoyment" however his burd, Christian Ross, died the following year.

He was not to be alone in life however, his company at the "Guse Pye" was courted by all ranks of Edinburgh. It is said that he preferred instead to be surrounded by his family and their young friends, joining in their fun and games with "hearty life and good humour"

These young friends included Paul Sandby, who painted a very intimate sketch of a relaxed Ramsay smoking an enormous "Churchwarden's Pipe" in the house. The talented and witty young English artist was a welcome addition to Ramsay's guestlist at the "Guse Pye"

When the Jacobites routed Johnnie Cope's Hanoverian Army at Prestonpans in September 1745, Ramsay senior - despite his known Jacobite sympathies (or perhaps because of them) - retired a safe distance to Mavisbank in Midlothian, the home of his friend Sir John Clerk of Penicuik.

The Highlanders of Charles Edward Stuart soon occupied the city, without resistance, where Ramsay Junior, happened to be present on one of his infrequent sojourns north. Word was soon sent to him from Holyrood, desiring him to come at once and paint a picture of the Prince

Ramsay obliged the man who hoped to be his king, and then retreated a safe distance to London.

The "Guse Pye" found itself damaged by the cannons of Edinburgh Castle and then ransacked by the garrison, who damaged many of the buildings on the Castle Hill to try and stop them being occupied by the Jacobite pickets.

The latter were under direct orders to prevent - on pain of death - supplies and communications from reaching the Castle. As the last building between the city and the Castle, Ramsay's house was directly in the firing line.

By November however the Prince and his army were gone south, unlike his portrait artist would never make it to London. Allan Ramsay senior returned to his house, and he and his son spent the next 12 years improving and expanding it and the attached gardens

In 1754, their workmen in the garden broke through into a 14ft sq. subterranean chamber. Amongst the rubble they found a statue of white stone with a crown upon its head - taken to be a Virgin Mary - 2 brass candlesticks, a dozen old Scottish and French coins and 2 cannon balls.

It was supposed it dated to the mid-16th century when a large fortification, the "Spur", was added to the castle by its French garrison under Regent Mary of Guise. Another theory was it was the remains of a medieval chapel to St. Andrew which had once stood on the Castle Hill.

When Ramsay the Poet died in 1757, his son the Painter succeeded to it and let it out. By 1759 it was occupied by William Johnston, an advocate and a member of Ramsay's Select Society.

In 1765, Ramsay jnr was granted permission to build 2 town houses - to the design of his friend Robert Adam - adjacent. He intended they be "in the English fashion, fit to accommodate 2 small families of distinction" and that they be named "Ramsay Street".

These houses were never built and instead in 1768 he erected a terrace of three, four-storey houses, known as Ramsay Garden. One of these houses was occupied by Ramsay's widowed mother-in-law and his sister in law. James Boswell thought about moving in too.

Ramsay spent little time in Scotland in his later years, being appointed "Principal Painter to His Majesty" in London in 1767. But he continued to consolidate his land on the north slopes of the Castle Hill, acquiring the last portion of the Hope's holding in 1773.

When he died in 1784, the lands and houses of Ramsay Garden passed to his only surviving son, Captain (later General) John Ramsay. A soldier by trade, he had accompanied his father on the "Grand Tour" in 1782 and was a bit of an artist himself too.

General Ramsay died without issue and as a result the house and his fortune passed to a distant relative: Lord Murray of Henderland (for whom the district of Murrayfield is named).

The houses of Ramsay Lodge and Ramsay Garden were let out, until the former was purchased in 1890 by the sociologist, humanist, philanthropist and pioneering town planner - Patrick Geddes.

Geddes engaged the architect S. Henbest Capper to design a 5-storey, arts and crafts fantasia by the "Guse Pye". His intention was to establish a mixed community, composed of artisans and students alongside private dwellings, to promote regeneration in the decrepit Old Town.

1892 development was extended two years later by Sydney Mitchell (see also Well Court), who incorporated, extended and redeveloped the "Guse Pye" and the original Ramsay Garden into the structure as a hall for residence for students, the first of its kind in Edinburgh.

The result was a striking complex, high on the Castle Hill, a curious mix of vernacular Scottish architectural style and modern ideas about construction and planning. And one which rendered the original house almost unrecognisable!

This rambling, highly ornamented and colourful building was in radical contrast to the prevailing, conservative architecture of Edinburgh at the time. The poet, novelist and translator Margaret Armour said of it:

🗣️"The grey old metropolis of the North had been getting greyer year by year with freestone and slate, when suddenly on the east slope of the Castle Hill, a bright-hued pile arose, shocking the devotees of drab."

Geddes part-financed the project himself and took up residence in one of its main apartments, establishing a co-operative publishing company there. He also opened an art school, the Old Edinburgh School of Art, where the Celtic revival painter John Duncan led classes

It was Geddes who commissioned Duncan to design the Witches' Well, which is installed nearby on the Castle Hill as a monument to those executed near that spot for witchcraft.

Geddes had further plans for the site, including arts studios and a sculpture gallery on the slopes below, a gatehouse - crowned with a full-scale replica of the city's old Netherbow Port - spanning Ramsay Lane to the quadrangle of the New College buildings and a new public hall

His schemes financially overstretched him however and he was bankrupted, owing £60,000, in 1896 putting an end to his ambitions. His supporters set up a company, the Town and Gown Association, to take over Ramsay Gardens and run it in the spirit with which he had intended it.

Ramsay Gardens was sold by the T&GA in 1945 to the Commercial Bank of Scotland, who used it as a residential building and training centre. It has subsequently passed into private hands and is a mix of exlusive residential homes, pieds-à-terre and £1200 a night holiday lets.

But if you look again at Ramsay Gardens the next time you're passing and if you look a bit longer and closer than you usually do, you can see the Ramsays' Guse Pye (orange) and original Ramsay Garden (magenta) hiding within Geddes' visual extravaganza

You can read this whole thread as a single page over on @threadinburger threadinburgh.scot/2023/04/02/the…

Footnote. Sydney Mitchell loved a Dutch Steeple, didn't he? Ramsay Gardens (l) and Well Court (r). The latter reputed to be modelled directly on that of the old Tron Kirk, which burned down in 1824.

Thread broke. Whoops!

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