Basil Spence, Edinburgh, Scottish Building, Architect, Flats, Images, Design, Info

Basil Spence Housing, Edinburgh : Architecture

Sir Basil Spence Glover & Ferguson : Housing, Canongate, Edinburgh

Canongate Housing

79-121 Canongate, Edinburgh, Scotland
Date built: 1966-68
Design: Sir Basil Spence, Glover & Ferguson, architects

Sir Basil Spence housing
image © Adrian Welch

Private Housing

Scottish vernacular meets modernism: flats in white-grey render, concrete, ‘rubble’ and dressed stone with restrained elements reminiscent of Mackintosh, though concrete ageing badly. Leitmotif is the shallow concrete vaulting hinting at Le Corbusier’s later buildings.

The buildings have shallow sloping roofs running east-west thus the facades could read as hugely wide gable ends, unlike anything else on the Royal Mile and – apart from ground level punctuation – not exactly contextual.

The blocks part at the Canongate Manse which is marooned but beautifully set back from the street like the Canongate Kirk a little further up the Royal Mile Edinburgh.

Basil Spence

Edinburgh Restaurants

Edinburgh Old Town Architecture Tour

Edinburgh Old Town Housing – Selection:

Old Town Canongate Housing
Old Town Housing
photograph © Adrian Welch

Cowgate Housing
Cowgate Housing
photograph © Adrian Welch

Tron Square
Tron Square
image © Adrian Welch

Edinburgh Old Town Buildings – Selection:

Canongate Kirk
Canongate Kirk
photo © Adrian Welch

Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scottish Storytelling Centre
photograph © Adrian Welch

Tron Kirk
Tron Kirk Edinburgh
photo © Adrian Welch

Scottish Parliament

Hotel Missoni Edinburgh

Comments / photos for the Canongate Property page welcome

Canongate Housing : page