NRS Public talk - 'Opening Doors to Edinburgh's New Town's Past' by Dr Anthony Lewis

Join us for the NRS Public talk - ‘Opening Doors to Edinburgh's New Town's Past - its planning as reactions to plague, poverties and property ownership?’ Dr Anthony Lewis, Curator of Scottish History for Glasgow Life Museums This talk by Dr Anthony Lewis focuses on some possible motivations for enlarging and improving Edinburgh in the first half of the 1700s. It refers to HM General Register House itself as a key building in this process and emphasises the importance of using the archives held there in National Records of Scotland, and elsewhere, to appreciate their contributions to understanding Edinburgh's people and the city’s institutions at a time of crisis. References for the slides: Slide 1: Plan of the north of the City with the town, harbour and citadel of Leith, by John Fergus and Robert Robinson,1759, Edinburgh City Archives, SL145/1/2 Slide 2: St Roch and elm wood water pipe: Glasgow Life Museums: 1.41 and Temp.18593 Slide 3: Marseille Port, 1754: Claude-Joseph Vernet, Wiki Slide 4: Rothiemay Map of Edinburgh, NLS Maps/ Robert Mein design for sewage cart, private collection Slide 5: Edgar Map of Edinburgh, NRS RHP3300 Slide 6: Robert Mein plans and poems, private collection Slide 7: , Edinburgh Exchange print, 1753, WS Library; Plan of the north of the City with the town, harbour and citadel of Leith, by John Fergus and Robert Robinson,1759, Edinburgh City Archives, SL145/1/2 Slide 8: James Craig plan of Edinburgh New Town, 1767, Edinburgh City Museums 1978/37 Slide 9: Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Hall, Sir James Clerk of Penicuik, private collection RHP10697 Slide 10: GRH: NRS RHP 06080 -site plan with drain; RHP 6082/36 section Slide 11: Dean of Guild plan showing bridge street sewer and pipe, Heriot v Stiel, 1783, Edinburgh City Archives; John Adam letter on David Henderson's design for New Town sewer, 1768, McLeod Bundle D0113 R, item 24, Edinburgh City Archives; plate from Isaac Ware's Complete Body of Architecture showing designs for sewers, Slide 12: James Craig plan of Edinburgh New Town, 1767, Edinburgh City Museums 1978/37 Slide 13: John Kay cartoon of Orlando Hart, William Jamieson and Archibald McDowall meeting to level Edinburgh High Street, mid to late 1780s, NPG. Slide 14: Workhouse in Monteith Close, Dean of Guild plan, 1782, Edinburgh City Archives; workhouse in Pleasance, St John's Hill, Dean of Guild plan, 1788, Edinburgh City Archives; James Craig plan for Bridewell, Pleasance, 1780, National Library of Scotland.