Bruntsfield the district

From the early 19th century villas and lodges began to appear along the west side of whatis now Bruntsfield Place, and by 1861 the new streets Viewforth Place (Viewforth), Merchiston Place (now Merchiston Avenue, Merchiston Park and Merchiston Place), Montpelier, Greenhill Gardens, Greenhill Park and Bruntsfield Terrace had been laid out. Two villas in Bruntsfield Place which had huge gardens reaching back to Montpelier are reported to have been taken down stone by stone and re-erected in Polwarth Terrace, to provide more space for tenement expansion. Bruntsfield Primary School was opened in 1896 (most famous former pupil - Sean Connery) and by 1900 the tenemented streets of Bruntsfield as they are today were practically all in place. Montpelier Park was the last street in the area to be built up. Horse trams ran along Bruntsfield place on their way to Morningside, an extra horse being hitched on at Barclay Church to help up the hill as far as Leamington Terrace, where it was unhitched and ridden back down the road to wait for the next tram.

Various churches were constructed to serve the local population. A curate of this church at Holy Corner, Arnold Patrick Spencer Smith, was chaplain to Shackleton's expedition to the South Pole in 1914 and died of scurvy. Across Chamberlain Road, the later Morningside Congregational Church by James McLachlan opened in 1929 and has recently been used by the united congregations of this church and North Morningside. The North Morningside building is now the Eric Liddell Centre, named after Eric Liddell, missionary and Olympic athlete who lived in Merchiston Place and was a member of the church while at university in Edinburgh. The film 'Chariots of Fire' is based on his life and hangs on his refusal, true to his faith, to race on a Sunday in the Paris Olympics of 1924.

Link to: Bruntsfield House apartments to let.

                                       

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