Architecture of Edinburgh - Robert Morham

Many of the architects we talk about in Edinburgh came from an age of private development, when grand buildings were erected for wealthy families or high profile organisations who wanted something dramatic to make a statement. Figures like Robert Adam, who achieved sufficient status from his architectural work to warrant being buried in Westminster Abbey after his death...

But Edinburgh has always been a living city, and there were many architectural figures whose work was no less important for the fact that it served ordinary folk, providing houses to families who needed it - as David Cousin and John Lessels did, for example, in developing what became the standard form of tenement housing during the 'Improvements' to Edinburgh in the late nineteenth century.

Into the twentieth century there was no less need for great architectural visions in Edinburgh, and one figure whose name I only came across recently was Robert Morham, who was the City Architect for Edinburgh Council from 1872 until 1908. In this role Morham was responsible for many pieces of public infrastructure - police stations, public baths, fire stations - buildings that don't get celebrated as often as they should because of their ubiquity in the cityscape. 

Here's my brief profile of some of Robert Morham's creations to be found in Edinburgh.

PRINCES STREET GARDENS
The gardens between the New Town and the Old Town had originally been private spaces, exclusively for the use of the residents of Princes Street (when it was still a residential street!).

​In 1876 Edinburgh City Council bought the land back from them and proceeded to transform the gardens into a public space, and Robert Morham was responsible for the redesign and the remodelling of the space. 

Into Princes Street Gardens he later built a cottage for the head gardener who would be repsonsible for maintaining the space. Although it's no longer used as a residence, the cottage is still there, set in its own private garden space, near the Mound.

Morham also laid out the grounds at Inverleith Park, to the north of the New Town.

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FOUNTAINBRIDGE MEAT MARKET
Fountainbridge, to the west of the city centre, was once a hugely industrial area - its proximity to the Union Canal was integral for the import and export of goods and materials, and at one time the area boasted a rubber plant and (until even fairly recently) a major brewery.

​Into the area in 1884 Morham built a new covered space for the city's major meat market to be held - the structure was demolished in 2007 to make way for the new office developments on the site, although a small section of its original arched frontage still survives.

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NORTH BRIDGE
One of the most significant pieces of infrastructure in Edinburgh today is the North Bridge, serving as a connection between Old and New Towns over the top of Waverley Station, and once the only crossing point between the two sides of the city. 

In the 1890s the existing bridge (itself the second iteration of North Bridge) was replaced with a structure in which Robert Morham's role was key. He designed the concrete pillars and the decorative ironwork for the structure. A restoration of the bridge is currently underway and is due to be completed in 2024. 

LAURISTON PLACE FIRE STATION
As the architect responsible for public works, Morham designed and built various fire stations across the city, including at Slateford, Causewayside, and on Lauriston Place. That building - until recently the city's Museum of Fire - was considered to be a state of art facility when it was opened in 1901, and cost in the region of £23,000 to build, a huge sum of money - suggesting how important such structures were for the city at that time. It remained a fire station until 1988.

(Edinburgh had also been home to the world's first municipal fire service, established by James Braidwood.)

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CANONGATE TOLBOOTH
This historic structure on the Royal Mile dates back to the 1590s at it earliest, but by the nineteenth century had fallen into significant disrepair from centuries of occupation. Morham renovated the building in the 1870s to create a more functional and modern space, opening up the internal aspects of the building - where the People's Story museum is today - and adding details to the outside of the building.

In particular he created the clock tower in the Scots Baronial style (based on gothic and medieval architecture) with its mini bartizans (small rounded towers) and the dormer windows in the roof to the eastern side of the building. The clock, by James Ritchie and Sons, was added in 1884.

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ABBEYHILL POLICE STATION
Similarly to his work building fire stations, Morham was responsible for the expansion of the police stations in the city, including at West Port and Torphichen Street. The structure at Abbeyhill, almost adjacent to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, was more recently used as an Armenian cultural centre and restaurant, and has been vacant for a number of years. 

The amount of detail in this building - look for the gargoyles, corner turret in the Scots Baronial style, and the carving throughout - shows how even buildings which were intended for practical use were given significant styling in the nineteenth century. A far cry from the blank, functional, municipal buildings of later years.

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ST GILES' CATHEDRAL
Into the ninteenth century the main church in the Old Town had been subdivided into three separate church spaces, housing different church organisations.

​Under the direction of William Chambers, lord provost of Edinburgh at that time, St Giles' was substantially renovated and Robert Morham oversaw the reuniting of the disparate internal spaces into one single church once again. It remains an active and well-used church to this day.

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Other works by Robert Morham haven't survived the years when wrecking balls demolished much of the city in the name of modernisation and development. He was also responsible for the Waverley Market, the original shopping centre above Waverley Station, which was demolished in the 1970s, for example. But other buildings remains actively occupied, including the Morningside public library,  the Glenogle baths, the Infirmary Street baths (now a tapestry studio), elements of the City Chambers building (originally by Adam), and structures on the corner of Waverley Bridge, which today house the offices of Lothian Buses and the Edinburgh Dungeon...

So although we rightly celebrate great figures like Robert Adam and William Playfair, we also mustn't overlook the less grand but no less important work by later architects like Robert Morham, in whose hands - and from whose vision - the city emerged and grew into the iconic visitor destination it remains today.

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