Mike's Plaque Attack!

 

22nd Feb

And now for something completely different. 
Mike Lynch (Carnethy) posted an invite to a night-time run/tour round Edinburgh visiting plaques of local worthies and others. Being a second claim Carnethy and feeling I should be getting out more, I signed up for this. It was hugely popular, and there were about 40 folk at the evening kick-off on Calton Hill. Possibly because Mike has already done a couple of these tours, previously featuring old railway stations on one occasion and lurking around in graveyards on another. (My kind of entertainment.)

I mainly signed up because I felt it would be a way of getting 10 miles run painlessly in decent company and you never know I might learn something along the way. Right from the start I was really impressed with Mike's enthusiasm and knowledge (googling ability?!) and within minutes we had visited a plaque I must have run past dozens of times without ever noticing. A stone within the small cairn on Calton Hill with a notice commemorating Jane Haining who died in Auschwitz. Who knew? This was very much the flavour of the run. Local stuff under your nose that you might have run past many times without ever noticing. As things progressed the diversity of people and events uncovered suggested I was a complete ignoramus regarding my own back yard, and the information was far more compelling than just getting a few miles in. The running was a bit start-stop as it had to be, but allowed everyone to catch-up before Mike would read out the next installment, eyebrows would be raised, then onto the next venue. 

Since we started in the dark on Calton Hill it wasn't easy to see just who was in the crowd we were running beside. I bumped into various folk I hadn't realised were alongside until they made themselves known or I spotted them under the street lights! Oh hello! YOU'RE here!

We started off going around parts of the new town where there were several plaques to worthies like Felix Yaniewicz, the immigrant musician who founded the Edinburgh Festival 200 years ago and lived in Gt King St. Mike told us a bit about his history and how Yaniewicz was buried in Warriston. (Must keep my eyes open for that next time I'm along there!)

He also drew our attention to a few pavement slabs inscribed or etched with famous folk. Yet again I was entirely unaware of these memorials, the one above being Elsie Inglis whom I had heard of! And below, (in Rutland Sq) to Mary Dunlop I had not.

Mary Dunlop was a local character whose pony Smokey who pulled a barrel organ in a cart around Edinburgh in the 50s and 60s. I believe there was also a capuchin monkey and Mary was sometimes referred to by local children as Monkey Mary. She died in 1966. How excellent that Edinburgh remembers her, and not just the elite and high achievers. 

Mary Dunlop
photo from Lost Edinburgh fb page, submitted by Anne Hay

more stuff I didn't know

Lots of stuff under Geo IV bridge about James Connolly. I was beginning to suspect Mike had put all these signs up the night before. How could my ignorance be just quite so far reaching and all encompassing. Never seen these plaques in my puff nor would I have known what they were about if I had noticed them. The "Neither King nor Kaiser" sign refers to a quote from Connelly re the Easter Rising about who the Irish should be fighting for in WW1. ie Neither side.

Next starter for 10. Who, when and where was the last public execution in Edinburgh? 

Answer: George Bryce, 1864, near St Giles

John Knox's grave - before it was popular to be buried in a car park

mysterious sign of dubious verity
the society does not exist and it almost certainly does not belong to LR!

Infirmary Street (funnily enough)

worth celebrating?
perhaps for the comedy

The tour finished with about a quarter of the 40 who started, but given it was a school night and lasted about 2 hrs they could be forgiven for dropping off. Most of the plaques were within the town centre although to finish we ran across the Meadows and up to Holy Corner where a plaque through the university buildings celebrates Napier. Mike did some more chat then we said thanks and headed home. I had my bus pass with me but there were no buses passing as I ran down the road and eventually I just ran home. I think the tour was about 8 or 9 miles and I managed to clock up 12 by the time I got home. An excellent and informative tour, big thanks Mike for taking the time to research all this stuff we run past all the time. I'll look forward to the next one, plenty more where that one came from?

12 miles all around town

Here is a comprehensive list of all the plaques we visited supplied by Mike. I am gobsmacked there is so much around town I hadn't noticed or been aware of. There is far more obviously, and he only chose the stuff that gave a decent and contained run near the town centre.

James Craig plaque, Observatory House, Calton Hill: Craig was the planner of Edinburgh’s first new town and the architect of Observatory House. He also created an impressive legacy of work, not least Surgeon’s Hall, Botanic Gardens buildings, various churches, engineering projects and parts of Glasgow’s Victorian Georgian grid system.
Jane Haining Auschwitz Stone, Cairn on Calton Hill: Jane Haining was a Scottish missionary for the Church of Scotland in Budapest, who was recognised in 1997 by Yad Vashem in Israel as Righteous Among the Nations for having risked her life to help Jews during the Holocaust. She is one of ten Scots (including two or three women) who died in the Nazi extermination camps. Her name is inscribed on a wall of honour in the Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem.
Free French House plaque, Regent Terrace: The “Maison Ecossaise des Français Libres” (Scottish Free French House) was inaugurated by General Charles de Gaulle on 23rd June 1942, during a visit to Edinburgh. His speech here was consecrated wholly to the French-Scottish Alliance, which he described—in a since then oft-repeated formula—as “the oldest alliance in the world”.
Centre of Edinburgh Bollard, Waverley Gate: The bollard doesn’t denote the true geographical centre of Edinburgh. Instead, it marks the location of the original Edinburgh General Post Office. All postal codes radiate outwards from the bollard. Additionally, all street numbers begin at the end of the street that’s closest to the bollard.
Icelandic National Anthem plaque, London Street: Icelandic composer Svienbjörn Svienbjörnsson lived here during the 1870s, and he probably never imagined that one of his pieces composed here would become his country’s national song. Lofsöngur (Or Hymn, in English) would become the national anthem in 1944, following Iceland’s independence from Denmark.
Felix Yaniewicz inscription, Great King Street: Edinburgh’s first music festival took place over 200 years ago, and it all revolved around one fascinating – and still slightly mysterious – figure born in Vilnius, then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. What Yaniewicz discovered in Edinburgh, however, was “an already thriving musical community”, and what he did was to focus this activity into one place. Thus, the Edinburgh International Festival was born.
Kenneth Grahame plaque, Castle Street: Born in Castle Street, Grahame moved south to Berkshire and he and his siblings lived in a spacious, dilapidated house called The Mount, in expansive grounds, and were introduced to the riverside and boating by their uncle, who was a curate at Cookham Dean church. This ambience, particularly Quarry Wood and the River Thames, is believed by Grahame’s biographer Peter Green to have inspired the setting for The Wind in the Willows.  
Alexander Graham Bell plaque, South Charlotte Street: Bell, an educator of deaf people and inventor of the telephone was born here in 1847. He became involved with work on elocution and speech influenced by his father and grandfather and the fact that both his mother and his wife were deaf. His research led him to experiment with hearing devices. He constructed the first telephone at Boston in 1875, was awarded the US patent in 1876 and introduced his invention to Britain two years later.
Douglas Haig inscription, Charlotte Square: Haig was born into the famous whisky-distilling family, and is best known as the commander of the allied troops on the Western Front during the First World War. He was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal in 1917. He was knighted in 1909, elevated to the peerage as Earl Haig of Bemersyde in 1919 and awarded the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh the same year. He went on to found the Earl Haig Fund for the assistance of disabled ex-servicemen, which raises funds by selling poppies for Remembrance Day each November.
Elsie Inglis memorial, Walker Street: Elsie Inglis played an important role in the Scottish Federation of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. She established the first maternity hospital staffed by women in 1901 but it was her founding of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service during the First World War that made her famous. The Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital in 1925 which was operational until 1988, was a physical memorial to her. Many Edinburgh children were born there during the 20th century. It was closed by the National Health Service in 1988 and sold off.
Atholl Crescent plaque: Queen Margaret University was founded in 1875, as The Edinburgh School of Cookery and Domestic Economy. The School was founded as a women-only institution, with twin aims of improving women’s access to higher education and improving the diets of working-class families. Many developments followed, including a broader curriculum, and although the institution eventually became Queen Margaret University, to many who trained throughout the world who trained there, it will always be known as “Atholl Crescent.”
Mary Dunlop memorial, Rutland Square: Mary was an itinerant organ grinder and Smokey’s job, other than being Mary’s loyal companion, was to pull her mechanical barrel organ. The pair entertained local residents all over Edinburgh with their unique mechanical jingles and would head to the same spot every Saturday morning outside St Giles Kirk on the High Street for over 20 years. Mary passed away in 1966 and that Smokey was taken in by the SSPCA to a centre in Balerno. The famous barrel organ can be seen today at the Museum of Childhood opposite John Knox House on the Royal Mile.
Zeppelin Raid inscription, White Hart Inn, Grassmarket: On the night of 2-3 April 1916, two German airships dropped 23 bombs on Leith and the City of Edinburgh, including one that landed outside the then White Hart Hotel. The Scotsman praised the public response “the raid… naturally caused some excitement, but failed to produce any panic or do otherwise than steel the hearts of the people against the nation capable of using such barbarous methods of warfare against the civilian population“.
Captain John Porteous plaque, Gilmour’s Close: Porteous was Captain of the Edinburgh City Guard, and is remembered primarily for mishandling a riot in a way that led to a number of deaths, including his own at the hands of a mob. The events surrounding Porteous’s death form the background to Sir Walter Scott’s 1818 novel, Heart of Mid-Lothian.
James Connolly plaque, under George 4th Bridge: Connolly was the son of an Irish immigrant family living at 107 Cowgate in Edinburgh, an area which at the time was home to a large Irish community. Years later, when the Easter Rising started on 24 April 1916, James Connolly was Commandant General of the Dublin Brigade, which effectively made him the senior military commander on the Republican side. The rising was suppressed after six days of heavy fighting, much of it in Dublin. Connolly had been seriously wounded during the fighting, and on 12 May 1916 was taken by military ambulance to Kilmainham Jail, where he was tied to a chair and shot by a British firing squad, one of 15 Republicans executed for their part in the uprising.
Plaque for the Last Public Execution, Royal Mile (George 4th/Lawnmarket): On 21st of June 1864, George Bryce became the last person to be publicly executed in Edinburgh. Three brass plaques on the pavement mark the site of the gallows. His botched execution, and the unseemly behaviour of the crowd which had preceded it, had made it quite apparent that public executions no longer had any place in civilised society, least of all in a city which prided itself on being the “Athens of the North” and the birthplace of Scottish Enlightenment.
John Knox Grave inscription, outside St Giles: John Knox was a 16th Century Scottish minister, Reformed theologian, and writer who was a leader of Scotland’s Reformation. He was the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He commanded that his people be able to read the Bible in their own language, and was a key figure in essentially turning a nation of Catholics into one of Protestants. It’s said that he wanted to be buried within 20 feet of Saint Giles, so he was laid to rest right outside the church in what was once a proper graveyard. However, the site has since been tarmacked over and is now a functioning parking lot.
Lionel Ritchie blue plaque, Blair Street: The blue plaque placed high up here reads “This House Belongs To Lionel Richie”. The unusual marker also has the words “The Society For The Promotion Of Historic Buildings” emblazoned on it. Blue plaques are usually placed on buildings throughout the UK to honour notable historical figures who lived there in the past. In Scotland, the blue Commemorative Plaque Scheme is run by Historic Environment Scotland and its website states recipients have to be dead for at least 20 years and born more than 100 years ago. A spokesperson said it had had “no involvement” in the placing of the Lionel Richie plaque. Also, The Society For The Promotion Of Historic Buildings doesn’t exist.
Infirmary Street plaque: The very first Edinburgh Infirmary was established on 6 August 1729 at the head of Robertson’s Close on the site of the building on the corner of South Bridge and Infirmary Street. The infirmary gradually expanded to occupy most of the land between present-day Infirmary Street and Drummond Street, including the old Surgical Hospital, which opened in 1832, and the new Surgical Hospital in 1853.
William Topaz McGonagall plaque, South College Street: McGonagall gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers’ opinions of his work. He has been lampooned as the worst poet in British history. The chief criticisms are that he was deaf to poetic metaphor and unable to scan correctly. Here’s an extract from The Tay Bridge Disaster:
Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.
Charles Darwin plaque, Lothian Street: It was here that Charles Darwin lodged in the house of Mrs Mackay when a medical student in Edinburgh in 1825-27. Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.
Arthur Conan Doyle plaque, George Square: He lived here from 1876 – 1880 while studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh.
Walter Scott plaque, George Square: The Square was planned in 1766 by architect James Brown, and at the time represented the most ambitious new development yet attempted in the city. It was the first development outside the old city walls, and as a precursor to the New Town, offered an exclusive setting for Edinburgh’s professional classes. The western side of the square was saved and the remnants of many demolished houses were later used to repair buildings in the Georgian New Town. Today it represents not only the city’s success as a place of learning, but also a reminder of how close Edinburgh came to losing its losing its unique character.

John Napier inscription, Merchiston Tower: John Napier of Merchiston, nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He is best known as the discoverer of logarithms. He also invented the so-called “Napier’s bones” and made common the use of the decimal point in arithmetic and mathematics. Napier’s birthplace, Merchiston Tower, is now part of Edinburgh Napier University