Today Gardner’s Crescent runs north- south between Morrison Street and Fountainbridge.

It is part of Edinburgh’s West End Conservation Area.  This area lies immediately adjacent to the
New Town on its south west boundary and the Old Town on its western boundary. 

The West End Conservation Area was originally designated in 1980 and amended in 1995.  Below are key extracts from the Conservation Area Character Apprasial or click here to read the full document

‘One of the finest pieces of Georgian architecture’ is found on Gardner’s Crescent which was laid out in 1822 by R&R Dickson for William Gardner.  The Crescent consists of a four storey and basement tenement, which was originally meant to be mirrored with a matching facing crescent.  However,  the match crescent was not built so now facing the crescent on a lower level, are two fine examples of mid 19th century artisan ‘model housing’ developments, Rosebank Cottages and Rosemount Buildings.

In the centre of the Crescent is a garden which provides an oasis of calm amidst the hustle of the surrounding business district.  The garden was once surrounded by cast iron railings but these were removed from the garden's retaining wall during the 1939-45 war and have not yet been replaced.  The garden is much admired for the cherry trees which follow the line of the wall and provide beautiful blossom every spring.

Rosebank Cottages

The first of these is Rosemount Cottages, built by James Gowans circa 1853 using the Edinburgh architect Alexander MacGregor to design the exterior.  Gowans oversaw the construction of the buildings and the design of the interior. 

They comprise of six blocks of flatted cottages for “the better class of mechanics”.  The ground floor flats are entered on one side and the upper flats by outside stairs on the other. 

They are two storey stone built with pitched slated roofs.  They are constructed of squared rubble with rustic quoins, raised margins to openings, slated roofs and pedimented gables.

The elegant cast iron stairs are striking, taking a trellis pattern with a Greek key border.  Unfortunately the ironwork to the gardens has gone, replaced by a miscellany of materials ranging from timber to chicken wire.

In 1885, Gowans provided the following comments on Rosebank Cottages:

“The idea that I had was to get working men into small self-contained houses, where they would have their own door to go in by, every room being independent of the others, having a door from the lobby for privacy, and having a little green attached to each house.”

The form and layout of Rosebank Cottages provided a prototype for a number of Colony developments of “model houses” by the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company.  The Company was set up in 1861, partly as a result of a lock-out in the building trade that year, and was formed to promote owner -occupied artisan housing organised by, and for, working people. Over a third of the original shareholders were stonemasons with many other trades represented.

For more information go to:

download.edinburgh.gov.uk/DQ_Guidelines/colonies.pdf
www.edinburgharchitecture.co.uk/edinburgh_colonies.htm
Google Books

Rosemount Buildings

Rosemount Buildings, constructed in 1860, is a three storey quadrangle of red and yellow brick consisting of ninety six flats. This is one of the first housing schemes to break with the strong Edinburgh tradition of stone building. 
(more detail coming soon)

History of the surrounding area

In the 1820s two ambitious developments were proposed in the fountainbridge area but never fully completed due to the canal and rail developments that took place shortly thereafter. 

The first of these schemes started at Morrison Street end of Grove Street in 1822 and was meant to connect to a large square that was never built due to the railway taking up the necessary ground.

The second scheme was Gardner’s Crescent, constructed around the same time, which was originally meant to have a matching crescent facing it.  This scheme too was clipped by the railway as well as having a canal basin, Port Hamilton, located immediately behind the existing crescent.
 
The canal and the railway lasted well into the twentieth century. However, by 1920, all commercial traffic to Edinburgh had ceased. In 1922, Ports Hamilton and Hopetoun were closed, drained and sold to Edinburgh Corporation.  Port Hamilton, immediately behind Gardner’s Crescent, was developed by St Cuthbert’s Cooperative Society as a large bakery and milk depot, (The Co-op having started in a corner shop on Fountainbridge in 1859).

The Caledonian Station lasted until 1965, when it closed due to a combination of railway cuts in 1962 and being unable to compete with Waverley in terms of routes and accessibility.  Once the rails were removed, the railway line was eventually turned into the Western Approach Road, in the late 1970s, for the relief of traffic through Gorgie and Dalry.
 
Large scale development has, and is taking place, on the margins of the conservation area.  It is important that where there are development opportunities lying adjacent to the conservation area boundary, the design of new buildings should reflect the scale, massing and materials of the conservation area. 

Development opportunities both within and adjacent to the conservation area must respect views out of and into the conservation area and not disrupt them. New development should not detract from the World Heritage Site and the conservation area must be seen as a buffer zone to the Site.