Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

WARRISTON ROAD, WARRISTON CEMETERY, WITH ALL MONUMENTS, CATACOMBS, BRIDGE, BOUNDARY WALLS, GATES AND GATEPIERSLB27937

Status: Designated

Documents

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Summary

Category
A
Date Added
16/07/1992
Supplementary Information Updated
25/02/2000
Local Authority
Edinburgh
Planning Authority
Edinburgh
Burgh
Edinburgh
NGR
NT 25315 75641
Coordinates
325315, 675641

Description

David Cousin, 1842; J Dick Peddie, 1845 and 1862; extended to N in 1905. Approximately 11 hectares; irregular-plan cemetery with terrace, steps, serpentine paths, river-side walk, catacombs and neo-Tudor bridge, containing important architectural and sculptural monuments, including memorials to several illustrious citizens.

CATACOMBS: designed by David Cousin in 1842 and extended to E and W by J Dick Peddie in 1862. Long wall of grey sandstone ashlar with bays containing wall monuments grouped 4-1-13-1-4, divided by buttresses; projecting base course; wallhead cornice; blocking course to parapet; small shield-shaped openings in wall, some with metal grilles intact, to light and ventilate vaults, which are also lit from larger semicircular grilles in walkway above. Hoodmoulded Tudor-arched entrances to vaults (now bricked up) in centre bay, and in advanced bays 5th from left and right which have polygonal angle piers decorated with cusped tracery frieze beneath cornice.

EXAMPLES OF NOTABLE MONUMENTS: John Dick Peddie, for his father, Reverend James Peddie, minister of the Bristo Church (died 1845), Doric canopied pedestal (previously containing an urn), roof decorated with antefixes; James Drummond, for the landscape painter Horatio McCulloch (died 1867), Celtic cross with artist's palette and brushes with laurel wreath on one side of pedestal, little dog on the other; memorial to Sir James Young Simpson, beside his family obelisk; memorial to the sculptor John Rhind (died 1892). Mural monuments, many the draped urns characteristic of this period, line the walls of the cemetery.

BRIDGE: J Dick Peddie, 1845. Roll-moulded entrances to Tudor-arched bridge forming a subway linking N and S sections of cemetery under the former Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway line (now a cycle-track). Grey sandstone ashlar. Coped stepped parapet, with blank heraldic panel and cusped tracery to SE; 4 engaged polygonal piers with quatrefoil panels to bridge; smaller polygonal newel piers with stepped pyramidal caps, 2 to NW, 6 to SE, linked by walls with saddle-backed coping, those to SE with quatrefoil decoration.

BOUNDARY WALLS: high coped rubble boundary walls; decorative cast-iron 2-leaf gates (some details missing) and gatepiers with chamfered corners and platformed stepped pyramidal caps to Warriston Road. Damaged polygonal gatepiers (relocated) to N.

Retaining walls; extension at each end of Cousins' wall 1862

Statement of Special Interest

Founded in 1842 by the Edinburgh Cemetery Company (of which James Peddie WS, brother of John Dick Peddie, was a director), and known as The Edinburgh Cemetery, Warriston was one of a number of commercial cemeteries laid out in the mid 19th century by David Cousin. The Prospectus explains that 'the spread of education, and the dissemination of works of art and science... have led all classes to desire that the style, situation and the whole arrangement of Public Burial Grounds should be improved.' 'To the advantage of ground admirably adapted for the purpose, and laid out in a pleasing and appropriate manner,' were to be added 'greater facilities for all classes, especially the Poor,' and 'reduced expenses.' A mortuary chapel (demolished by 1930) for the use of the Episcopalian community (for which drawings are in the Peddie and Kinnear archive in NMRS) was erected on the terrace above the catacombs. Drawings in the Peddie archive in NMRS indicate that the steps from the terrace in the SE corner were also designed by Peddie.

A white marble gothic shrine with ruby glass windows lighting a recumbent female figure (Mary Ann Robertson [died 1858], daughter of Brigadier-General Manson of the Bombay Artillery), described in BUILDINGS OF EDINBURGH, has sadly been destroyed by vandals.

The cemetery has suffered a period of severe vandalism, which seems largely to have come to an end (1999). Its overgrown and neglected state, while contributing to an atmosphere of romantic melancholy, contributes also to its continuing deterioration, while invasive species threaten the remains of the original planting.

References

Bibliography

EDINBURGH CEMETERY COMPANY PROSPECTUS, 1842. DICK PEDDIE AND MACKAY CATALOGUE (NMRS) ( bin 12 bag 3) Drawings of new railway bridge at Warriston, J Dick Peddie, 1845 (NMRS). Drawings of extensions to catacomb walls, J Dick Peddie, 1862 (NMRS). Appears on 1852 OS map. Gifford, McWilliam and Walker EDINBURGH (1984) pp 576-7. Turnbull THE EDINBURGH GRAVEYARD GUIDE (1991) pp 146-8.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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