Lots of people in Edinburgh live in tenements - separate flats off a common stair, or 'close'. This is partly a historic thing: in the 16th and 17th centuries there was very little space to build in the Old Town, because of its geographical location on a narrow ridge of rock. Instead, people built upwards, which resulted in high, densely populated buildings. Incidentally, the Scottish Enlightenment was very much a product of this type of housing as different classes, professions and intellectual ideas all coexisted at very close proximity.
Nowadays tenement living is still very much part of Edinburgh culture, and with these tenements often come shared gardens at the back of the buildings, all bordering on each other like in the photo above.
6 comments:
Thanks tanya, I love the clematis!
Stunning photo! I love looking at that beautiful cascade of flowers. Here in Seattle there are neighborhood "P-Patch" gardens to grow veggies, but usually not located near a dwelling. That is so interesting about the enlightenment and the influence of tenement living.
-Kim
Seattle Daily Photo
PS- many of us have turned off word verification as it made commenting very time consuming for those trying to visit many blogs each day. Very little to no spam comes through the comments when it's turned off. You might considered joining us in this.
-K.
first time here. wonderful photos you have. well done
A wonderfully refreshing blog, keep up the good work. You now have a place on the blogroll...
Kim - thanks for your kind message. I hadn't given the word verification a moment's thought but have now turned it off. Thanks for pointing this out!
I live in a Glasgow tenement (which, incidentally, is red sandstone at the front and blond sandstone at the back, which I only noticed several months after I'd moved in!). I wish our back court looked like this! Ours is just concrete interspersed with dandelions! lol.
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