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Suggestions for the Improvement of Edinburgh

Architect: Peddie, John Dick, RSA · 1824-1891

For a period in the nineteen seventies, there appeared to be some confusion as to the creator of the drawing who was cited as "unidentified" in a letter from the RSA to the "Council for Museums and Galleries in Scotland" dated 1978-12-13. The piece was subsequently identified as being by John Dick Peddie, see letter from RSA to Council for Museums and Galleries in Scotland dated 1978-12-15, both letters are in Box File 45 "Scottish Museums Council". The Diploma Work appears to be one of a number of pieces that John Dick Peddie produced from 1854 until 1870 and which he exhibited at the RSA Annual Exhibitions relating to suggested improvements to Edinburgh and visions centred on the Waverly Bridge and Princes Gardens area of Edinburgh. One particular exhibited piece that sounds very similar to the Diploma Work was exhibited in 1867 as catalogue number 1 " A Suggestion for the Improvement of Edinburgh/ In this drawing it is attempted to show what may be done, within practicable/ limits, to improve the view eastward from the Mound, and to heighten its classic/ expression, at present seriously lessened by the Scott Monument only./ The drawing represents the fountain about to be erected in the Princes Street/ Gardens; markets on the site of the present station for the North trains; railway/ station buildings, of the height sanctioned by the recent Act of Parliament; a rail/ way hotel on the site of the present Queen's Hotel; the National Monument com/ pleted, and monuments in the form of Greek Temples, and statues on suitable sites/ on the Calton Hill, which is thus made to assume the appearance of a Greek/ Acropolis." The Diploma Work shows similar elements to this piece apart from the fountain. In 1868 the same piece as the one described above was also exhibited at the RGI catalogue number 788.





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