Architectural palimpsest

"It's a mysterious many-layered palimpsest of a metropolis where generations of natives and visitors have left their mark, from Boadicea and the Romans, through the Middle Ages and the Elizabethan era to the present."
-- Philip French, "Jack the knife", The Observer, February 10, 2002

Well, this isn't a metropolis, but the back of what was part of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in Lauriston Place. The new RIE was opened at Little France around 2004. The buildings on this site date from 1879, when Lauriston Place was at the edge of the city, and hence with fresher air. I love the way in which there are so many different layers of building - the original stonework, some windows clearly boarded up for a very long time, other corridors bricked up, with small doors in them, still others built out of the original building into now-demolished links.

The old buildings are being converted into new flats, alongside new build apartments. I am often in this new "Quartermile" site, and wonder about the stories the old buildings keep.


... and this building is one I've meant to photograph for AGES, and knew about this "blip" thing that a friend and colleague did. And now, finally, I've blip-ed it. Yay! Thanks J.