Last weekend saw the annual Edinburgh Doors Open Day where you can get free access to some of Edinburgh’s fascinating buildings, some of which are not always open to the public on a daily basis. One of these buildings is the newly rebuilt Botanic Cottage in the Royal Botanical Gardens. Mark from our office went along for a tour to see the finished cottage.
The original botanic cottage was designed by architect John Adam with James Craig also thought to have enhanced it in later years. The cottage stood at the entrance to a five acre site on Leith Walk belonging to the Royal Botanical Gardens from 1763 to the early 1820s and was home to the principal gardener John Williamson with the first floor being used as a classroom. The classroom is thought to be one of the oldest surviving classrooms of the Scottish Enlightenment where medical students were taught botany. After the botanical garden moved to Inverleith between 1820 and 1823 the cottage had various owners who used the cottage as a private home, offices and lastly a van rental office.
Lastly the cottage was sold off and left abandoned and in a deteriorating state. After a community campaign to save the cottage from demolition it was decided in 2008 to dismantle the cottage one piece at a time, moving all the components across to Inverleith. During 2014-15 the botanic cottage was reconstructed using the original stone, traditional methods and materials all overseen by Simpson & Brown Architects.
The cottage was completed and opened in May 2016 as a community learning centre. Only opening to the general public with pre-arranged public events such as Doors Open Day. It is great to see the local community saving the cottage from demolition, being lost forever and now becoming a restoration success.
