Drummond Street, Edinburgh
The building which houses the university's Institute of Geography, was once part of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
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| Former name(s) | Back Wall |
|---|---|
| Length | 0.2 mi (0.3 km) |
| Postal code | EH8 9 |
| Coordinates | 55°56′52″N 3°11′02″W / 55.94775°N 3.18402°W |
| west end | A7 |
| east end | The Pleasance |
Drummond Street is a street just outside Edinburgh's Old Town, near the famous Royal Mile and Holyrood. The street connects the South Bridge (A7), where it is opposite the Old College, and the Pleasance. The street is paved with granite setts. It is in an area with several University properties and is home to many students as well as pubs and restaurants.
Originally called Back Wall as the street was just outside the city wall, it was from the 1850s named after George Drummond.
One famous former resident is David Bowie who shared a small basement flat in Drummond Street with the mime artist Lindsay Kemp for several months in the early 1970s
The street is the site of the former Drummond Street Surgical Hospital which was built in 1853 by David Bryce. as an addition to the Royal Infirmary in Infirmary Street. The February 1850 Monthly Journal of Medical Science records the plans for building the hospital as follows:
The new building will stand upon an elevated piece of ground, presenting every facility for drainage, and will front Drummond Street. It will supersede the necessity for several out-buildings, in which surgical cases are at present rather uncomfortably accommodated, and which will be removed. The surgical hospital, in its new form, will contain beds for 200 patients.
At the junction of Drummond Street and the Pleasance can be found some vestiges of a bastion of the Flodden Wall. The wall travels from that bastion along the north side of the street. The section fronting the old surgical hospital has been reduced to four feet in height but still comprises the stones of the original.
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