Ramsay Gardens

Ramsay Garden
Ramsay Garden seen from Princes Street
General information
Architectural style	Scots Baronial
Location	Castlehill
Town or city	Edinburgh
Country	Scotland
Construction started	1733, 1890
Completed	1893
Client	Patrick Geddes
Design and construction
Architect	Stewart Henbest Capper, Sydney Mitchell

Ramsay Garden is a block of sixteen private apartment buildings in the Castlehill area of Edinburgh, Scotland. They stand out for their red ashlar and white harled exteriors, and for their prominent position, most visible from Princes Street.

Developed into its current form between 1890 and 1893 by the biologist, botanist and urban planner Patrick Geddes, Ramsay Garden started out as Ramsay Lodge, an octagonal house built by the poet and wig-maker Allan Ramsay the Elder in 1733. The house was also known variously as Ramsay Hut and Goosepie House (due to the roof shape). It was complemented by the addition of Ramsay Street, a short row of simple Georgian Houses in 1760. The latter (in revamped form) stand on the north side of the access to the inner courtyard.

Geddes' work on Ramsay Garden began in the context of an urban renewal project that he had embarked on in Edinburgh’s Old Town. The area had fallen into disrepair, and Geddes hoped both to improve the living conditions of the working class, and to increase the number of wealthier residents. He was also involved in improving buildings for use as student accommodation. To these purposes Geddes rehabilitated a significant number of tenement buildings in slums along the Royal Mile, including Abbey Cottages, Whitehorse Close and Riddle’s Court.

The Ramsay Garden development also served these aims. It was partly financed by the prospective buyers of the apartments, and partly by 2000 pounds that Geddes's wife, Anna Morton, had inherited from her father. Geddes engaged the architect Stewart Henbest Capper to remodel Ramsay Lodge, and to build six large new flats onto it at right angles. By this time Geddes had acquired a position at a university in London, but he continued to supervise the design of Ramsay Garden on his frequent trips to Edinburgh. The building work was overseen by Sydney Mitchell, who had taken over as architect, due to Capper's poor health. and was also permitted to add some additional detailing. The result of these partnerships was a combination of traditional Scottish domestic architecture and a rather fanciful proliferation of balconies, towers and eaves. Geddes referred to Ramsay Garden in later years as the "seven-towered castle I built for my beloved". Guide books like to attribute the bulk of the design to the better-known Sydney Mitchell but the bulk of both the concept and design is that of Capper.