Edinburgh wandering: historic streets and architectural details

Black and white photographs of Edinburgh's streets and architecture



Despite being an Edinburgh resident, I don't often go into the centre of the city. It's always busy at this time of year and I tend to avoid the crowds. But saying that, there are so many great subjects to photograph around the town, and I've been meaning to go for a photo walk there for a while. I started by photographing this building; an image which has been in my mind's eye for several months. Every time I walk past, I think it would make a good photograph. Well, here it is. From there, I walked up to the Old Town.




I paid a quick visit to the National Museum of Scotland to visit my wife, who works there. I photographed this detail from a balcony in the newer part of the museum. The light and shadows drew me in, but I especially like the strong, dark linear shape which punctuates the hazy sunlight and shadows.




I sat down in the Greyfriars Kirkyard with a delicious, reasonably-priced lunch from Bobby's Sandwich Bar. I photographed this old building from the graveyard. I guess this building used to be a furniture store - Harvey's Furniture Store, in fact. There's now a bar below this sign, and on the other side of the building, the famous Elephant House café, which caught fire in 2021.
 



I walked up to the Royal Mile and found a quiet set of steps leading down a narrow alleyway. About halfway down, there was this suspended walkway/room which was catching the sunlight. A pigeon flew up and sat on top. I thought I'd take a photo, and then the pigeon flew down towards me just as I was taking the picture.




On Cockburn Street, I noticed this set of steps was also catching the sun. I took a photo with people ascending from a slightly different angle, but I prefer this quieter version.




On my walk back towards Leith I stopped and photographed this building and chimney. This fascinating building was actually a coal-fired power station, built at the end of the 19th century. The building also features a 'Renaissance' style facade. I've been planning to photograph this building for my Another Edinburgh project, but that's for another day.

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