Botanic Cottage, Leith, Edinburgh
In 1763 John Hope, Superintendent of the Royal Gardens in Edinburgh, realised his ambition to establish a new, larger Botanic garden in Leith Walk, the predecessor of the present Royal Botanic Garden at Inverleith. A small, three bayed, two storeyed cottage was built at the centre of the Leith Wall frontage, known on the First Edition of the Ordnance Survey Map (1852) as Botanic Cottage.
This cottage is currently unoccupied and unlisted, making it vulnerable as it sits on a site earmarked for re-development. The Friends of Hopetoun Crescent Garden (established November 2002) believe this building has architectural merit and is of considerable importance to the history of the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.
The Friends wish to create a detailed record of the building’s interior and exterior, as well as carrying out a archaeological record of the surrounding land before the important link to the original Botanic Gardens is lost.
The Friends lodged a Project Application with the Heritage Lottery (Your Heritage) in February 2008 to assist with this work. The HLF met on 30 March 2008 and awarded Friends of Hopetoun Crescent Garden a Your Heritage Grant of £48,500 to document the original Botanic Garden based in Leith, Edinburgh.
The grant will go towards creating a detailed record of the building’s interior and exterior as well as archaeological research and survey work. The project will also create an oral history archive and produce interpretation about the site. Volunteers will be involved in the oral history interviews and local people, schools and community groups will have the opportunity to attend a series of workshops and lectures about the history of the cottage and Gardens
Preparations are underway to commence the archaeological building survey at Botanic Cottage on Haddington Place. The Friends of Hopetoun Crescent Garden have recently been granted permission to start by the Heritage Lottery Fund, who will be one of the main funders for this project..
A two week on site project will commence in the middle of August with GUARD carrying out an archaeological survey of the building. The process will also be filmed on site and production of a d.v.d to summarise the work and findings will be available at the end of the project.
Alongside the building recording exercise, there will be a programme of research being carried out into the buildings history and its links with the original botanic gardens, in an attempt to further understand the significance of the small cottage.
An oral history workshop will be held by the Friends in order to record people’s memories and associations with the building. In addition, events will be held for the local and wider community in order to share the findings of the project. More information will be available in the near future.
On Sunday 13 July 2008 the Botanic Friends held a successful Garden Party, dressed in their Heritage Lottery Fund T Shirts.
  
Client: Friends of Hopetoun Crescent Garden
http://www.hopetouncrescentgarden.org.uk
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