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Edinburgh’s Colonies: houses built by workers for workers
Stephen Griffith, Editorial Assistant with the Word Bank talks to Richard Rodger about the subject of his latest book Happy Homes just published by the …
Happy Homes: Cooperation, Community and the Edinburgh Colonies, Richard Rodger
Happy Homes: Cooperation, Community and the Edinburgh Colonies, Richard Rodger
Price: £15 (UK P&P FREE)
A distinctive housing phenomenon for over 160 years, the Edinburgh ‘Colonies’ have a remarkable history. Locals recognise them instantly. With imaginative design and build, the homes included gardens, kitchens, and a front door in stark contrast to the multi-storey living of the Old Town. Built in parallel lines, like a honeycomb, over 2,300 houses were constructed by the Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company Limited (ECBC) on 11 different sites on the outskirts – colonies! – of Edinburgh and Leith in the fifty years between 1861 and 1911.
Where exactly are the ‘Colonies’? Why have they proved to be so appealing as a housing type? Why have there been no demolitions? How were women involved in the Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company? Why, ultimately, did the company fail?
These are a few of the issues raised in Happy Homes, a significantly revised and expanded version of the author’s Edinburgh’s Colonies (2011) and based on a considerable amount of new research.
Richard Rodger is the prize-winning author of The Transformation of Edinburgh: Land, Property and Trust and has wide ranging interests in the development of towns and cities. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science and Emeritus Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Edinburgh.
192 pages with 50+ illustrations; ISBN: 978-0-9930544-9-5
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