Description

William Brodie, circa 1860. Marble. 3 figures: standing female and 2 kilted male children (see Notes) on hexagonal pedestal with rock-cut base course.

Statement of Interest

The A Group comprises The Allan Ramsay Monument, The Cottage, Dr Guthrie's Monument, The Police Box, The Ross Fountain, The Royal Scots Greys Monument, The Royal Scots Memorial, The Scottish American Memorial, The Shelters, The Simpson Monument, The Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial and The Statuary Group, all in West Princes Street Gardens. The figures are said to represent The Genius of Architecture crowning the Theory and Practice of Art. Executed by William Brodie for his son-in-law, James Gowans, and originally situated at Rockville, Gowans house in Napier Road, Merchiston (demolished). Gifted to the Gardens in 1870. West Princes Street Gardens were laid out by James Skene for the Princes Street proprietors circa 1820. In 1866 John Dick Peddie produced a plan, shown in 2 water-colours entitled 'the Athens of the North,' one looking NE across E Princes Street Gardens, showing Calton Hill with a completed National Monument/Parthenon, and the other, looking W across W Princes Street Gardens, showing the Gardens as a 'Walhalla' with a broad terrace with monuments and mausolea, fountains and a winter garden. The gardens were acquired by the city in 1876 and further landscaped by Robert Morham.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17791190

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)