Difference between revisions of "Edinburgh"
(→Suburbs of Edinburgh) |
(→Suburbs of Edinburgh) |
||
| Line 47: | Line 47: | ||
*'''Leith''' was an independent municipality until 1920. It is the port of Edinburgh, although its extensive docks are now being converted into affluent residential and leisure areas. | *'''Leith''' was an independent municipality until 1920. It is the port of Edinburgh, although its extensive docks are now being converted into affluent residential and leisure areas. | ||
*'''Morningside''' is a wealthy middle class suburb of south Edinburgh, whose inhabitants are popularly supposed to speak in an affected accent and display extremes of genteel behaviour. | *'''Morningside''' is a wealthy middle class suburb of south Edinburgh, whose inhabitants are popularly supposed to speak in an affected accent and display extremes of genteel behaviour. | ||
| + | *'''Murrayfield''', west of the city centre, is home to the Scottish national [[Rugby Union]] stadium. | ||
*'''Portobello''', on the shore of the Firth east of the city centre, is a residential and resort settlement, although the decline of 'traditional' seaside holidays in Britain has seen its fortunes waver. | *'''Portobello''', on the shore of the Firth east of the city centre, is a residential and resort settlement, although the decline of 'traditional' seaside holidays in Britain has seen its fortunes waver. | ||
Revision as of 14:36, May 8, 2008
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland. There is controversy over the origins of the name Edinburgh, which may derive from King Edwin of Northumbria (Edwins-burgh, burgh being the Northumbrian and later Scots word for fort or town) or from the earlier Gaelic 'Dún Eideann' (Fort of Edwin).
Edinburgh has a population of around half a million souls. It is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and the world's largest annual arts festival, the Edinburgh International Festival.
Contents
The City and Its People
The city is also a centre of banking, commerce, education, and food processing. Its nickname is 'Auld Reekie' for its former smoky atmosphere.
The city centre of Edinburgh is divided into an 'Old Town' and a 'New Town'. The Old Town is, in effect, the medieval city, laid out either side of the 'Royal Mile' which runs west-east from the castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The New Town contrasts starkly with the narrow alleys and 'wynds' of the Old; it was a planned settlement, laid out in the late 18th century, with broad, straight streets and tree-lines squares, and a calm neoclassical architecture contrasting with the higgledy-piggledy gothic of the medieval town. Princes Street, the main shopping artery of the city, forms the southern boundary of the New Town. Between the old and new Edinburghs lay a loch (lake) and marshy ground. This was drained to form ornamental gardens, which partly remain but were partly usurped in the mid 19th century to make room for Waverly Station and the city's main railway line.
Education
There are three universities in Edinburgh - the University of Edinburgh (1583), Heriot Watt University (1965) and Napier University (1992). The city also has many notable private schools including Fettes College (the alma mater of Tony Blair), George Watson's College, George Heriot Academy, Castlebrae High School, Loreto College and the Marcia Blaine School for Girls. The school on which the St Trinian's films were based (St Trinnean's School) is also in Edinburgh.
Sport
Edinburgh has two football clubs; Hibernian FC (nickname: the Hibees) and Heart of Midlothian FC (nickname: the Jambos). Both play in the Scottish Premier League. The famous author Sir Walter Scott wrote a novel The Heart of Midlothian based around the early days of the club and its founder Vladimir Romanov, an exile from Tsarist Russia and boyfriend of the author Alexander Pushkin. Rugby is also popular, especially amongst the homosexual community.
Culture
Paganism is still practiced in Edinburgh. Every 30th April sees the Pagan Beltane Fire Festival conducted on Calton Hill near Edinburgh City Centre where sacrifices (human and animal) are offered by the actor Christopher Lee.[1]
Famous natives of Edinburgh
- Sean Connery (actor)
- Irvine Welsh (author)
- Les McKeown (classical musician)
- James Connolly (trade unionist and Irish political agitator)
- Tam Paton (child psychologist)
- John Leslie (television presenter)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author)
- Robert Louis Stevenson (author)
- Ian Rankin (author)
- Walter Scott (author)
- James Clerk Maxwell (physicist)
- James Hutton (geologist)
- John Napier (mathematician)
- David Hume (philosopher)
- Adam Smith (philosopher and economist)
- Tony Blair (politician and entertainer)
- Malcolm Rifkind (politician)
Suburbs of Edinburgh
- Corstorphine is a former village now part of western Ediunburgh, but retaining a kind of rustic seclusion around iots parish kirk. It is also the location of Edinburgh Zoo.
- Cramond is the site of a Roman fort on the Antonine Wall; it lies west of the city on the shore of the Firth of Forth and boasts some antique buildings on its narrow village street. Inland, it is one of the city's most expensive residential districts. Cramond is connected by a pedestrian causeway to the uninhabited Cramond Island, about a kilometre offshore.
- Joppa is a seaside area east of Portobello.
- Leith was an independent municipality until 1920. It is the port of Edinburgh, although its extensive docks are now being converted into affluent residential and leisure areas.
- Morningside is a wealthy middle class suburb of south Edinburgh, whose inhabitants are popularly supposed to speak in an affected accent and display extremes of genteel behaviour.
- Murrayfield, west of the city centre, is home to the Scottish national Rugby Union stadium.
- Portobello, on the shore of the Firth east of the city centre, is a residential and resort settlement, although the decline of 'traditional' seaside holidays in Britain has seen its fortunes waver.
