Holy Corner is a colloquial name for a small area of Edinburgh, Scotland, and (along with Church Hill) is part of the area more properly known as Burghmuirhead, itself part of the lands of Greenhill. Holy Corner lies between the areas of Bruntsfield and Morningside.
The name derives from the crossroads, where Morningside Road, Colinton Road and Chamberlain Road meet; on each of the corners of the crossroad is a church (although two are slightly set back.) Church Hill is the small area to the south and includes the Church Hill Theatre, formerly yet another church. Beyond is Morningside, with the former parish church (now part of Napier University) only just beyond Church Hill. The north end of the crossroads leads into Bruntsfield Place. Merchiston is along Colinton Road to the west.
The churches of Holy Corner are: Christ Church (Scottish Episcopal Church), Morningside United (Church of Scotland and United Reformed Church) and Morningside Baptist Church (Baptist Church). Morningside Baptist Church purchased Central Hall, Tollcross in June 2011 and now hold services there. MBC sold their Holy Corner building Elim Church in March 2012. The fourth of the churches has been turned into the Eric Liddell centre. There is also a Bank of Scotland branch in the north west corner.
A short distance away atop Church Hill is the Church Hill Theatre which was built as a church by Edinburgh architect Hippolyte Blanc (who also designed Christ Church). Not far beyond that is the former Morningside Parish Church (Church of Scotland) which is now a part of Napier University, the congregation having been merged with another church towards the south of Morningside in the late 1980s.
Other features in the immediate area include Napier University's Merchiston campus, which incorporates Merchiston Castle (or tower), birthplace and former home of John Napier, the mathematician and alleged necromancer. Merchiston Tower is also the ancient seat of Clan Napier.
The former site of a garden centre in the north west corner, next to a branch of the Bank of Scotland, was transformed into a compact "metropolitan" supermarket for Tesco, with adjacent coffee house and furniture shop, in 2006.
Famous quotes containing the words holy and/or corner:
“now I discerne they goe on a Pilgrimage
Towards Loves holy land, faire Paphos or Cyprus.
Such devotion is meete for a blithesome age;
With sweet youth, it agrees well to be amorous.
Let olde angrie fathers lurke in an Hermitage:
Come, weele associate this jolly Pilgrimage!”
—Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
“O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others’ uses.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)