Nineteenth Century
1800: Stein's Canongate brewery is built
1802: Demolition of the Luckenbooths (apart from east-most) in the High Street begins; the Edinburgh Review is published, offering literary criticism
1802–1806: Bank of Scotland head office is built
1803: William and Dorothy Wordsworth stay in the "White Hart" inn in the Grassmarket
1805: Edinburgh Police Act establishes Police Commissioners with responsibility for policing the city (and also cleansing and lighting)
1807-15: Nelson Monument erected on Calton Hill
1810: Construction of Signet Library by Robert Reid begins (interior by William Stark, 1812-13)
1811–1812: Tron riot
1813: Royal Edinburgh Hospital, originally called the Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum, opens in Morningside
1814: Waverley, the first of the Waverley Novels, written by Sir Walter Scott, is published; a protest meeting against West Indian slavery is held; two coaches a day run to Stirling
1815: Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society established
1816–1819: Regent Bridge is built
1817: First copy of 'The Scotsman' newspaper is published on 25 January 1817; Blackwood's Magazine first published; the Old Tolbooth and the remaining Luckenbooth in the High Street are demolished; new County Buildings are erected on the west side of Parliament Square
1818: The Union Canal is begun; new Calton Hill observatory is founded by the Edinburgh Astronomical Institution; the Scottish regalia are found in Edinburgh Castle; gas lighting first made its appearance in Edinburgh
1819: Five coaches a day run between Edinburgh and Glasgow, taking 12 hours for the journey of 42 miles (68 km)
1820: Charlotte Square completed; there are protests at George IV's treatment of Queen Caroline; the Royal Botanic Garden begins its move from Leith Walk to Inverleith; the "Radical Road" built around Salisbury Crags on Arthur's Seat
1821: The official government census gives the population of Edinburgh as 138,235 and Leith as approx. 26,000; the Melville Monument is erected in St. Andrew Square
1822: George IV visits Edinburgh and wears the kilt; the first Highland and Agricultural Show takes place; the Union Canal opens; Princes Street's 79 oil lamps are replaced by 53 gas lamps
1822-29: Building of National Monument dedicated to Napoleonic war dead and designed in style of the Parthenon begun on Calton Hill (but abandoned through lack of public subscriptions)
1823: The Bannatyne Club is founded; the Edinburgh Academy is built at a cost of £12,000
1824: The "Great Fire of 1824" destroys the buildings between the Tron Kirk, which loses its spire, and Parliament Close just months after James Braidwood organises Britain's first municipal fire brigade
1825: Standard Life Assurance Company established; eight Royal Mail coaches and over fifty stage coaches leave Edinburgh each day; the foundation stone of the new Royal High School, costing £17,000, is laid
1826: The Royal Institution opens, designed by William Henry Playfair; the Scottish Academy (later the Royal Scottish Academy) is founded; John Bartholomew founds the mapmaking firm John Bartholomew & Son Ltd.
1827 Walter Scott reveals himself to be the author of the Waverley novels at a Theatrical Fund dinner in the George Street Assembly Rooms
1828: Burke and Hare are arrested for the "West Port Murders". Burke is put on trial and convicted on Hare's evidence
1829: Building of George IV Bridge and Dean Bridge begins; Burke is hanged; the new Royal High School opens; Walter Scott arranges the return of Mons Meg to Edinburgh Castle
1830: Advocates' Library by William Henry Playfair constructed; The Mound is macadamised and more or less complete
1831: The official government census puts Edinburgh's population at 162,403; James Clerk Maxwell born in India Street; opening of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway (known as The Innocent Railway), the first to come into the city. It uses horse-drawn carriages (later pulled by steam locomotive)
1832: Surgeons' Hall by William Henry Playfair, the headquarters of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, completed; outbreak of cholera in the city (recurs 1848 and 1866); The Scotsman newspaper incorporates the Caledonian Mercury
1833: The city goes bankrupt; partly due to the development of Leith docks
1835: The last part of the New Town to be built is completed; the Old Town degenerates into a slum
1836: The Royal Institution extended
1840: Bernard's Edinburgh Brewery in North Back of Canongate (Calton Road) opens
1841: The population according to the government census is 133,692. The figure for Leith is 26,026
1841-1851: Donaldson's Hospital (school for the Deaf) is built
1842: Edinburgh-Glasgow railway line is open to the public; Queen Victoria included the city in her first visit to Scotland
1843: Disruption of the Church of Scotland; Queen's Drive laid through the Queen's Park (completed 1847; extended to Duddingston, 1856)
1844: Tolbooth Church (now The Hub) completed to house the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; Political Martyrs' Monument erected on Calton Hill
1844–1846: The Scott Monument is built
1846: New College by Playfair built for the Free Church of Scotland; the North British Railway Company is established; the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway line is extended from its Haymarket terminus to General Station (precursor of Waverley Station)
1847: Half of Edinburgh's population attend the funeral of Thomas Chalmers; Dr. Simpson announces his discovery of the anaesthetic properties of chloroform; Alexander Graham Bell is born in the city
1848: Trinity College Church dismantled to make way for Waverley Station
1850: Robert Louis Stevenson born in Howard Place; the foundation stone of the Scottish National Gallery is laid; Younger's Holyrood Brewery is enlarged for the third time
1851: According to the census, Edinburgh and Leith's population is 191,303; the British Linen Bank head office opens on St Andrews Square
1852: Duke of Wellington statue erected in front of Register House
1853: The Edinburgh Trades Council is established; a camera obscura is installed in Short's Observatory on Castle Hill (renamed the Outlook Tower in 1896)
1854: Site of the first Theatre Royal sold for erection of a General Post Office
c.1854: The Edinburgh termini of three railway companies become known collectively as "Waverley" station
1856: The burgh of Canongate becomes part of Edinburgh; North British Rubber Company rubber mill (in former silk mill) and McEwan's Fountain Brewery open in Fountainbridge
1857: Fire destroys the western half of James' Court, off the Lawnmarket; St. Margaret's Loch formed in the Queen's Park
1859: The National Gallery opens; Cockburn Street laid to give access to Waverley Station from the High Street; Melville Drive laid through the Meadows; Arthur Conan Doyle born in Picardy Place
1860: Bank of Scotland has 43 branches
1860-68: First edition of Chambers Encyclopaedia published by Robert and William Chambers
1861: Building of Industrial Museum (called the Museum of Science and Art by the time it opened and later the Royal Scottish Museum) begins beside the Old College of the University ; first firing of the Time Gun ("one o'clock gun") from the castle; 35 are killed in a tenement collapse between Bailie Fyfe's Close and Paisley Close in the High Street
1864: Last public execution in the city takes place in the Lawnmarket; the Bank of Scotland head office re-designed and extended over the next six years
1865: Dr. Littlejohn's report on the city's sanitation paints a picture of degradation and high death rates
1867: The Edinburgh City Improvement Act, conceived in the wake of Littlejohn's report, receives the Royal assent and initiates the rebuilding of the Old Town; Scottish Women's Suffrage Society holds meetings for first time
1869: Lorimer & Clerk's brewery opens on Slateford Road, Gorgie; Sophia Jex-Blake becomes first female medical student
1870: Fettes College opens; Chambers Street is laid
1870–1879: Building of the new Royal Infirmary, the biggest hospital in Europe under one roof
1871: First street tramway (between the Bridges and Haymarket);Greyfriars Bobby memorial fountain is erected outside Greyfriars Kirk; first rugby international (Scotland v. England) played on the Edinburgh Academy ground at Raeburn Place
1872: Ross Fountain erected in Princes Street Gardens; Watt Institution and School of Arts begins to be built
1872-1883: Restoration of St. Giles'
1874: Heart of Midlothian F.C. formed
1875: Hibernian F.C. formed; Royal Theatre destroyed by fire; Institute of Bankers founded; Cockburn Association (Edinburgh Civic Trust) founded
1879: St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Palmerston Place consecrated
1881: Queen Victoria hosts a parade of 39,473 Scottish Volunteers in a heavy downpour of rain at Holyrood, giving rise to the occasion being remembered as the "Wet Review"; Dean Distillery opens, converted from Dean Mills
1882: City brought to standstill by severe winter weather
1883: Chair of Celtic established at the university; Royal Lyceum Theatre built
1885: Watt Institution and School of Arts becomes Heriot-Watt College; reconstructed Mercat Cross handed over to the city by benefactor William Ewart Gladstone
1886: The Edinburgh International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art takes place in the Meadows
1887: Production starts at North British Distillery in Gorgie area
1888: Slight earthquake felt in the city at 5am on 2nd February; Flying Scotsman train reaches Edinburgh from London in 6 hours 19 minutes during the Race to the North
1890: Central Library on George IV Bridge, partly paid for by Andrew Carnegie, opens to public
1891: Scottish National Portrait Gallery and National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland opens on Queen Street; the census gives Edinburgh's population as 269,407 (including 8,182 Portobello residents)
1892: Jenners department store in Princes Street burns down (rebuilt store opens 1895); Drybrough's brewery moves to Craigmillar
1893: Caledonian Railway's Princes Street Station completed
1894: McVitie & Price Ltd bakery rebuilt in Gorgie; the new Parish Church of St Cuthbert, by Hippolyte Blanc, is dedicated
1895: Royal National Observatory built on Blackford Hill; first electric street lighting installed
1896: Portobello is incorporated into Edinburgh
1897: Opening of the rebuilt North Bridge at a cost of £90,000; cable car track laid in Princes Street
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of Edinburgh History
Famous quotes related to nineteenth century:
“We have now traced the history of women from Paradise to the nineteenth century and have heard nothing through the long roll of the ages but the clank of their fetters.”
—Jane, Lady Wilde (1821–1896)
“American family life has never been particularly idyllic. In the nineteenth century, nearly a quarter of all children experienced the death of one of their parents.... Not until the sixties did the chief cause of separation of parents shift from death to divorce.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)
“Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose. The nineteenth century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Posterity—the forlorn child of nineteenth century optimism—grows ever harder to conceive.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“When I see that the nineteenth century has crowned the idolatry of Art with the deification of Love, so that every poet is supposed to have pierced to the holy of holies when he has announced that Love is the Supreme, or the Enough, or the All, I feel that Art was safer in the hands of the most fanatical of Cromwell’s major generals than it will be if ever it gets into mine.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)