Sciennes

Victorian villa, Sciennes

Sciennes (pronounced sheens) is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland, just outside the city centre to the south of the Meadows, with Newington to the east. Sciennes shares a Community Council with Marchmont, to the west.

Since it is near to many different departments of the University of Edinburgh, Sciennes has a large student population, some living in modern university-owned buildings. Most of the housing is Victorian tenements or 19th century stone 'villas' in roads which merge into the neighbouring area of the Grange, extending southward.

Sciennes was one of a number of areas, originally remote from the City, sited on the Burgh Muir. This area was known for its attraction for the "vagabonds, vagrants and outlaws" which found shelter under its large trees, far from the authorities. ^{[citation needed]}

Concern for the spiritual welfare of these people led to the establishment in 1511-12 of a chapel to St John the Baptist by Sir John Craufurd, the canon of St Giles. This chapel only served its purpose for four years, however, as, following Scotland's defeat at the battle of Flodden, a number of widows requested, and were granted, a Papal Bull to establish the Dominican convent of Catherine of Sienna, which was built in 1517 but destroyed in the Reformation in 1559. The last remains of the convent can still be seen in the gardens of 16 St Catherine's Place, and are marked by a plaque. The name Sciennes is derived from this convent's connection with Siena (Sienne in French, the court language of Scotland for much of the 16th Century).

Sciennes Hill House plaque

The area also contains one of the few Jewish cemeteries in Scotland, dating from 1813. Nearby is the remaining part of Sciennes Hill House, once the home of Adam Ferguson, who hosted a dinner there where Robert Burns and the young Walter Scott met for the one and only time in the winter of 1786-87. Conan Doyle's family lived in this part of Sciennes while he was a boy. Sciennes or rather Causewayside Road is aso home of the former 'B' Division Police Station which, although now apartments, was still a functioning Police Station into the early 1980s. The station is to rate a mention in an iain Rankine 'Rebus' novel, despite being near Marchmont where the fictional Detective lives...Coincidentally, the, building was opposite the antiques, military and police collectables shop of the late Edinburgh dealer and noted police historian T. W. (Tom) Archibald who wrote the definitive history of the Lothians and Borders Police Force. ISBN 0951611909

http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-History-Lothian-Borders-Police/dp/0951611909

The Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Sick Children, known as the "Sick Kids", has been in Sciennes since 1895. It is a listed building with murals by Phoebe Traquair in its chapel. Sciennes Primary School is next to the hospital. Causewayside.

A large engineering works, Bertram's (St Katherine's Engineering Works) had occupied a site on Sciennes Road since 1821. The works has since been demolished but it was in operation in July 1979 when I lived there at number 50. Several pictures of the site, including aerial photographs do exist and are available on the Internet by undertaking a simple image search on Google.

The paucity of material at the NLS and the NCLS indicates that the area has been neglected by amateur and professional historians, archivists and recorders of local history. However, for a variety of social reasons this now significantly 'gentrified' area has the attention of 'silver surfers' with long memories and a great deal of local knowledge, many of whom lived there in student flats as students etc. in their teens and twenties, who are coming forward with photographs and anecdotes. For instance, The Fire Engines, a band from the Edinburgh's early 1980's music sub-culture fronted by David Henderson, resided at 50 Sciennes.

Gallery

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  St. Catherine's Convent plaque

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  Old Jewish burial ground

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  House in Sciennes Gardens

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  Royal Hospital For Sick Children

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  Sciennes Primary School

References

• Sciennes Hill House
• Jewish cemetery
• The Convent of St. Catherine of Siena
• Entry on Sciennes in the Dictionary of the Scots Language
• Sciennes Primary School
• active travel to Sciennes Primary School

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Coordinates: 55°56′18.65″N 3°11′12.75″W / 55.9385139°N 3.1868750°W / 55.9385139; -3.1868750