Edinburgh - West Bow c1544

Edinburgh - West Bow c1544

Intangible Heritage

Our depiction of Edinburgh and the Canongate was inspired by a drawing in the British Library made by the English military engineer Richard Lee, who accompanied Hertford’s forces in 1544. Lee’s drawing is the earliest moderately realistic picture of Edinburgh and would influence how the English portrayed the Scottish capital into the seventeenth century (a variant of Lee’s illustration is included in John Speed’s atlas, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, published c.1611). It is possible that Lee’s plan was created to explain the outcome of the Edinburgh expedition to Henry VIII of England. On 19 May 1544 the Earl of Hertford informed Henry that he was sending him ‘Master Lee, who I assure your Majesty hath served in the journey both honestly and willingly, [and] doth bring unto your Highness a plat of Leith and Edinburgh so as your Majesty shall perceive the situations of the same, which is undoubtedly set forth as well as is possible.’

reconstructions

2017

image/png

Reconstruction

216

In Copyright (InC)

current,55.948056,-3.194444;

https://www.openvirtualworlds.org/west-bow-1544/

https://player.vimeo.com/video/224290626

Smart History

TEXT

https://canmore.org.uk/site/112793

Firstly, a digital landscape was created using survey data and height maps. Following extensive historical research and collaboration with specialists, 3D models are created and imported into UNREAL Engine (a cross-platform game engine for creating virtual worlds). Models are textured, scaled, oriented and assembled. Scenes are created and populated with appropriate objects, including furniture and artefacts. Landscapes populated with flora and fauna. Weather settings and atmospheric lighting. Clothing and characters researched, created, imported and animated.

The West Bow was a steep z-shaped street which formed the main route between the Royal Mile and the Grassmarket. The narrow road was shadowed by buildings with projecting galleries and overhanging upper storeys. By the early nineteenth-century the properties in the West Bow had fallen on hard times, and in 1829 it was remarked that ‘few will regret their removal, to make room for modern improvements’. In the 1830s most of the old buildings in the West Bow were demolished to make way for the newly created Victoria Street.

Richard Fawcett (University of St Andrews), John Lawson (CECAS), Bess Rhodes (University of St Andrews)

Sarah Kennedy, Iain Oliver, Bess Rhodes, Catherine Anne Cassidy, Adeola Fabola, John McCaffrey, Alan Miller

1544