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Summary

Description

David Bryce, 1847; extended by T Aikman Swan, 1924. 12 ACRE NECROPOLIS FOR Edinburgh Southern Cemetery Company, opened 15th May 1847. Series of Monuments laid out in regular blocks divided by gravel paths, symmetrically disposed along S-N axis. Comprises:

1. LODGE - see separate listing of 60 Grange Road.

2. GATES, GATEPIERS, BOUNDARY WALLS AND RAILINGS: GRANGE ROAD AND BEAUFORT ROAD (N BOUNDARY): high coped rubble wall with pediments to wall monuments visible from street; 2 large polished ashlar gatepiers (adjoining lodge to outer left) with pedestals, cornices and pyramidal coping; decorative cast-iron carriage gates with anthemion motifs and barleysugar spearhead finials; railings mounted on low boundary wall to left linking to pedestrial gateway in same style, flanked by crested cast-iron gatepiers; railing continuing round into Lovers' Loan.

LOVERS' LOAN (E BOUNDARY): low rubble boundary wall with substantial ashlar coping to outer right, surmounted by 8 panels of railing (detailed as gates above) with decorative crested cast-iron piers (detailed as pedestrian gatepiers above). High rubble boundary wall to remainder of Lovers' Loan.

S AND W BOUNDARIES: high coped rubble walls.

3. VAULTS (N ELEVATION): symmetrical, pavaillioned elongated single storey range of vaults, blanked to outer extremities and earthed above. Polished ashlar. Base course; wallhead cornice; corniced parapet; buttresses; central barrel-vaulted pend with gated chambers leading off; nook-shafted entrance with roll-moulded arch, carved masque label stops, and blank rectangular tablet above; dog-leg staircases flanking.

Smaller round-arched doorways in similar style to chambers at pavilions and centres of flanking ranges; decorative cast-iron grilles in same style as entrance gates (see above). Trefoil oculi in remaining bays.

4. MONUMENTS- large number of wall and free-standing predominantly gothic and classical in style, including: THOMAS CHALMERS (D 1847): S McCashen, sculptor; coped ashlar wall with bracketted commemorative slab, and smaller slabs to other members of Chalmers' family.

DICK LAUDER MONUMENT: free-standing gabled ashlar monument, principally to Sir Thomas Dick Lauder (d 1848); 5 pointed arches with chevron mouldings and contrasting polished grantie columns; inscriptions on white marble behind arches. Cast-iron enclosure railings.

WILLIAM STUART (d 1868): T Thomas, sculptor; coped wall monument with broken obelisks flanking carved palm tree.

ANN DRYSDALE: J Howie, sculpture; full-size female figure with one hand on heart, the other resting on an urn.

McCALLUM MONUMENT: principally to Hugh McCallum (d 1937); full-size female figure holding wreath in left hand, leaning against monumental slab with carved foliage, lyres and swag.

Statement of Special Interest

The Edinburgh Southern Cemetery Company issued a prospectus for their new burying ground in 1847, outlining the benefits of the site under 3 headings: "amenity or beauty of situation"; "proximity to the City"; and "the highest attainable security that the remains therein deposited shall continue undistrubed". The scale of charges, from £2 to £12 per grave was designed to encourage "all classes of the community" to acquire their own private burial plot. The rows of £2 plots are distinguishable by small stone slabs rather than headstones. A prefatory engraving to the Prospectus shows an unexecuted design for a small mortuary chapel above the vaults - the proposal was dropped after objections by some of the share holders, but the land was left free.

The first burial at the cemetery, that of Dr Thomas Chalmers, the Disruption leader, is described in some detail in appendix (some 2000 mourners are said to have lined the route from the city centre. For other notable figures buried in Grange Cemetery see Cant and Anderson. The cemetery is now managed by the City of Edinburgh District Council.

References

Bibliography

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