Hidden history
Do you know who used to live in your house? Now you can find out.
Discover the history of your house with the resources at Edinburgh City Libraries and Capital Collections, our online image library which gives access to some of the 100,000 images in our collection.
The photograph above, dated 1885, is of the home of Mrs Nichol at No 12 Findhorn Place, taken from Mrs Kennedy’s house opposite at No 9. The 1885 Post Office directory corroborates the names and addresses.
No 9 is listed under Mr James Kennedy and states a connection to Charles Jenner & Co, the department store to become known as Jenners. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography confirms that the firm passed to James Kennedy, a junior partner and a relative of a friend of Mr Jenner, when the founder retired in 1881.
The Kennedy family continued as owner-managers of the business throughout the 1900s. By consulting the 1881 census, it is possible to discover that Elizabeth Nichol would have been 84 at the time of the photograph and that she was the head of her small household living on private means, with one domestic servant. Her home contained seven rooms that had one window or more.
The Edinburgh Room within Central Library has a wealth of material to help you discover the hidden history of your home. Using large-scale OS maps in conjunction with other resources, such as Post Office directories, can help to identify specific properties, significant dates and previous uses of the building.
The Edinburgh Room also holds census returns for the years 1841-1901 and valuation rolls from 1914-1989 which record the people who owned and rented the domestic properties of Edinburgh. Central Library has a subscription to The Scotsman online archive and to Scran, an online resource providing educational access to digital materials.
See if you can find an early picture of your home at www.capitalcollections.org.uk and with a bit of time, a little luck and the resources of the Edinburgh Room at your fingertips, it may be possible to unlock the secret history of your house.
Need to know
Look out for the upcoming “History of the House” events taking place at Central Library in November. Details of how to get involved will be available nearer the time at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/libraries