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.

This photograph is of the corner of Earl Grey Street at Fountainbridge. The retail premises at ground level are currently occupied by a coffee shop but, in 1914, at the time of this photograph, the rounded corner site was a home-made cake and confectionery shop. The valuation roll from 1914 confirms that the tenant was the confectioner William G McLeod, who paid rent based on a yearly rateable value of £150 to the owner and trustee.

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 patience, 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