About this artwork
This photograph is a modern print from an original negative. It shows Leith’s Old Docks with the ship ‘Cockburn’ (pronounced Coburn) tied up in the foreground. The mouth of the Water of Leith forms the natural harbour that has operated as Edinburgh’s port since the fourteenth century. Nineteenth-century improvements, including the construction of the first deep water docks, caused the city’s bankruptcy in 1833. Yet the expansion continued and another five docks – enclosed areas of water used for loading, unloading, building and repairing ships – were built. In recent years redevelopment of the area has introduced residential, retail and leisure facilities. The disused Old Docks in this image were filled in and now form the car park of the Scottish Government’s offices.
Updated before 2020
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artists:
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title:Leith docks with the ship 'Cockburn' tied up
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date created:1843 - 1846; printed 1991
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printed by:
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materials:Modern calotype print
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measurements:18.20 x 24.00 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Commissioned 1991
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accession number:PGP HA 366
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gallery:
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subject:
David Octavius Hill
David Octavius Hill
A painter and a lithographer by training, David Octavius Hill is best remembered for the beauty of the calotypes he and Robert Adamson produced together. Hill was a sociable and kind-hearted man who did much to support the arts in Scotland and between 1830 and 1836 he was the unpaid Secretary of...