Colony of Artists

This is a festival held in the Abbeyhill Colonies in Edinburgh which we heard about when visiting the Pittenweem Arts Festival - the Edinburgh festival is modelled on it. Here is a bit more about it.

I was interested to learn about the history of the Colonies, so here is what I read in the festival programme:

"A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COLONIES

Adversity can lead to great things and when a group of builders found
themselves locked out of their building sites due to a dispute about
working hours in 1861, their three month ban led to some creative
thinking - the formation of the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company
(ECBC).

This group comprised of many different trades - stone masons, plasterers, plumbers and others sympathetic to their aims. Central to its mission was  a co-operative spirit that was reflected both in its adoption of the beehive motif, which the current day Colony of Artists have adopted, and in the ultimate design of the homes constructed - built in rows, flat upon each other, like a colony of bees."

I had wondered about the design of the various Colonies in Edinburgh in which the entrance to the lower flat is on a different street to the upper flat - they are on opposite sides of the building. This was done so that each flat had a garden of its own.