Coade stone pillars

These pillars are made of moulded artificial stone which is very hard-wearing so that they look almost new despite dating from the early 19th Century. Coade stone is named after its inventor, Eleanor Coade, a British business woman who lived from 1733 to 1821. It's apparently a type of ceramic. The columns used to stand in the garden of Argyle House in Portobello but were taken into storage by the council in 1989 when an extension was to be built at the property, then a nursing home. The Portobello Amenity Society was instrumental in the columns being installed in their current location in the community garden on the Promenade. There's more about the columns on the Portobello Heritage Trust website with photos of their recontruction.

I was with JH and MH for this jaunt to Portobello which gave us a fair amount of fresh air and also stretched our legs. It was a bright day with wintery sunshine and there were a lot of people doing the same things as us, but it didn't feel too crowded.