Crichton's Close

The many "closes" that lie off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh are all different and full of interesting sites and fascinating history. I have almost blipped some of them before but every time I think of doing so , I end up doing something else.

Anyway I walked down Crichton's Close tonight ( which leads south from the Canongate, and becomes Jackson's Entry before reaching Holyrood Road) and it is a good example of how modern building in Edinburgh has if anything enhanced the attraction and utility of these passages between thoroughfares.

In this close you can find the wonderful Scottish Poetry Library seen on the left , whilst further down on the same side is The Tun which houses the BBC and various other organisations. On the right the SNP has offices as does amongst others , the Scottish Builders Federation & News International.

There are also lots of flats in the modern equivalent of tenements for the old centre of Edinburgh is a place for living as well as working.

I took a number of these shots tonight and in two later ones a figure can be seen approaching through the sleet. That demonstrated something else for it was Kenny Farquherson, Deputy Editor of Scotland on Sunday whom I must have known for almost twenty years. The encounter shows that these closes are also meeting places in what is still a small city.