The New Town

This is St Bernard's Place on the northern edge of the New Town. These beautiful, imposing buildings have been on my commute to work for the last week, they're very grand.

When originally built there were no street lamps, the better off folk had servants to carry lamps, or torches, so they could see their way. The black marks on the stonework (beside the bell pull, on the right of the door) were made by servants striking a flame to light guests back to their carriages after dark. So the more black marks by the door, the more popular the resident. No 29 seems to have had a few guests round of an evening . . .

Next week back to Victoriana!