Colony Crafts

Carvings on the gable ends of the Stockbridge Colonies. These are near my work, and I used to live in one of the flats. They were built by the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company Ltd (ECBC), and completed in 1872. ECBC was formed by 'artisan workers', whose skills are celebrated by these carvings.

The entire ECBC development of "400 houses supplying healthful accommodation for at least 2,000 individuals" was completed for £70,000 - a quick ESPC search tonight brought up one colony flat with one bedroom for £195,000. So, that's about £80 million for 400. Bargain. After all, they have inside toilets now.

There's a few more pictures of these carvings from today on Flickr.

Wikipedia has an article on Edinburgh's Colony Houses.