Edinburgh Assay Office

The Edinburgh Assay Office is the last remaining assay office in Scotland and one of four which remain in the United Kingdom. The Edinburgh Assay Office traces its hallmarking history back to the Gold and Silver Work Act 1457 (c. 8 (S)) the first hallmarking act for Scotland. It is an independent privately run business, owned by the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh. Since 1457, the deacon, or leader of the craft, assayed and marked the members' wares. However, in 1681, a dedicated Assay Master, John Borthwick, was appointed to oversee this task. The incorporation's importance in the life of the city and country was confirmed in 1687 when King James VII granted it a royal charter.

The Edinburgh Assay Office is housed in a category B listed building, Goldsmiths Hall in the Broughton Street. It is a former church, built in 1816, which was fully refurbished and opened as the assay office in 1999 by Princess Anne. The assay office primarily tests and hallmarks precious metal. The Hallmarking Act 1973 was passed, then in 2010 palladium became the fourth precious metal to be assayed.

1. References


1. External links

Official website

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St Oran's Church

St Oran's Church was a Gaelic-speaking congregation of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh. Originating in the early 18th-century, the congregation continued until 1948, latterly meeting at Broughton Street. Gaelic public worship in Edinburgh began in the early 18th century and culminated with the opening of the first Gaelic Chapel at Castle Wynd near the Grassmarket in 1769. This was the first Gaelic-speaking congregation in the Scottish Lowlands. A second, larger chapel opened at Horse Wynd in 1813 and the two congregations united in 1815, following which the Castle Wynd building was sold. In 1835, the chapel was raised to the status of a parish quoad sacra. The Disruption of 1843 saw all the church's office holders and almost all of its congregation depart the established church to join the Free Church, creating another Gaelic-speaking congregation in Edinburgh: the Gaelic Free Church. Civic improvements in the Old Town forced the congregation to vacate Horse Wynd in 1870. It settled in the former Catholic Apostolic Church on Broughton Street in 1875. In 1900, the congregation adopted the name "St Oran's". The former Gaelic Free Church – by then known as "St Columba's" – had rejoined the Church of Scotland in 1929 due to denominational unions. The General Assembly concluded the maintenance of two small Gaelic-speaking congregations in Edinburgh was unnecessary and, in 1948, St Oran's and St Columba's united to form the Highland Church, using the St Columba's buildings. Greyfriars Kirk maintains St Oran's tradition of Gaelic worship in Edinburghto the present. The first Gaelic Chapel was a simple T-plan building with seats for 800. It was demolished in the 1830s. The Horse Wynd building stood on a rectangular plan and was executed in a plain neoclassical style. It was swept away in the public improvements that created Chambers Street. The Broughton Street building – the only building occupied by the Gaelic congregation that still stands – is a neoclassical, temple-like building of 1843–1844, attributed to John Dick Peddie. It is now in commercial use.

Church

40 m

Outright Scotland

Outright Scotland is an LGBT rights organisation based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded as the Scottish Minorities Group (SMG) in 1969, and later known as the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group (SHRG), it was the country's first LGBT rights organisation. The group ran as a self-help organisation working for the rights of homosexual men and women, and aimed to provide counselling, work for law reform, and provide meeting places for lesbians and gay men.

Charity Community Centre

St Paul's and St George's Church

St Paul's and St George's Church (known colloquially as "Ps and Gs") is an evangelical church of the Scottish Episcopal Church in central Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located on the corner of Broughton Street and York Place in the east end of Edinburgh's New Town, and is protected as a category A listed building. The building was erected as St Paul's Church, replacing a chapel in the Cowgate. It was designed by Archibald Elliot between 1816 and 1818, and was extended by Peddie and Kinnear in the 1890s. In 1932 the congregation merged with that of St George's Church, also located on York Place. The east window is by Francis Eginton of Birmingham. In 2008 a £5.6 million building project to improve facilities in the church was completed.

Church

87 m

Lavender Menace Bookshop

The Lavender Menace Bookshop was an independent gay bookshop in Edinburgh from 1982 to 1986. It was the first gay bookshop in Scotland and the second in the United Kingdom. As of 2019, the Lavender Menace now operates as the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive. As a blog and pop-up bookshop, it preserves rare, out of print queer books and ephemera through physical and digital archiving efforts.

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