Scott Monument

Le Scott Monument est un monument de style néogothique situé à Édimbourg en Écosse. Il a été édifié en l'honneur de Walter Scott, grand écrivain né dans la ville.

1. Description

Ce monument se situe dans les jardins de Princes Street, en face de Jenners, le grand magasin de Princes Street, près de la gare d'Édimbourg Waverley. La tour mesure 61,1 mètres de haut et un escalier en colimaçon de 287 marches permet d'atteindre la petite plate-forme d'observation située près du sommet. La tour est construite en grès provenant de la ville de Livingston. L'huile qui continue à s'écouler des pierres a contribué à donner au monument sa couleur noirâtre. En effet, l'air de la ville, sous l'époque victorienne, était très pollué (Édimbourg est surnommée Ault Reekie, la vieille enfumée) et les poussières de l'atmosphère se sont collées aux pierres. Une statue de Walter Scott se trouve entre les quatre colonnes de la tour. Sculptée par John Steell, elle est faite de marbre blanc et représente Walter Scott assis, se reposant après avoir écrit un texte à la plume.

1. Historique

Après le décès de Walter Scott en 1832, un concours a été ouvert pour dessiner les plans d'un monument en son honneur. Un participant s'est présenté sous le pseudonyme de "John Morvo", nom de l'architecte médiéval de l'Abbaye de Melrose. Morvo était en fait George Meikle Kemp, ébéniste, dessinateur et architecte autodidacte. Kemp ne voulait pas se présenter sous sa vraie identité car il craignait que son manque de formation en architecture et sa faible notoriété le pénalisent, mais les dessins qu'il a présentés (similaires à ceux qu'il avait vainement proposés quelques années plus tôt pour la cathédrale de Glasgow) ont rencontré un certain succès parmi les juges et Kemp a gagné ce concours en 1838. Après qu’un décret du Parlement en eut autorisé la construction, la première pierre fut posée le 15 août 1840 et les travaux durèrent environ quatre ans. La tour a été terminée à l'automne 1844, avec le fils de Kemp plaçant le faîteau en août de la même année. Malheureusement George Meikle Kemp n'a pas pu assister à l'inauguration le 15 août, car il s'était noyé en tombant dans l'Union Canal le 6 mars de la même année. Le coût total du monument fut de £16,154 7s 11d. Le monument est aujourd'hui géré par le département des musées du Edinburgh City Council.

1. En fiction

Le monument est visible et est cité dans le film Cloud Atlas (2013). Il est aussi le lieu de départ d'une nouvelle de l'écrivain écossais Ian Rankin dans le recueil The Beat Goes On (2014).

1. Liens externes

(en) Page officielle du monument (en) Histoire du monument (en) Biographie de George Meikle Kemp Portail de l’architecture et de l’urbanisme Portail de l’Écosse Portail des monuments classés au Royaume-Uni

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Scott Monument

The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. It is the second-largest monument to a writer in the world after the José Martí monument in Havana. It stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, opposite the former Jenners building on Princes Street and near Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station, which is named after Scott's Waverley novels.

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Jenners

Jenners was a department store in Edinburgh, Scotland, situated on Princes Street. It was Scotland's oldest independent department store until the retail business was acquired by House of Fraser in 2005. It closed in December 2020 and was vacated by House of Fraser in May 2021. The building is currently undergoing restoration to be repurposed as a hotel.

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Romanes & Paterson

Romanes and Paterson is a traditional 19th century shop on Princes Street in Edinburgh. It is owned by The Edinburgh Woollen Mill. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Edinburgh Woollen Mill went into administration.

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St Andrew Square, Edinburgh

St Andrew Square is a garden square in Edinburgh, Scotland, located at the east end of George Street. The construct of St Andrew Square began in 1772, as the first part of the New Town, designed by James Craig. Within six years of its completion St Andrew Square became one of the most desirable and most fashionable residential areas in the city. As the 19th century came to a close, St Andrew Square evolved into the commercial centre of the city. Most of the square used to be made up of major offices of banks and insurance companies, making it one of the major financial centres in Scotland. At one time, St Andrew Square could claim to be the richest area of its size in the whole of Scotland. The gardens are owned by a number of private parties and belong to the collection of New Town Gardens. They were made open to the public in 2008 and are managed by Essential Edinburgh. The square has several shops, including the department store Harvey Nichols and the designer precinct Multrees Walk. It is also home to The Edinburgh Grand Hotel and apartments, as well as a series of London chain restaurants and bars on its south side, such as Hawksmoor, Drake & Morgan, Dishoom and The Ivy.

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Occupy Edinburgh

Occupy Edinburgh was a protest against economic and social inequality as part of the global Occupy movement. The "occupation" began with the erection of a number of tents in St. Andrew Square on 14 October 2011. The site was chosen because St. Andrew Square is the historic centre of the Edinburgh's financial sector and location of the head branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which was partly nationalised in 2008 following its role in the 2008 financial crisis. Journalist Peter Geoghegan visited St. Andrew Square on the second day of its occupation and described the participants: A large number of the 200-odd people on St Andrew's Square were old stagers from the trade union movement or leftist political parties, but just as many were unaffiliated, concerned citizens angry at an economic system that seems to benefit the status quo and a party political structure is aloof, unresponsive and in hock to big business. On the night of 24 November 2011, Edinburgh City Council became the first governmental body in the world to grant both the Occupy Edinburgh and the worldwide Occupy Movement official recognition. On 24 December Occupy Edinburgh activists raised a pirate flag above the nearby RBS Head Branch, claiming it was "it was the work of santa". The group was urged to leave the site by Essential Edinburgh, the business group that manages St. Andrew Square, and the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber's deputy chief executive, Graham Birse, said: "We did not spend all that public money for St Andrew Square to become a campsite for those with nowhere else to go." On 30 January the group relocated to The Meadows, a park within Edinburgh, before leaving this site a couple of weeks later ahead of a legal bid to have them evicted by the City Council. The occupation of St. Andrew Square lasted 108 days.

Event Landmark