Transport
As the lay-out of the medieval old town was not conducive to the use of carriages, in 1687, sedan chairs for hire to the public were introduced. (Regulations on price 1830) Although the new broad streets of the New Town brought greater use of carriages, sedan chairs continued in use for journeys between the two parts of the city. There were about 190 sedan chairs operating at their height, and were: ‘to be had on a minute’s warning, at all hours of the night or day. The fare is very reasonable; the chairmen are all Highlanders; and they carry the chairs so much better than the Irish chairmen in London.’ However, they could be hazardous forms of transport, as Edinburgh's high winds frequently caught the sides of the somewhat unstable boxes, causing them to be overturned. It was frequently necessary to hire an additional two men to run on either side of the chair to ensure it remained upright. By the 1850s, as private and public carriages began to be used more, sedan chairs began to disappear, although one person recounted that they ‘saw a sedan chair being used as late as 1871. It was being carried along Albany Street and Abercromby Place to the house of the Lord President Inglis of the Court of Session. Inside was an old lady with powdered hair, dressed high. The chairmen carried the chair into the lobby and withdrew the poles; a flunky opened the door of the chair, and led the lady out.’ A number of residents in Albany Street would have owned their own carriage, and some houses had their own coach-house in neighbouring lanes. It is certain that William Croall, Junior, (Number 36) would have his own carriage as his company, J. & W. Croall, were coach-makers. He was the son of William Croall who, with his brother John, had established a coach making business in York Lane. An account of coach making at the time states: ‘The coach-makers of Edinburgh are chiefly engaged in constructing private carriages; but at the same time they turn out a large number of vehicles which do not fall under that designation. They have customers in all quarters of the world, and their handiwork is admired wherever it is seen. The coach-making trade of Scotland employs upwards of 2,000 persons. The largest establishment in Edinburgh is that of Messrs J. & W. Croall, York Lane, in which about 100 workmen are employed.’ In 1849, the Caledonian Mercury reported: ‘Mr John Croall, the enterprising coach-builder and coach proprietor of this
city, is now manufacturing an extensive series of mail coaches for the Emperor of Russia. The exterior panels are most elaborately painted, and varnished until they shine like glass, in the Russian Imperial livery of dark green, relieved with heads of gold, size etc. and adorned only with double crowned heads of the black eagle, with the sceptre and globe in its talons, the Imperial crest and shield representing the equestrian Peter the Great’. For those who did not own their own, local coach services existed, and in the 1860s these began to develop into horse drawn omnibuses. In 1859, an early omnibus route ran from Golden Acre to Princes Street every hour and a half, and travelled along
Albany Street. George Geddes (Number 49) was a director of the Edinburgh and District Tramway. The first horse-drawn trams began in 1871, and travelled between Haymarket and Leith. (photo - tram in Princes Street) These trams were double-deckers, seating 18 inside and 18 on the top deck. By 1873, there were a number of tram routes. but the cost of keeping horses soon led to steam driven trams being brought into service, and because of the city’s hilly landscape a cable system was introduced in 1888. By 1923, the cable system had been replaced by electric trams. The Highways Act of 1898 permitted the use of motor buses, and the first motor bus service in Britain started in Edinburgh on 19 May the same year,
While there had been mail coaches from the 1780s, passenger travel by coach between cities and towns really developed from 1800. However, coach travel was slow: in 1800 travelling from Edinburgh to London took sixty hours. By the 1820s, improvements to roads made it possible for lighter and faster coaches to be used. In May 1847, Croalls replaced a withdrawn mail coach service from Edinburgh to Dumfries with a new coach called Hero. (photo - collection West Lothian Museums) When the Caledonian Railway reached Beattock in September 1847, Hero collected passengers for the new terminus station, offering a quicker and cheaper service. Described as ‘a splendid, new, fast, four inside coach’ it operated for as few years until rail travel rendered
hundreds of similar stage-coaches redundant.
Many residents of Albany Street, such as J. Badenach Nicholson (lodger at Number 31), were investors in railway companies or served on the boards, or both. The feverish railway development led to much competition for goods and passengers, and short-lived lines. See Scotland Street Rail Tunnel
In 1890, John Whitelaw (Number 31), a civil engineer and architect, participated in a meeting of the Edinburgh Architectural Association to discuss the proposal for a railway tunnel under Princes Street to replace the cutting through the gardens. The running of a rail line from Glasgow into the centre of the city had been a source of debate ever since it was first considered. The first attempt in the mid-1830s to run the railway line through the Princes Street gardens to a station at the North Bridge was defeated by the owners of properties in Princes Street who had spent large sums turning the ‘filthy and offensive bog’ of the Nor Loch into quiet gardens. The rail company’s assurance that the trains would be concealed from view, and smoke from them ‘would scarcely be seen’, cut no ice, and so the line ended at a terminus at Haymarket. Soon the pressure to extend the railway into the centre of the
city was too strong to resist, and, in 1844, the line was run through the gardens with walls and embankments built to conceal the line. However, replacing this existing with a tunnel was not considered advisable by the majority of the Edinburgh Architectural Association members. They expressed concern that such a tunnel could cause damage to the National Gallery building or, worse still, the Scott Monument. Whitelaw was one of the few to argue that the project was feasible and of merit, but in the end the rail line remained where it was.
Before 1854, there were three separate railway termini where Waverley Station is today. (map 1860) One was the new terminus for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company, one the North British Railway's terminus for its line from Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway's Canal Street station. see Scotland Street Rail Tunnel In 1868, the North British Railway acquired the stations of its rivals, demolished all three, closed the Scotland Street tunnel to Canal Street. and built the present Victorian station on the site.