20 Albany Street
The property was sub-divided into offices.
1896 – 1918 Offices of John Baird
John Baird, a solicitor, moved to Number 21, where he practised until his death in 1940, aged 80. For more than fifty years, Baird was the solicitor of the Salvation Army in Edinburgh, and at one time was President of the Edinburgh Burns Club and of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.
1896 – 1903 Offices of Wilson and Johnston
This accountancy partnership of John Wilson and George K. Johnston acted as the agents for Scottish General Fire Assurance Corporation and General Accident.
1919 – 1944 Office of Henry Hastings
Henry Hastings moved his accountancy practice here from Duke (Dublin) Street. Much of his work was as a valuator, mostly with the licensed trade, including acting as sales agent for hotels and pubs. He is noted in one report as an expert witness on the turnover of licensed businesses in a court case. In 1932, his son Clifford joined the firm.
1919 - 1968 Office of Hunter Smart and Dickison
This was a partnership between W Hunter Smart and W Smith Dickison, both Chartered Accountants. They moved their office here from Number 9. From 1932 Hunter Smart acted as secretary to the Scottish Laundry Company and so this also was that company’s registered company address. Launched in 1894, the company established and ran steam laundries. The firm moved to Rutland Square.
1940 - ?1960 Office of J Erskine Cameron
An accountant.
1968 - 1976 Wheeler & SprosonArchitectsSir Anthony Wheeler (portrait) was a distinguished Scottish architect and an eminent past president of the Royal Scottish Academy. He studied at the Glasgow School of Architecture in the late 1930s. His career led him from an early posting as Assistant City Architect in Oxford in the 1950s to a leading firm of London architects, before returning to Scotland to take up the post of chief assistant to the Glenrothes Development Corporation. In 1954. Frank Sproson was made a partner and the practice named Wheeler & Sproson.
The firm was active in the imaginative early restorations under the National Trust’s enlightened Little Houses Scheme. Wheeler & Sproson won many awards from the Saltire Society in the 1960s and 1970s for their work on historic houses. Wheeler was also a pioneer in many modern buildings around Scotland – some of which caused some controversy. The firms' buildings included the Hunter Building of Edinburgh College of Art, the married naval quarters at Rosyth, Faslane and Elgin, and Ninewells Hospital and the Medical School.
Wheeler served as president of the Royal Scottish Academy from 1983 to 1990, and also served on the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland, as president of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and was made an honorary fellow of the Scottish Society of Architect Artists. He was a keen artist. He died in 2013, aged 94.
1977 - at least 1980 Lothian Regional Council Department of Social Work
Took over Numbers 20, 22 and 24.