1898 – 1908 John McLaren
John McLaren moved here from Number 52. He ran a merchants business in Assembly Street, Leith, and also was owner of the Chemical Manure Manufacturers, William Gray & Company, trading from Salamander Street. His two sisters, Maria and Beatrice, lived with him. He died in 1910.
1908 – 1951 William George and Mary Catherine (neé Borthwick) Spens
William Spens and Mary married in 1870. William had probably retired, as they both were in their 60’s when they moved to Albany Street. They previously had lived in Glasgow. Spens had been accountant, as his father had been. For thirty years his father was the General Manager of the Scottish Amicable Society, and William also joined the company, becoming its secretary. His brother, John, became Chairman of the Board. Speaking at the centenary of the Amicable Society, John commented that for more than 85 years the Spens family had been associated with the company.
William had grown up in Edinburgh, but when, in 1839, his father was appointed manager of the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society, the family moved to Glasgow. His father wrote various articles and pamphlets on actuarial science and, William, also became a member of the Institute of Actuaries.
Mary was the second daughter of Archibald Borthwick, the 18th Lord Borthwick and Mary Louisa Home. Her grandfather, Patrick Borthwick, had lived in Number 27 Albany Street from 1814 to 1837, and perhaps that was why the Spens came to live in the street.
William and Mary had seven children. Alice married Captain George Jardine and lived in Wiltshire; Mary married Lt-Col. William Stirling; Janet married the Reverend Arthur Powell, but he died soon afterwards; and Arina remained unmarried. Their first son, also William, became the third generation to become an accountant. On the outbreak of the First World War he enlisted in the 9th Highland Light Infantry, and was killed in action in 1915 at Richebourg in France. The day he died, 17 May, he was one of six hundred and fifty two British soldiers killed in combat.
Fortunately, the Spens’ other two sons survived the war. Archibald, also an accountant, served as a Captain in the Royal Army Service Corps, and later married twice; to Margaret MacGeorge, whom he divorced, and Clare Mallory. He became Secretary of the Scottish Automobile Association. He published a number of books, including A Winter in India in 1913. A review said: ‘To those who cannot take the author’s advice – “Go and see Khyber for yourself” – the book should be of great service, bringing to their notice in an entertaining way much that would otherwise be passed by.’ The youngest son, Walter, appears to have served mainly within Britain during the First World War, possibly due to an early injury while fighting.
William died in 1917, and following Mary’s death, Janet and Walter lived on in the house. Janet died in 1951, at which point Walter moved away and the house was sold.
1951 – 1966 Dugald William McTaggart
The house was purchased by the Reverend Dugald William McTaggart and, following the Spens’ departure, used by him as an Edinburgh address, although he also rented part to Stefan and Lena Lebenstein who ran a boarding house here during the 1950s. When McTaggart sold the building in 1966, he retained a ten year renting lease on it, but died in 1967.
Dugald McTaggart was born in 1917 in Lasswade, and moved to Australia with his parents when he was 16. His father was a mechanical engineer and eldest son of the second marriage of the famous Scottish painter William McTaggart.
Dugald took holy orders as a minister of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and was an army chaplain in the Australian Northern Territories. ‘Preaching at St. Andrew's Church yesterday morning, the Rev. Dugald McTaggart, of the Australian Inland Missions, said that we must seek for the risen Christ, not in the tombs of the dead but in the present and the living. He spoke of the work which the Australian Inland Mission had done in the establishment of the flying doctor service and the pedal wireless which had broken down the isolation of the outback and had made happy home life possible. Those services had also demonstrated to the people in the lonely outposts that they were not forgotten by the world or by Christian people. The spirit which permeated others to take an interest in them was something which showed them that Christ was still working in the lives of men.’
In 1944 ,McTaggart wrote: ‘When I first arrived in the Alice (Springs), things were almost normal. The train was fourteen hours late, but no one minded very much - except the passengers who had to pay for two extra meals. In the evenings when we sat on the lawns of the A.I.M. Hostel there was scarcely a sound except for the creaking and the whirring of the small windmills in each garden. The atmosphere was typically outback, where there is always plenty of time. My next visit was very different. In the meantime the Japs had bombed Darwin, and the Alice folk had been digging slit trenches. The Army had commandeered the A.I.M. Hostel for use as nurses' quarters. There were rumours that all civilians were to be evacuated. Soon, however, things settled down. The civilians grew accustomed to the sight of marching troops and bugle calls.’
However, the hot temperature and ill health forced McTaggart to return to Scotland in 1946. He married and lived in Glasgow, and possibly later in Stirlingshire, where he was a Minister in his latter years.
1966 – 2005 Women's Royal Voluntary Service
The Women's Royal Voluntary Service, a UK voluntary organisation, had, at its height, one million members; the largest membership of any voluntary organisation. The Albany Street house was the WRVS district office for Edinburgh (Lothian), and mainly used for administration, although part was used as a Clothing Store, where volunteers often met to knit together for various causes, including baby clothes. In January 1996, the clothing store was moved to two floors in 30 Albany Street.
From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Edinburgh City Council used some of the rooms to run a single parent family support service.
Another use for the building was for the Books on Wheels Service for the Housebound, which celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 1989. This service was slowly moved to other areas/buildings in the 1990s, and, in 1996, vacated the premises and became a van service.
In 2001 the WRVS let most of the building to MORI, only using in the basement for community services.
2001 – 2005 MORI
The Scottish office of MORI, a UK research and polling organisation.
2005 - today Edinburgh Baha'i Centre
The Baha'i Community bought the building in May 2005 and after refurbishment in 2010, the Edinburgh Baha'i Centre was officially opened in May 2011.
The Bahá’í Faith is founded on the teachings and writings of Bahá’u’lláh, a 19th century prophetic figure who claimed to be the Messenger of God. Two Americans, Mary Virginia Thornburgh-Cropper and her mother, Harriet Thornburgh, were the UK’s first Bahá’ís, settling in London after they had taken part in the first pilgrimage by Western Bahá’ís to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1898.
Together with Ethel Rosenberg, the first person to become a Bahá’í in England, they became the founders of the British Bahá’í community. The community’s national governing council, the National Spiritual Assembly, was elected for the first time in 1923.
‘Let your vision be world embracing… The learned and worldly-wise men of this age were to allow mankind to inhale the fragrance of fellowship and love, every understanding heart would apprehend the meaning of true liberty, and discover the secret of undisturbed peace and absolute composure. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.’ Bahá’u’lláh