50 Albany Street
1870 – 1914 Archibald and Anne (neé Aikman) Cowan
Archibald Cowan was a partner in Cowan, Mason and Co., wine and spirit merchants based in Leith, and he and Anne moved here after marrying. They had five children in the house, but one of their two daughters, Anne, died when just one year old. One son, Archibald, first worked in his father’s business, but then joined the 19th Lothians Imperial Yeomanry and fought in the Boer War, and was killed in 1901. The two other sons, William and George, both became solicitors. William continued to live in the house with his family. Nothing known about the other daughter, Marion.
It appears that Anne died earlier than Archibald, as when he died in 1914, aged 78, the house furniture and contents were put up for auction.
1915 – late 1960s Thomas R Dale & SonThe firm of Dale & Son were designers and makers of bronze doors, shop fronts, gates, memorials, metal letters for print trace and metal engraving of all types. One of the company’s commissions, in 1922, was the design and production of the memorial plaque recording the names of 24 men connected with Roslin Parish Church who died in the First World War. (photo) In 1940, the business was taken over by Charles Henshaw & Sons, also architectural metal-workers, in Murieston Crescent, but they continued to trade as Dale & Sons at this address. Henshaw & Sons was founded in 1904 by metalworking artist Charles Henshaw, who came to Edinburgh from Birmingham, and whose three sons established the firm as a leader in decorative metalworking. Its foundry in Russell Road, Gorgie, cast the bronze lamp standards surrounding Eros in Piccadilly Circus, the Versailles-style chandelier in the Archers Hall in Edinburgh, and fittings for Floors Castle. The company continues today, although now it focuses on creating architectural glass, from the chandeliers in Holyrood Palace to the Harvey Nichols’ facade in Edinburgh and the new£4 million glass roof at Waverley Station.
Early 1970s Singers
Branch office of the sewing machine manufacturers.
1975 - at least 1980 Castle Rock Housing Association