WELL COURT, EDINBURGH: a philanthropic vision fulfilled

Well Court in the Dean Village, Edinburgh, is one of Edinburgh’s most picturesque developments of the late 19th century. Paid for by the philanthropic Scotsman owner John Ritchie Findlay, it fits into a contemporary concern for social wellbeing, better sanitation and housing, when the damaging effects of poverty and industrialisation were widely felt. A direct precedent had been the tenements of Blackfriars Street and St Mary Street, which were constructed under the 1867 City Improvement Act. This act was largely motivated by William Chambers of Glenormiston, who as lord provost of Edinburgh (1865-69) successfully exploited the opportunity to implement his ideals.

Like Chambers before him, John Ritchie Findlay was a social reformer interested in improving the dwellings and the lives of working people. At Well Court, he was responsible for sweeping away a slum, and replacing it with a model housing development which combined both picturesque and modern sanitary principles (illustration 1). The old derelict buildings were known as Brown’s Court (not to be confused with its namesake in the