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THE HISTORY OF HOPETOUN CRESCENT GARDEN

In 1670 two Edinburgh physicians, Andrew Balfour and Robert Sibbald, dissatisfied with the state of medicine in the city decided to establish a Physic Garden for the cultivation of medicinal and other plants. The site which they procured was a small plot of ground not far from Holyrood Abbey and, with the assistance of James Sutherland the first intendant, it proved a great success. From there they acquired a second garden which was at Trinity Hospital near where Waverley Station now stands. There the Garden remained for almost 90 years, serving for experiments, the supply of specimens to students of medicines and the training of physicians and apothecaries.In 1761 John Hope (b.1725), Professor of both Botany and Materia Medica at Edinburgh University, was appointed to the post of the King's Botanist in Scotland, and also, at a salary of £50, to the superintendentship of the Royal Gardens (Regius Keeper). It was clear that more space for the Royal Garden was needed and a new 'out of town' site off Leith Walk was secured. John Hope used his family influence, first with the Earl of Bute and later with the Duke of Portland, in securing this site. It was a canny choice of location: cheap, accessible and with a variety of soils including, as present day architects have rediscovered, a peat lense running fair and square through what is now Huntingdon Place. And so, in 1763 the plant collection from Trinity Hospital and Holyrood Gardens were moved to Leith Walk. Hope also obtained a permanent endowment for the new garden of £119. 3s and this was to greatly influence botanical education in Scotland.

WHO WAS JOHN HOPE ?

He was born in 1725 in Edinburgh, the son of an Edinburgh surgeon Robert Hope; he was educated in Dalkeith before entering Edinburgh University as a medical student; during his time as a student, he went to Paris to study Botany. When his father died, he returned to Scotland and graduated from Glasgow University in 1750. he was a concientious medical practitioner in Edinburgh but his heart and his spare time were devoted to Botany. In 1760 the joint Professorships of Botany and Materia Medica at Edinburgh University became vacant and Hope was appointed to both chairs - then followed his appointment as Regius Keeper of the Royal Garden and the rest as they say is history.

...........BACK TO LEITH WALK

The new garden, the boundaries of which Hope marked with stakes of the Huntingdon Willow (Salix alba), occupied some five acres on the west side of Leith Walk and was designed to reflect the new discoveries and knowledge of Botany. It was divided into two parts. The east side Hope called the School of Botany and in it the plants were systematically arranged; on each side of this area were placed medicinal plants, shrubs and trees. In the west section were conservatories, the pond for aquatics and a plantation which Hope called the Sylvia Botanics and which consisted of hardy trees in the shelter of which less hardy plants grew.

The conservatories formed a frontage of 140 feet and consisted of a greenhouse in the centre, with a hothouse ('stoves') at each end connected with the central portion by a passage. These heated greenhouses were for the new tropical plants brought back by explorers. There was also a large area (the Library side of McDonald Road) given over to growing several varieties of rhubarb, totalling 3,000 plants. This 1777 plan of John Hope's Leith Walk Botanic Garden also clearly shows the site of John Williamson's house. He was Hope's Principal Gardener for 25 years until his death in1780, and such was the esteem in which Hope held him a stone tablet to his memory was placed in the Garden - and this is still preserved in Inverleith today. Another link between the Leith Walk and the Inverleith Botanic Gardens is the monument to Linnaeus, the great Swedish botanist. Such was Hope's admiration for Linnaeus that in 1779, at his own expense, he commissioned Robert Adam to design the monument which was crafted by James Craig; this monument was also moved to Inverleith and is now situated to the north of the glasshouses.

This portrait drawn by John Kay in 1785 ( a year before Hope's death) is the only known likeness of Hope to exist, and the name of the gardener is unknown. John Hope died in 1786 and was honoured by science when his name was given to the genus of tree Hopea odorata. His name was also given to Hope Crescent - subsequently changed to Hopetoun Crescent - and now to a whole new neighbourhood. And of course, Huntingdon Place gets its name from the Huntingdon Willows planted by John Hope.
Surprisingly Hope, an important Enlightenment figure, has no memorial even at Greyfriars, his burial place. Now however, plans are afoot to erect a simple memorial in Greyfriars.

On Friday March 12th 2004, a simple memorial plaque for Dr. John Hope was dedicated in Greyfriars graveyard by the Revd Dr. Richard Frazer, minister of Greyfriars Tolbooth & Highland Kirk at the site of the Hope family memorial in the Kirkyard. (Also see the Recent Activities page.)

The Garden was in Leith Walk for nearly 60 years and the Gardener's House, a substantial two-storied house built in 1773 for John Williamson, still stands between the gable end of the tenements in Haddington Place and the petrol station. Unfortunately, despite local efforts in the 1990s, it was never listed and is now (2003) in danger of demolition so that the site can be developed. Not only is this building one of the oldest in Leith Walk, it also shows the level of the 'Low Walk' which ran parallel to the 'High Walk' (the rampart built in 1650 by General Leslie): which is why the entrance to the building, apparently via the ground floor, is in fact leading into the original first floor - thus showing how the level of Leith Walk has changed.

THE MOVE TO INVERLEITH

In 1820 Robert Graham became the 3rd Regius Keeper; the Garden site established by John Hope could no longer accommodate its collections properly, the glasshouses were in a dilapidated condition and the ground surrounding the garden, which had been mostly occupied by nurseries was in the process of being developed. A new home had to be found - and a 14.5 acre site in Inverleith was purchased in 1822.
It took nearly 2 years to move the contents of Hope's Garden in Leith Walk to their new home and the success of this operation was due mainly to Graham's Principal Gardener, Mr. McNab. It was McNab who designed a transplanting machine especially to transplant well established trees and shrubs, and hardly a specimen was lost in the move. Indeed trees moved from Leith Walk are still growing in the garden at Inverleith - living contact with the history of the Hopetoun area. The transplanting machine has been adopted as the logo of the FHCG - with kind permission of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

References and good reading:

'The History of Edinburgh',
Hugo Arnot, Esq; Advocate (1779, reprint 1998) West Port Books

'Canonmills and Inverleith',
Joyce M Wallace, (1994) John Donald Publishers Ltd.

'John Hope 1725 -1786',
A G Morton (1986) EBG (Sibbald)Trust

'The Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh',
RBGE, (1970) HMSO

'4 Gardens in One',
Deni Bown; edited by Alan P Bennell & Norma M Gregory (1962) HMSO

and special thanks to:

The RBGE - for permission to use photographs and for great interest and help etc and to
John Dickie - Broughton History Society