Edinburgh

The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. It stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, opposite the... Jenners department store on Princes Street and near to Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station. The tower is 200 feet 6 inches high, and has a series of viewing decks reached by a series of narrow spiral staircases giving panoramic views of central Edinburgh and its surroundings. The highest viewing deck is reached by a total of 287 steps . It is built from Binny sandstone quarried in nearby Ecclesmachan. This oily stone was known to attract dirt quickly and was probably a deliberate choice to allow the Gothic form to quickly obtain the patina of age. Arguably the soot of Edinburgh's chimneys, in combination with smoke from the nearby railway line and Waverley Station perhaps over-egged the result, and it is now very hard to make out the numerous carved figures. Bill Bryson has described it as looking like a "gothic rocket ship". Following Scott's death in 1832, a competition was held to design a monument to him.
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Gladstone's Land is a surviving 17th century high-tenement house situated in the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has been restored... and furnished by the National Trust for Scotland, and is operated as a popular tourist attraction. The "Land" was originally built in 1550, but was bought and redeveloped in 1617 by a prosperous Edinburgh merchant and burgess Thomas Gledstanes. The work was completed in 1620. Its prominent siting and the extent of its accommodation mark out the affluence of its mercantile owner. However, not only did Gledstanes reside there, he let out parts of the building to an assortment of tenants of different social classes . Thus the restored building allows an insight into varieties of Edinburgh life of the period. The cramped conditions of the Old Town, and the physical size of the lot, meant that the house could only be extended in depth or in height. As a result, the house is six storeys tall.
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The Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, is a building which, together with the adjacent Royal Museum, comprises the National Museum of Scotland.... It is dedicated to the history, people and culture of Scotland. The museum is on the intersection of Chambers Street and George IV Bridge, in central Edinburgh. It is part of National Museums Scotland. Admission is free. Opened in 1998, incorporating collections from the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland and Scottish items from the Royal Museum, the museum possesses a distinctive look. Notable artefacts include: The building's architecture was controversial from the start, and Prince Charles resigned as patron of the museum, in protest at the lack of consultation over its design. Initially conceived as an extension to the adjacent Victorian museum, it eventually came to be a museum in its own right, although the two are linked internally. The museum is made up of geometric, Corbusian forms, but also has numerous references to Scotland, such as brochs and castellated, defensive, architecture.
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Shirley Ann Manson is a Scottish recording artist and actress, best known internationally as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Garbage.... For much of her international career Manson commuted between her home city of Edinburgh to the United States to record with Garbage but now lives and works in Los Angeles. Manson gained media attention for her forthright style, rebellious attitude, and distinctive voice, which also won her fans throughout the world. Manson's musical career began in her teens when she was approached to perform backing vocals and keyboards for Scottish band Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie. Quickly she developed into a prominent member of the group and developed a formidable stage presence. Manson was approached by her band's record label with the idea of launching her as a solo artist, and recorded an album with her band under the Angelfish name. After seeing Manson in an Angelfish video broadcast only once on MTV's 120 Minutes, Garbage invited Manson to record vocals on a few of their songs; she eventually co-wrote and co-produced an entire album with the band.
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Ronald Balfour "Ronnie" Corbett, CBE is a Scottish actor and comedian who had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the television comedy series... The Two Ronnies. He achieved prominence in Sir David Frost's 1960s satirical comedy programme, The Frost Report and later starred in the sitcoms Sorry! and No - That's Me Over Here! Corbett was born in Edinburgh in 1930, the son of London-born Annie Elizabeth and William Balfour Corbett, master baker. He has a brother about six years younger, and a sister about ten years younger than himself. Corbett was educated at the Royal High School in the city, but did not attend university. After leaving school, he decided he wanted to be an actor while performing in amateur theatricals at a church youth club. However, his first job was with the Ministry of Agriculture. He then did national service with the RAF, during which he was the shortest commissioned officer in the British Forces. After National Service he moved to London to act, and started his career by playing schoolboy roles in films. At 5 ft 1 in tall, Corbett was suited to playing younger than his years.
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Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British... writers since 1945". She was born Muriel Sarah Camberg in Edinburgh, the daughter of Sarah Elizabeth Maud and Bernard Camberg, an engineer. Her father was Jewish and her mother had been raised a Presbyterian, as was Spark. She was educated at James Gillespie's High School for Girls . The family lived in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh. In 1934–35 she took a course in "Commercial correspondence and précis writing" at Heriot-Watt College. She taught English for a brief time and then worked as a secretary in a department store. On 3 September 1937 she married Sidney Oswald Spark, and soon followed him to Rhodesia . Their son Robin was born in July 1938. Within months she discovered that her husband was manic depressive and prone to violent outbursts. In 1940 Muriel left Sidney and Robin.
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Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and... brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life. He has also written plays, screenplays, and directed several short films. Irvine Welsh was born in Leith, the port area of the Scottish capital Edinburgh. His family moved to Muirhouse, in Edinburgh, when he was four, where the family stayed at local housing schemes. His mother worked as a waitress. His father was a dock worker in Leith until bad health forced him to become a carpet salesman; he died when Welsh was 25. Welsh left Ainslie Park High School when he was 16 and then completed a City and Guilds course in electrical engineering. He became an apprentice TV repairman until an electric shock persuaded him to move on to a series of other jobs. He left Edinburgh for the London punk scene in 1978, where he played guitar and sang in The Pubic Lice and Stairway 13, the latter a reference to the Ibrox disaster.
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Sir Thomas Sean Connery is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes . Connery is best... known for portraying the character James Bond, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983 . In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His film career also includes such films as Marnie, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Highlander, Murder on the Orient Express, Dragonheart, and The Rock. He was knighted in July 2000. Connery has been polled as "The Greatest Living Scot" and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". In 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine and in 1999, at age 69, he was voted "Sexiest Man of the Century". Connery's great-grandparents emigrated to Scotland from Ireland in the mid 19th century.
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Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally... considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels. Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was English of Irish descent, and his mother, born Mary Foley, was Irish. They married in 1855. In 1864 the family dispersed due to Charles's growing alcoholism and the children were temporarily housed across Edinburgh. In 1867, the family came together again and lived in the squalid tenement flats at 3 Sciennes Place. Although he is now referred to as "Conan Doyle", the origin of this compound surname is uncertain. The entry in which his baptism is recorded in the register of St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh gives "Arthur Ignatius Conan" as his Christian name, and simply "Doyle" as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather.
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Roderick "Rory" Keith Ogilvy Bremner, FKC is a Scottish impressionist, playwright and comedian, noted for his work in political satire and... impressions of prominent British politicians. He is also known for his work on Mock the Week as a panellist , award-winning show Rory BremnerWho Else? and sketch comedy series Bremner, Bird and Fortune, which features veteran comedians John Bird and John Fortune. Born in Edinburgh, Rory Bremner was born to Major Donald Stuart Ogilvy Bremner and his second wife Ann Simpson . He has an older brother and an older half-sister . Bremner was educated at Clifton Hall School and Wellington College and then studied Modern Languages at King's College London, graduating with a degree in French and German in 1984. While at university, Bremner worked in the cabaret circuit in the evenings and was involved in the drama club. He first came into the limelight in 1985, when his single, N-N-Nineteen Not Out was a big hit in the British charts.
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Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June... 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He resigned from all of these positions in June 2007. Blair was elected Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election of July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under his leadership, the party used the phrases "New Labour" and "New Socialism" to define its policy, and moved away from its support of state socialism since the 1960s and created a new version of the ethical socialism that was last pursued by Clement Attlee. Critics of Blair claim that "New Labour" did not adhere to socialism as claimed, and that it effectively advocated capitalism. Blair subsequently led Labour to a landslide victory in the 1997 general election. At 43 years old, he became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812.
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Ian William Richardson CBE was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's... House of Cards trilogy. He was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor. Richardson was born in Edinburgh, the son of Margaret and John Richardson. He was educated in the city, at Balgreen Primary School, Tynecastle High School and George Heriot's School. He first appeared on stage at the age of fourteen, in an amateur production of A Tale of Two Cities. The director encouraged his talent, but warned that he would need to lose his Scottish accent to progress as an actor. His mother arranged elocution lessons and he became a stage manager with the semi-professional Edinburgh People's Theatre. After National Service in the Army he obtained a place at the College of Dramatic Arts in Glasgow. After a period at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre he appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company , of which he was a founding member, from 1960 to 1975.
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Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and... brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life. He has also written plays, screenplays, and directed several short films. Irvine Welsh was born in Leith, the port area of the Scottish capital Edinburgh. His family moved to Muirhouse, in Edinburgh, when he was four, where the family stayed at local housing schemes. His mother worked as a waitress. His father was a dock worker in Leith until bad health forced him to become a carpet salesman; he died when Welsh was 25. Welsh left Ainslie Park High School when he was 16 and then completed a City and Guilds course in electrical engineering. He became an apprentice TV repairman until an electric shock persuaded him to move on to a series of other jobs. He left Edinburgh for the London punk scene in 1978, where he played guitar and sang in The Pubic Lice and Stairway 13, the latter a reference to the Ibrox disaster.
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Lindsay Vere Duncan, CBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actress. On stage she has won two Olivier Awards, a Tony Award for her performance... in Private Lives, and another Tony Award nomination for her role in Les Liaisons dangereuses. Lindsay has starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. Her most famous roles on television include: Barbara Douglas in Alan Bleasdale's G.B.H. , Servilia of the Junii in the HBO/BBC/RAI series Rome , and Adelaide Brooke in the Doctor Who special "The Waters of Mars" . On film she voiced the android TC-14 in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace , and she played Alice's mother in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland . She was awarded a CBE in 2009 for services to drama. Duncan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in a working class family; her father had served in the army for 21 years before becoming a civil servant. Her parents moved to Leeds, then Birmingham when she was still a child. Duncan attended King Edwards VI High School for Girls in Birmingham through a scholarship. Despite her origins, she speaks with a Received Pronunciation accent.
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Rona Anderson is a Scottish stage, film, and television actress. Her first stage appearance took place at the Garrison Theatre in April 1945. She... also appeared in the original production of Whose Life Is It Anyway?. Anderson's first major film was the 1948 drama Sleeping Car to Trieste. In 1951, she married fellow actor Gordon Jackson, with whom she had appeared in the 1949 romantic drama Floodtide. Her last major film was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, after which she appeared in various plays and television series. Rona Anderson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 3 August 1926, to parents James Anderson and Evelyn Anderson . She was educated in her home town and in Ottawa. Anderson was trained for the stage at the Glover Turner-Robertson School in Edinburgh. She married fellow actor Gordon Jackson in 1951 after having appeared alongside him in the romantic drama Floodtide in 1949. Jackson died of bone cancer on January 15, 1990. Anderson made her first appearance on the stage at the Garrison Theatre in April 1945 in a production of Peg o' My Heart. From 1945 through 1949, she played various parts with the Glasgow Citizens Theatre.
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