Every so often houses come up in the Edinburgh property listings for a charming-sounding place called "Mount Alvernia". This development was once a monastery, but it had no monks; it was home to nuns. Twice the Catholic Church tried to displace these Sisters by legal means and twice it failed 🧵▶️

I saw this today—a great bit of theatre. Stories of Edinburgh lives, performed by a great actor. On until the 23rd. If you like my tenement stories, you’ll love this. Recommended!

30 Newhaven Road, Edinburgh—a corner tenement over one ground-floor shop, built in 1896, with four floors of “superior houses of 3 and 4 apartments”.

13 Blackfriars St, Edinburgh—currently eight flats (after modernisation); probably more in the 1870s, when it was built as working-class housing to replace the "rotten, ruinous old buildings" and the "congeries of dark and wretched lanes" of the area. Former residents include:

Today’s winds in Edinburgh are bad, but they’re not as strong as the 90mph winds that hit the city in January 1868. In the midst of awful stories of fatalities and wrecked buildings, The Scotsman printed this report of the travails of a distinguished lawyer on his journey home:

35 Watson Crescent, Edinburgh—16 flats in a tenement built along the Union Canal in 1898 for workers in the nearby foundries, breweries and rubber factories. Former residents include:

27 East Preston Street, Edinburgh. An early 1880s tenement, eight flats in the stair, over two main-door flats. Former residents include:

31 Windsor Street/36 Montgomery Street—a corner tenement built around 1825 to a design by William Henry Playfair. The eight flats in the stair sit above two main-door flats and two basement flats—one of each on Montgomery Street and Windsor Street. Former residents include:

7 Cargil Terrace—built in 1901 on a quiet side street in the north of Edinburgh that is named after some bygone landowner who left no other trace in the historical record. Six flats in the stair, over two ground-floor flats. Former residents include:

248 Leith Walk—three storeys of flats over three shops. Built in 1902 as an investment by the owners of the nearby Victoria India Rubber Works. Former residents include:

28 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, built in 1859 at the same time as its neighbour, the Martyr’s Reformed Presbyterian church (now the Frankenstein pub), probably as a source of feuing income for the church’s maintenance. Former residents include: