10 February 2010: Craigcrook Castle

Craigcrook Castle in Edinburgh's Blackhall area hosted some of the most exclusive gatherings in the history of Scotland's cultural life. Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen and Alfred Lord Tennyson all came to cultural ‘salons’ at Craigcrook, drawn by invitations from the Castle’s prestigious tenants, who included publishers, writers, politicians, judges and newspaper editors.

Dating back to 1542, the Castle has been occupied by publisher Archibald Constable, lawyer and literary critic Lord Francis Jeffrey and Sir John Hall, a Lord Provost of Edinburgh. It was announced this week that Craigcrook, which was extended by the renowned architect William Playfair in the nineteenth century, will become the new home for the archive of the impresario Richard Demarco. Co-founder of Edinburgh’s Traverese Theatre, Demarco has amassed a huge collection of paintings, drawings, photographs, catalogues and other memorabilia from the worlds of art and culture. Highlights of the archive include the most comprehensive record of the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe, drawings and paintings of Sir Sean Connery, who was a model for Mr Demarco when he was a student at Edinburgh College of Art, and photographs charting the creation of Little Sparta, Ian Hamilton Finlay's famous sculpture garden in Lanarkshire.

The image here was taken in 1900 by the photographer Henry Bedford Lemere and shows the ornate sitting room of Craigcrook.