National Record of Scotland will reveal Edinburgh's past

Leith’s Trinity House Maritime Museum will also open its doors as part of the Scottish Civic Trust’s popular Doors Open Days programme, assembled by the Cockburn Association.

Edinburgh residents are invited to John Sinclair House on Saturday 24th September to explore the national records of architecture, design, archaeology and industry. There they will have the chance to see Edinburgh as it has never been seen before with behind the scenes tours, talks and exhibitions.

Highlights include a never before seen exhibition of Edinburgh’s historic cemeteries taken by American art curator Robert Reinhardt, and an exclusive preview of HES’s new Paul Shillabeer collection, which captures Edinburgh in the 1950s and 1960s.

Exclusive talks include ‘Unbuilt Edinburgh’, an opportunity to see how an alternative Edinburgh may have looked. The talk will focus on unbuilt projects for central Edinburgh, starting with designs by Robert Adam in the 1780s’s and travelling through to the present day.

Neil Gregory, Architecture and Industry Operational Manager at Historic Environment Scotland, said: “We’ve been curating the Scottish National Record of the Historic Environment for over a century, and it comprises over 5 million photographs, drawings and manuscripts.

“Doors Open Day is a great opportunity for members of the public to come and explore what we’ve got to offer. This year, we’re excited to be giving people a trip down memory lane to see photographs of how Edinburgh used to look, architectural models that have never before been on public display, as well as talks exploring plans for buildings that never made it from the drawing board to our streets.”

HES are also inviting members of the public to get hands on with history by using and adding to the National Record. Demonstrations of the Scotland’s Places and Scran websites will show visitors resources that they can use when conducting their own historical research, and the team from Scotland’s Urban Past will be on hand with information on how to become an Urban Detective.

Meanwhile in Leith, Trinity House Maritime Museum will also be opening its doors to the public. In its bicentenary year, visitors are invited to gain insight into the stories and voyages of Leith’s seafaring past with self-led tours, object handling sessions, quizzes and a free stained glass craft activity.

To mark the Year of Architecture, Innovation and Design, Trinity House will also have a temporary exhibition for visitors to enjoy, exploring 200 years of Leith’s nautical heritage. There will also be opportunities to meet painting conservators and find out more about the work they do to care for HES’s significant collection of paintings.

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