Annals of Duddingston and Portobello … Simultaneously with the Pipe Street Work, probably about the year 1780, Mr Jameson had opened a large clay bed on the site now occupied by Mount Lodge at the top of Windsor Place. The works must have covered a large area of ground, the whole space from Hope’s Lane to the west side of Windsor Place being Mr Jameson’s property. In 1809 – 1810 this work was discontinued, and several feus were then given off, forming a new Street called Nicholson Street, and at least in one plan, Jameson Street, but which ultimately came to be known as Windsor Place. A large quantity of rubbish and earth was brought to level up the excavations, and the present mansion having been erected for Colonel Scott, the grounds were laid out with great taste, the old clay pit being formed into a little artificial lake …
Annals of Duddingston and Portobello … Excavations were first made by William Jameson for clay where Pipe Street and Bridge Street are now situated, and afterwards, he opened a pit in a field called Wallace Park, now forming the grounds of Mount Lodge, and had an extensive work in that locality. These works naturally led to the building of workmen’s houses in the neighbourhood of the works, and so we find that the older parts of the town are to be seen near to Pipe Street, and on the High Street in the neighbourhood of the Blue Bell Inn. The houses, many of which still stand in these localities, were certainly of the commonest description, generally built of brick and roofed with tiles …
. . . . . Below – The Village of Figget (Portobello) 1783. 1898 – William Baird’s Annals of Duddingston & Portobello – … About the year 1763, a new settlement began to be formed in the parish at the mouth of the Figgate Burn, consequent upon the finding of a valuable bed of clay,…
