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Dumbiedykes Housing : Modernist Architecture

Edinburgh Housing, Holyrood Tower Block, Scotland

post updated 29 October 2023

Dumbiedykes tower block image © Adrian Welch

Modernist Housing Edinburgh located off Holyrood Road, on the south side, facing onto the park.

Dumbiedykes Housing

Elegant design though not widely recognised as such perhaps because this is viewed as sixties working class housing, tarred with the same brush as many ugly tower blocks built at the time.

This residential area located just south of the city centre mainly comprises public housing developments. It is bounded in the north by Holyrood Road, the west by the Pleasance and St Leonard’s Street and the east by Holyrood Park.

The site housed Edinburgh’s Deaf and Dumb School until the mid 19th century. As the inhabitants of the school were known as the “dumbies”, the local area became known as Dumbie Dykes or Dumbies Dykes.

Dumbiedykes flats from Salisbury Crags, looking West, with the Old Town on the right:

photo By Kim Traynor – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16235629

Through the first part of the 20th. century, the area was composed of tenement buildings many of which did not have internal toilet facilities. By the 1960s many of these buildings had become dilapidated, and resultingly the buildings were demolished.

As a result, the tenants moved to new estates in Craigmillar, The Inch, Liberton, Prestonfield, Restalrig, Burdiehouse, Gracemount, Gilmerton and other areas of Edinburgh. Ian Rankin called the rebuilt tenement area “Greenfield” in his novel Dead Souls (1999).

More Edinburgh homes: Edinburgh Housing

Some Modern Edinburgh Housing

Old Town Basil Spence, 20th Century Canongate housing design by Sir Basil Spence Architect

Some Contemporary Edinburgh Housing

Craigmillar Post-war housing estate, refurbished

The Park housing, Holyrood, Edinburgh Old Town design by Campbell & Arnott Architects

Dublin Street Lane, Edinburgh New Town design by Richard Murphy Architects

Some Contemporary Lothian Housing

Amisfield Park, Haddington: 1964 design by Campbell & Arnott Architects

Blindwells, Tranent: 2003 – proposed

Glassel Park: ‘Earl of Wemyss’ Modernist Houses, Longniddry

Edinburgh House