Basic Biographical Details

Name: Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company
Designation:  
Born: 1861
Died: 1954
Bio Notes: The Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company was formed in 1861. It built eight large flatted housing developments, all to its own designs, mainly in the years 1861-1911. It was foreshadowed by an earlier body entitled The Edinburgh Association for Building Homes for the Working Classes which issued a printed prospectus in 1858 but never raised any significant capital or carried out any actual building. The formation of the Edinburgh Cooperative was precipitated by an employers’ lock-out in the spring of 1861 on the issue of working hours, as a result of which a group of four Edinburgh stonemasons resolved to setup on their own to provide affordable housing. A public meeting was held on 17 April and a Memorandum of Association submitted on 4 July, the promoters being advised by the Edinburgh Evening journalist and radical politician Hugh Gilzean Reid. The seven subscribers were all masons and put up £25 of the proposed capital of £10,000. David Rintoul was appointed chairman, James Colville manager, John Ogilvie Treasurer and William Mill secretary. In all there were sixteen directors. Capital flowed in rapidly, particularly after the published William Chambers chaired a second public meeting in November, an office was rented in Cockburn Street and a builders’ yard established in Torphichen Street. Building began in Water Lane (now Glenogle Road) where 1.17 acres of land had been bought from Haigs the distillers, the foundation stone of the first terrace being laid by the Rev Dr James Begg of the Free Church on 23 October 1861. By April 1862 there were 341 shareholders of whom 134 were stonemasons.

The company’s developments were almost all on the ‘colony’ four flats in a two-storey and attic block principle modelled on slightly earlier developments designed by Patrick Wilson for the Pilrig Model Dwellings Company in 1850 and Alexander MacGregor for the builder James Gowans Rosebank Cottages ion 1857. The adaptation for the Edinburgh Cooperative appears to have been drawn out by James Sutherland, one of the earliest shareholders, who was then described as an architect’s clerk. Glenogle Park was followed by Hawthornbank (1863-64) and by a long three-storey tenement block in a late Georgian survival manner at Henderson Place and Trafalgar Street (1865-67) all in Leith. The last of these developments did not sell and had to be let. In 1867 Sutherland resigned his position as an additional director and lodged an account for £9 19s 6d for his services but the board minutes record that ‘Mr Sutherland seems to have been under the impression that he was architect to the Company and as such would receive some remuneration for his professional assistance. The Directors, while distinctly denying that Mr Sutherland ever held this office, or was employed by them as such, yet agree to allow him £1 1s in full for the other items on his account’. He appears to have had an apprentice as a further 10s was ‘allowed to the boy for the Parish Exhibition plans’.

The design responsibility for the Edinburgh Cooperative’s developments thereafter fell on three directors of whom the most important was the chairman David Bell, a joiner who left to commence his own business in 1869. He seems to have had a continuing design role as he is recorded as having redesigned the basic unit to meet Dean of Guild requirements after the city boundaries were extended in 1879.

In its later years the company moved upmarket. Replacement of the external stairs and plats by internal stairs was first contemplated in 1867, but not implemented until the 1880s. By that date the long recession had reduced sales to an average of thirteen a year.

Colville retired in 1889. He was succeeded by Andrew Salmond who had been a director since 1861 and he in turn was succeeded by George Mill.

Although the company drew much of its income from the renting on unsold houses, it ran into difficulty when its activities were limited by building licensing during and after World War 11. In 1945 it became Edinburgh Building Contractors, undertaking contracts for schools and other public works. It incurred serious losses in 1950-51 and went into liquidation as EB Contractors in 1954.

Buildings and Designs

This was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):
 Date startedBuilding nameTown, district or villageIslandCity or countyCountryNotes
Item 1 of 181865Henderson Place and 1-17 Trafalgar Street  EdinburghScotland 
Item 2 of 181867Bell Place, Glenogle Park  EdinburghScotland 
Item 3 of 181867Dalry Colonies  EdinburghScotland 
Item 4 of 181868Glenogle Place, Glenogle Park  EdinburghScotland 
Item 5 of 181868Kemp Place, Glenogle Park  EdinburghScotland 
Item 6 of 181868Restalrig Park coloniesLeith EdinburghScotland 
Item 7 of 181869Avondale Place, Glenogle Park  EdinburghScotland 
Item 8 of 181869Glenogle Terrace, Glenogle Park  EdinburghScotland 
Item 9 of 181872Balmoral Place, Glenogle ParkStockbridge EdinburghScotlandNorth end 1894
Item 10 of 181872Bridge Place, Glenogle ParkStockbridge Edinburgh Scotland 
Item 11 of 181872Dunrobin Place, Glenogle ParkStockbridge EdinburghScotlandNorth end 1908-11
Item 12 of 181872Teviotdale Place, Glenogle ParkStockbridge Edinburgh  
Item 13 of 181875Glenogle House, Glenogle ParkStockbridge Edinburgh ScotlandReconstructed from Keif House
Item 14 of 181877North Merchiston Park Colonies  Edinburgh Scotland 
Item 15 of 181878Barnton Terrace Colonies  EdinburghScotland 
Item 16 of 181884Shaftesbury Park Colonies  EdinburghScotland 
Item 17 of 181890Hermitage Hill coloniesRestalrig EdinburghScotlandParts completed 1946
Item 18 of 181903Balgreen ColoniesBalgreen Edinburgh ScotlandCompletion 1934

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
 Author(s)DateTitlePartPublisherNotes
Item 1 of 2Piper, Rosemary J1980sThe Colonies of Stockbridge Rev. ed. 
Item 2 of 2Rogers, Richard2011Edinburgh Colonies: Housing the Workers