Dumbiedykes

Etymology

The site housed Edinburgh's Deaf and Dumb School until the mid 19th century. The inhabitants of the school were known as the "dumbies", and the school "Dumbie House". From c.1820 the road passing the school building (from St. Leonards Street to the Canongate) became known as "Dumbie Dykes", Dykes referring to the walls bordering Holyrood Park. Within a few years, the whole local area came to be known as Dumbiedikes, Dumbie Dykes or Dumbies Dykes.

History

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 and 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):

Despite the area benefiting from a superficial building regeneration including modern flats, student residences, University of Edinburgh sports facilities and being popular area to live in due to its closeness to the centre of Edinburgh and its immediate proximity to the Scottish Parliament, when compared with other residential areas in central Edinburgh it still remains an economically impoverished part of the city, suffering from the associated aspects of social problems such as disproportionately high levels of unemployment along with drug and alcohol abuse. In recent years there have also been several notable cases of suspected murders.

References

References

1. "Passengers left 'rather upset' by Lothian bus announcements mispronouncing Edinburgh area names".
2. (2014-11-12). "Lost Edinburgh: The Dumbiedykes".
3. Braidwood, Thomas W.. (1888-01-06). "Thomas Braidwood and the Deaf-Mutes". Science.
4. Edinburgh maps 1800 to 1855
5. Ian Rankin, ''Dead Souls: An Inspector Rebus Novel'', Orion (paperback), 1999, p. 22
6. "Police probe 'unexplained' death of man found outside Edinburgh block of flats".