Description

The Edinburgh Cowgate Fire of 2002:

An archaeological presence was maintained on a regular basis, allowing the recovery of photographic / analytical data to be recovered, where possible, during the process of demolition and ‘making safe’ of the site. Meetings were held twice weekly with the above bodies to make informed decisions as to the practical retention of as much as the building fabric and the coordination of archaeological recording with the down-taking of dangerous elements within the fire damaged buildings.
Contiguous with the field works, historians were assigned separate time periods from the 15th – 20th centuries and a major review of available resources was undertaken. This review, although not comprehensive, provided information that informed both the areas of significance that were assigned a high priority of onsite recording and presented a wealth of detail on the inhabitants, development and written material that pertained to the site. The result of the historical survey has shown the potential for continued work in this area and has highlighted the vast resource of cartographic, photographic, documentary and pictorial data that is available.

Due to the confines of this project, the information within this report, although by no means cursory, cannot be seen as exhaustive. The aim to record and understand the sequence of development of this site has been a great success, but as with so many ventures, the possibilities for further research and analysis of this unique window into the development of Edinburgh are endless.

Addyman Associates would like to dedicate this Report to the Firefighters who prevented a greater disaster and the owners and occupants of those buildings lost in the Fire, to whom this was a disaster. We sincerely hope that a new period of this sites long and fascinating history will rise quickly from the ruins.