Old Town View

Old Town View

The view from Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland, looking up to the Old Town.

In the centre of the shot is the Bank of Scotland Building at the Mound.

The former Bank of Scotland headquarters, now headquarters of the merged HBOS, has dominated the northern flank of Edinburgh’s Old Town for 300 years. The shot is from Cockburn Street.

The Bank of Scotland Headquarters stands on Edinburgh’s Mound looking down over East Princes Street Gardens. The HQ Building was initiated while Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville (1742 – 1811), was Governor of the Bank. The Bank Headquarters was built by architects Robert Reid (1774 – 1856) and Richard Crichton. David Bryce (1803 – 76) refurbished the Interior in 1862 and added new domed wings with a grand replacement central dome. The Bank of Scotland Headquarters were remodelled again in 1929 and 1981.

Established by an Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1695, the Bank of Scotland is the oldest surviving UK clearing bank. The Bank started in Edinburgh’s Old Town, at Old Bank Close in the Lawnmarket, before relocating to the Mound. The Bank of Scotland merged with the Halifax Building Society in 2001, becoming HBoS Plc, but the Bank’s headquarters remain in Edinburgh.

On the left, you can see the crown of St Giles Cathedral which is on the High Street (the Royal Mile) and on the right at the top of the High Street, you can see the gothic spire of the Hub – the highest point in central Edinburgh.

Shot taken on 28th February 2009.

Three bracketed JPGs converted to HDR in Photomatix.

Camera: Canon EOS 450D

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Related shots can be found at: Edinburgh or you can look at all my HDR shots.

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Anything Edinburgh, European Everyday Life (add the place!), Landscape and Abstract Photography, Landscape Photography, Safe Haven, Shameless Self-Promotion, The Scots are Coming, UK to Australia and Back, United Kingdom and Victorian Viewfinders Available for sale as

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