Granton Lighthouse
{{Short description|Former Northern Lighthouse Board depot in Granton, Edinburgh}}
{{Infobox building
| name = Granton Lighthouse
| image = Granton Lighthouse March 2022.jpg
| caption = Granton Lighthouse in March 2022.
| address = 22 West Harbour Road, Granton
| location_city = Edinburgh
| location_country = Scotland
| opened_date = 1860s
| owner = City of Edinburgh Council
| client = Northern Lighthouse Board
| coordinates = {{coord|55.981741|-3.229132|type:landmark_region:GB_scale:2000_source:Google| display=inline, title}}
| grid_name = Grid reference
| grid_position = {{gbmapscaled|NT2340477211|25|NT2340477211}}
| embedded = {{Infobox historic site
| embed = yes
| designation2 = Scotland Category C
| designation2_offname = 22 West Harbour Road, Northern Lighthouse Board Engineering, Storage and Testing Facility, including Outhouses
| designation2_date = 20 February 1985
| designation2_number = {{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB29925|short=yes}} }}
}}
Granton Lighthouse is a former depot on West Harbour Road in Granton, Edinburgh, Scotland, now used as business accommodation. Originally known as the Northern Lighthouse Board Engineering, Storage and Testing Facility, it was formerly used by the Northern Lighthouse Board to store and distribute supplies, test and service equipment, and train employees.
History
The land on which the depot was built was leased from Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch in 1852. The depot was constructed for the Northern Lighthouse Board in the 1860s. It is a two-storey, 15-bay warehouse crowned by a low corner tower topped by a lighthouse lantern cupola, built in red brick with yellow brick angle dressings. It has several outbuildings including a former smithy.
The depot was used to store equipment for the Northern Lighthouse Board's lighthouses. From 1874 until the early 1970s, the lighthouse tender NLV Pharos was berthed in the adjacent Granton Harbour and used to transport supplies from the depot to the Northern Lighthouse Board's lighthouses around the country and to transport "empty casks, boxes, paint cans, oil cans, medicine bottles, matting, etc" back to the depot. The facilities on the site included "an administration office, warehouse and workshops". Equipment such as buoys was transported to the depot for servicing. Patterns for casting were stored at the depot for suppliers to examine.
The lighthouse tower was never an operational lighthouse; rather, it was used to test lamps and equipment. In 1869, the engineer John Richardson Wigham was invited to demonstrate an experimental gas lighting technique at the depot. In 1892, a coal gasworks was constructed at the depot to produce the fuel for the Northern Lighthouse Board's beacons and light buoys; it was removed in the 1930s after the coal gas was replaced by acetylene. In 1907, a railway siding and overhead crane were added. During the Second World War, one of the glass panes of the lighthouse's lantern purportedly sustained a bullet hole from a Luftwaffe machine gun.
The depot was granted category 'C' listed status by Historic Scotland in 1985. In 1998, the neighbouring former keeper's cottage at 20 West Harbour Road was also 'C' listed. The Northern Lighthouse Board continued to use the depot until November 2001, when it relocated its operations to Oban. The depot was subsequently converted into business space, including a recording studio. Proposals to redevelop the site into a hotel and conference centre did not proceed.
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite web|url=https://canmore.org.uk/site/151870/edinburgh-granton-22-west-harbour-road-northern-lighthouse-and-buoy-depot-workshops-and-leading-light |title=Edinburgh, Granton, 22 West Harbour Road, Northern Lighthouse and Buoy Depot, Workshops and Leading Light |website=Canmore |access-date=31 March 2023 }}
{{cite web|url=https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB29925 |title=22 West Harbour Road, Northern Lighthouse Board Engineering, Storage and Testing Facility, including Outhouses |website=HistoricEnvironment.scot |access-date=31 March 2023 |publisher=Historic Environment Scotland |archive-date=30 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330143052/https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB29925 }}
{{cite web |url=http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB45659 |title=20 West Harbour Road, Including Rear Outbuildings |website=HistoricEnvironment.scot |access-date=28 July 2023 |publisher=Historic Environment Scotland |archive-date=25 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225184738/http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB45659 |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |title=Northern Lights: The Age of Scottish Lighthouses |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ElMmGUzS3s4C |year=2010 |page=226 |first=Alison D. |last=Morrison-Low |publisher=NMSE Publishing | isbn=9781905267477 }}
{{cite book |title=Instructions to Light-Keepers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EP9MAQAAMAAJ |year=1874 | quote=All empty casks, boxes, paint cans, oil cans, medicine bottles, matting, etc., are to be regularly returned to the Lighthouse Store at Granton, on each occasion of the Pharos visiting a Station. |page=39 |author=Northern Lighthouse Service |publisher=Murray and Gibb |edition=3 |chapter=Stores }}
{{cite book|author=Society of Antiquaries of Scotland |title=Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_pkxAQAAIAAJ |year=1971 |volume=101 | quote=The light-chamber built above the upper storey of the Northern Lighthouse Board's depot in Harbour Road, Granton, is not a lighthouse but a disused testing-station for lamps and other equipment. }}
{{cite book |title=Scottish Lighthouses: An Illustrated History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1xeKDQAAQBAJ |year=2016 | quote=When removed, the buoys would be returned to land for servicing at the supply depots in Granton, Stromness or Oban. |page=135 |first=Michael A. W. |last=Strachan |publisher=Amberley Publishing | isbn=9781445658407 }}
{{cite book |title=Correspondence Relative to the Comparative Advantages of the Lighthouse Lanterns Adopted by Corporation of the Trinity House and the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, 1867-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_LMKAQAAMAAJ |year=1868 | quote=The castings are to be made from patterns belonging to the Commissioners, which may be examined by intending offerers at the store at Granton. |page=9 |first1=G. E. |last1=Eyre |first2=W. |last2=Spottiswoode |publisher=Great Britain Board of Trade }}
{{cite web|url=https://www.nationaltransporttrust.org.uk/heritage-sites/heritage-detail/granton-lighthouse---edinburgh |title=Granton Lighthouse, Edinburgh |website=National Transport Trust |access-date=24 April 2023 |date=2023 }}
}}
External links
{{commons category|Granton Lighthouse}}
- [https://canmore.org.uk/site/151870/edinburgh-granton-22-west-harbour-road-northern-lighthouse-and-buoy-depot-workshops-and-leading-light Granton Lighthouse] on the Canmore database
- [https://www.nationaltransporttrust.org.uk/heritage-sites/heritage-detail/granton-lighthouse---edinburgh Granton Lighthouse] at the National Transport Trust website
Category:Buildings and structures completed in the 1860s
Category:Category C listed buildings in Edinburgh
Category:Category C listed lighthouses
Category:Lighthouses in Scotland
Category:Recording studios in Scotland
Category:Victorian architecture in the United Kingdom