OLDEST -- Surviving Cistern Designed by Sir William Bruce
N 55° 57.033 W 003° 11.114
30U E 488432 N 6200591
The Netherbow Wellhead, the oldest of the surviving cisterns designed by Sir William Bruce, is located on High Street (also known as the Royal Mile) in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Waymark Code: WMEYF3
Location: Southern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/22/2012
Views: 12
A bronze plaque attached to the historic wellhead reads:
"The Netherbow Wellhead
This wellhead or cistern, is the oldest of the surviving cisterns, designed by Sir William Bruce, Surveyor of the Royal Works, and the first built by Robert Mylne, Kings Master Mason, in around 1675. It has since been rebuilt.
The cisterns provided water from Comiston Springs via the Castlehill Reservoir for the inhabitants of the Old Town.
The Netherbow Wellhead was repaired and restored to use with a basin and running drinking water by the Edinburgh Old Town Renewal Trust and Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise Limited in 1997."
The following information about Sir Robert Bruce is from Wikipedia:
"Sir William Bruce of Kinross, 1st Baronet (circa 1630 – 1 January 1710) was a Scottish gentleman-architect, "the effective founder of classical architecture in Scotland," as Howard Colvin observes. As a key figure in introducing the Palladian style into Scotland, he has been compared to the pioneering English architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren, and to the contemporaneous introducers of French style in English domestic architecture, Hugh May and Sir Roger Pratt.
Bruce was a merchant in Rotterdam during the 1650s, and played a role in the Restoration of Charles II in 1659. He carried messages between the exiled king and General Monck, and his loyalty to the king was rewarded with lucrative official appointments, including that of Surveyor General of the King's Works in Scotland, effectively making Bruce the "king's architect". His patrons included John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, the most powerful man in Scotland at the time, and Bruce rose to become a member of Parliament, and briefly sat on the Scottish Privy Council.
Despite his lack of technical expertise, Bruce became the most prominent architect of his time in Scotland. He worked with competent masons and professional builders, to whom he imparted a classical vocabulary; thus his influence was carried far beyond his own aristocratic circle. Beginning in the 1660s he built and remodelled a number of country houses, including Thirlestane Castle for the Duke of Lauderdale, and Prestonfield House. Among his most significant work was his own Palladian mansion at Kinross, built on the Loch Leven estate which he had purchased in 1675. As the king's architect he undertook the rebuilding of the Royal Palace of Holyroodhouse in the 1670s, which gave the palace its present appearance. After the death of Charles II Bruce lost political favour, and later, following the accession of William and Mary, he was imprisoned more than once as a suspected Jacobite. However, he managed to continue his architectural work, often providing his services to others with Jacobite sympathies."