Paisley Close

Absolutely pouring with rain and very cold, but we caught up with the "History of Edinburgh" class in time to hear this story:
PAISLEY CLOSE
Originally owned by George Henderson of Fordell, who sold the land to Henry Paisley (aka Paislie) in 1711.On the Sunday morning of November 24th, 1861, the adjacent 250-year-old tenement in Bailie Fyfe's Close collapsed, killing thirty five people.
The image sculpted at the entrance to the close is that of Joseph McIver, a young survivor of the tragedy, who was pulled to safety after rescuers heard his call of "Heave awa? chaps, ah'm no? deid yet'.Our historian believes that the sculptor may have been English, as no Scot would have said: "chaps", but would have used "lads"!