More about The Colonies, Edinburgh

Each flat originally had four rooms, a separate external toilet and a garden. Colony houses were built as double flats, upper and lower, with the upper flat's front door on the opposite side to the lower flat's front door, allowing each flat to have a front garden.


In 1861, a group of builders found themselves locked out of their building sites due to a dispute about working hours. They decided to form the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company Ltd. This group comprised many different trades - stonemasons, plasterers, plumbers and others sympathetic to their aims.  

This was the company's first site at Glenogle Park, by the Water of Leith near Stockbridge, where the foundation stone was laid on 23 October 1861.