Morningside, Edinburgh

Morningside is a district and former village in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland. It lies alongside the main arterial Morningside Road, part of an ancient route from Edinburgh to the south west of Scotland. The original village served several farms and estates in the area. In the 19th century, it developed as a residential suburb, its growth being stimulated by the arrival of a railway service and other transport improvements.
Location.
Morningside is located approximately south of Edinburgh's city centre. It is bordered by Bruntsfield to the north, the Grange to the north east, Blackford to the east, Comiston to the south, Greenbank to the south west, and Merchiston to the north west. It includes Braidburn Valley Park, the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and parts of the Braid Hills and Blackford Hill.
The district is bisected by the A702 road, which forms part of an ancient route from Edinburgh to Biggar and the south west of Scotland. 
The south eastern part of Morningside (approximately the area to the south of Canaan Lane and the east of Comiston Road) lies within the Morningside Conservation Area, which was designated in 1996.
History.
The village of Morningside grew up on part of the Burgh Muir, this being common ground that was gifted to Edinburgh by David I in the first half of the 12th century. In the late 16th century, the town council feued the western part of this land to pay for the huge cost of dealing with the plague that had swept the city in 1585. It is on this feued land that Morningside gradually developed.
The name Morningside first appeared on Richard Cooper's 1759 "Plan of the City of Edinburgh and Adjacent Grounds". This showed Morningside as just three houses. Writing in 1882, James Grant described the original village as a 'row of thatched cottages, a line of trees and a blacksmith's forge'.
Morningside grew rapidly as an agricultural village, serving neighbouring farms and estates, including those of Canaan, Egypt, Plewlands and others. It became increasingly important as the first stopping place on the principal drove road into Edinburgh from the farms to the south. 
The district developed as a residential suburb from the early 19th century. It attracted many of Edinburgh's wealthier citizens who built villas and mansion houses on large plots obtained from the sub-division of the nearby estates. By the 1850s much of the present street pattern had been established.
Later in the 19th century, the growth of the suburb was accelerated by developments in transport. In the 1870s, a tram service—one of the first of its kind in Edinburgh—provided a direct link with the east end of Princes Street in the city centre. These horse-drawn trams were later replaced by cable cars and then by electric trams. An even bigger boost came in 1885 with the opening of the Edinburgh Suburban and South Side Junction Railway. This carried passengers between Morningside Road Station and Waverley Station, while freight, including livestock and coal, was carried to and from the goods yard in Maxwell Street.
In the 1890s, the Braid Estate was developed for housing, covering the area around Nile Grove, Cluny Avenue and Cluny Drive. By the first half of the 20th century, Morningside was well established, with schools, churches, a public library, a cinema and a ballroom.
Origins of street names.
The origin of the name Morningside is uncertain. According to some sources, it is derived from the village's location on the sunny south-facing or 'morning side' of the city, but Stuart Harris says that it is more likely to be just a 'fancy' name, invented as a caprice by one of the estate owners.
The biblical references in several street names (Canaan Lane, Egypt Mews, Jordan Lane, Nile Grove, etc.) are also of uncertain origin. A generally accepted theory is that they are an allusion to Little Egypt Farm, which was situated between Braid Road and Blackford Hill. The farm might owe its name to an encampment of Romanies who established themselves in the area after their expulsion from the city in 1540. (Romanies were at the time believed to have originated in Egypt; the name 'gypsy' might be derived from 'Egyptian'.)
The Braid area, with street names such as Braid Road and Braidburn Terrace, is named for the estate of Sir Henry de Brade, a 12th century sheriff of Edinburgh. The estate's name in turn derives from the Gaelic "bràghaid", meaning a throat or gorge; this refers to the deep cut in the Braid Burn near the present Braidburn Valley Park.
Cluny (as in Cluny Gardens, Cluny Drive, etc.), Corrennie (Corrennie Gardens, Corrennie Drive) and Midmar Gardens are named after properties in Aberdeenshire owned by the Gordon family, who owned the Braid Estate in the late 19th century.
The name Falcon appears in several street names (Falcon Road, Falcon Avenue, etc.). These were built in the 20th century on the site of Falcon Hall, which was demolished in 1909.
Morningside today.
Today Morningside is a thriving residential district. Its main shopping street, Morningside Road, is noted for its variety of shops and cafés, many of which are independent businesses. The district has two primary schools, several churches, a public library, a cinema and a theatre. Many of the 19th century Victorian and Edwardian villas survive, but the predominant form of housing, especially in the northern part of the district, now consists of Victorian tenements. Bungalows and detached and semi-detached houses are more common in the less densely-populated areas to the south of the railway line. 
The population of the Morningside local government ward stands at 32,586 (as at 2019).
Although passenger trains serving Morningside Road Station were withdrawn in 1962, the suburb still enjoys good transport links with the city centre, being served by Lothian Buses routes 5, 11, 15, 16, 23, 36 and 38.
In popular culture.
Muriel Spark's 1961 novel "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is set partly in Morningside. Brodie is a teacher at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, the model for which was James Gillespie's School for Girls in nearby Marchmont. Spark herself attended the school from 1923 to 1935. 
A kitten named Maisie MacKenzie, also known as Masie from Morningside, is the title character in a series of children's books by Aileen Paterson. In 2011, Lothian Buses added an image of Maisie to the livery of the No. 5 bus, which serves Morningside. 
The so-called 'Morningside accent' is often portrayed—and caricatured—in popular culture as an over-refined and affected accent, similar to a perceived upper-class English accent. By extension, the same characteristics are sometimes attributed to the attitudes and behaviour of Morningside residents. The accent was famously used my Maggie Smith in her portrayal of the title character in the 1969 film version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.