Colony houses
The colony houses of Edinburgh were built between 1850 and 1910 as homes for artisans and skilled working-class families by philanthropic model dwellings companies. The first development was the Pilrig Model Buildings, near Leith Walk. Later developments across the city were built by the Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company Limited, founded in 1861. The founders of this company were influenced by the Reverend Dr. James Begg and the Reverend Dr. Thomas Chalmers, ministers of the Free Church of Scotland, who campaigned to improve the housing conditions of the poor. Description Streets with colony houses are found in ten locations within Edinburgh: Abbeyhill Dalry Place, Haymarket Leith Links, Leith Lochend Road, Lochend North Fort Street, Leith Rosebank Cottages, Fountainbridge Shaw Colonies, Pilrig Shandon Slateford Stockbridge The developments at Stockbridge, Dalry, Shaw Colonies, and Rosebank Cottages are category B listed buildings. Characteristically, 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 some areas, many upper Cottage Flat owners have converted their attic space in