Julian Barnett
Edinburgh, Part 2
Summary
Julian Barnett takes us on a detailed journey through the history of Scotland’s Edinburgh, which he describes as “one of the most elegant and handsome cities in the UK.” Part 2 of 2.
Julian Barnett
Julian Barnett is a teacher, collector, tour guide, and writer with a specialist interest in ultra-orthodoxy within the various faiths. For the last 35 years, he has been investigating and documenting the most extreme sects of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim worlds. His experiences and travels were serialized in the Jerusalem Report and also broadcast on BBC Radio Four Religion. Outside of his full-time history teaching post at Southbank International School, Portland Place, London, Julian lectures at numerous venues around the UK and beyond. In 2013 Julian was a joint winner of the National Teacher of the Year Award.
Oh, simple, they were capitalists through and through. They purchased the land and they made damn sure that what was built was to their liking, so they weren’t town planners. They wanted to get the most for their money and they knew the elegance bought the money, So it was in a sense the market that dictated it.
Well, number one, it is a darker stone. But I’m not sure whether I would want a very polished stone. I don’t want Edinburgh to look like Bath, I don’t want Edinburgh to look like a wedding cake. I think Edinburgh looks very, very beautiful and atmospheric when it’s not over cleaned, I think there’s always a risk, in my opinion, it’s all a matter of opinion. I always felt there’s always a risk in overcleaning because it turns it into almost like a Disney town of Edinburgh, but everybody has their own taste for these things. But I should add Malcolm, the stone is naturally a darker stone.
Well, I can tell you they don’t. Most of them sit and they shiver through the winter because those very beautiful rooms that I showed in the interiors, what I wasn’t able to show you is that they were freezing. So many of those residents who are asset rich, cash poor, shiver through the winters.