Granton Lighthouse

Granton Lighthouse is a former depot on West Harbour Road in Granton, Edinburgh, Scotland, now used as business accommodation. Originally known as the Northern Lighthouse Board Engineering, Storage and Testing Facility, it was formerly used by the Northern Lighthouse Board to store and distribute supplies, test and service equipment, and train employees.

Granton Lighthouse
Granton Lighthouse in March 2022.
General information
Address22 West Harbour Road, Granton
Town or cityEdinburgh
CountryScotland
Coordinates55.981741°N 3.229132°W / 55.981741; -3.229132
Grid referenceNT2340477211
Opened1860s
ClientNorthern Lighthouse Board
OwnerCity of Edinburgh Council
Listed Building – Category C(S)
Official name22 West Harbour Road, Northern Lighthouse Board Engineering, Storage and Testing Facility, including Outhouses
Designated20 February 1985
Reference no.LB29925

History

The land on which the depot was built was leased from Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch in 1852. The depot was constructed for the Northern Lighthouse Board in the 1860s.[1] It is a two-storey, 15-bay warehouse crowned by a low corner tower topped by a lighthouse lantern cupola, built in red brick with yellow brick angle dressings.[2] It has several outbuildings including a former smithy.[2]

The depot was used to store equipment for the Northern Lighthouse Board's lighthouses.[3] From 1874 until the early 1970s, the lighthouse tender NLV Pharos was berthed in the adjacent Granton Harbour and used to transport supplies from the depot to the Northern Lighthouse Board's lighthouses around the country[1][4] and to transport "empty casks, boxes, paint cans, oil cans, medicine bottles, matting, etc" back to the depot.[5] The facilities on the site included "an administration office, warehouse and workshops".[3] Equipment such as buoys was transported to the depot for servicing.[6] Patterns for casting were stored at the depot for suppliers to examine.[7]

The lighthouse tower was never an operational lighthouse; rather, it was used to test lamps and equipment.[4][8] In 1869, the engineer John Richardson Wigham was invited to demonstrate an experimental gas lighting technique at the depot.[9] In 1892, a coal gasworks was constructed at the depot to produce the fuel for the Northern Lighthouse Board's beacons and light buoys; it was removed in the 1930s after the coal gas was replaced by acetylene.[1][10] In 1907, a railway siding and overhead crane were added.[4][10] During the Second World War, one of the glass panes of the lighthouse's lantern purportedly sustained a bullet hole from a Luftwaffe machine gun.[11]

The depot was granted category 'C' listed status by Historic Scotland in 1985.[2] In 1998, the neighbouring former keeper's cottage at 20 West Harbour Road was also 'C' listed.[12] The Northern Lighthouse Board continued to use the depot until November 2001, when it relocated its operations to Oban.[4] The depot was subsequently converted into business space, including a recording studio.[1] Proposals to redevelop the site into a hotel and conference centre did not proceed.[9]

References
  1. "Granton Lighthouse". Scottish-Places.info. Archived from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  2. "22 West Harbour Road, Northern Lighthouse Board Engineering, Storage and Testing Facility, including Outhouses". HistoricEnvironment.scot. Historic Environment Scotland. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  3. "Granton Lighthouse, Edinburgh". National Transport Trust. 2023. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  4. Bowell, Kate (15 January 2019). "Northern Lighthouse Board". CuriousEdinburgh.org. Archived from the original on 4 December 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  5. Northern Lighthouse Service (1874). "Stores". Instructions to Light-Keepers (3 ed.). Murray and Gibb. p. 39. All empty casks, boxes, paint cans, oil cans, medicine bottles, matting, etc., are to be regularly returned to the Lighthouse Store at Granton, on each occasion of the Pharos visiting a Station.
  6. Strachan, Michael A. W. (2016). Scottish Lighthouses: An Illustrated History. Amberley Publishing. p. 135. ISBN 9781445658407. When removed, the buoys would be returned to land for servicing at the supply depots in Granton, Stromness or Oban.
  7. Eyre, G. E.; Spottiswoode, W. (1868). Correspondence Relative to the Comparative Advantages of the Lighthouse Lanterns Adopted by Corporation of the Trinity House and the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, 1867-8. Great Britain Board of Trade. p. 9. The castings are to be made from patterns belonging to the Commissioners, which may be examined by intending offerers at the store at Granton.
  8. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1971). "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland". 101. The light-chamber built above the upper storey of the Northern Lighthouse Board's depot in Harbour Road, Granton, is not a lighthouse but a disused testing-station for lamps and other equipment. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. "Granton Lighthouse Depot". LighthouseAccommodation.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  10. Morrison-Low, Alison D. (2010). Northern Lights: The Age of Scottish Lighthouses. NMSE Publishing. p. 226. ISBN 9781905267477.
  11. "Edinburgh, Granton, 22 West Harbour Road, Northern Lighthouse and Buoy Depot, Workshops and Leading Light". Canmore. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  12. "20 West Harbour Road, Including Rear Outbuildings". HistoricEnvironment.scot. Historic Environment Scotland. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
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