Remember when: Historic images of a bygone era

VICTORIAN Edinburgh - an age where the invention of photography allowed every landmark, street corner and neighbourhood in the city to be captured in print for the first time.

Here the Evening News is offering readers a sneak preview of a new collection of photographs from the era, some of which have never before been published, allowing a fascinating insight into how our city once looked.

Next Saturday, as part of the Capital's annual Doors Open Day, visitors to the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), on Bernard Terrace, will be given access to a new book, Victorian Scotland, in which these Edinburgh photographs appear.

"I hope people will get the same sense of wonder that the Victorians got when they first took the pictures," says co- author James Crawford. "I also hope they will enjoy seeing how much Edinburgh has, and hasn't, changed."

Many of the images have been hidden away in the depths of the RCAHMS's collections for years, taken by Victorian pioneers of photography, including John Forbes White and David Octavius Hill, as well as having been gathered from private family albums.

"It was absolutely fascinating to find the photographs," Mr Crawford explains. "My favourite has to be the one of the Forth Bridge under construction.

"People used to arrive in the area to watch the bridge being built. It was a tourist attraction."

• Victorian Scotland, by James Crawford, Lesley Ferguson and Kristina Watson, is published by RCAHMS priced 30. It is released in hardback on October 1.