By Leaves We Live

Saturday 20th 2009

Booking Form
Please reserve a place for me at this event:
Name: ______________________________________
Address: ____________________________________
Postcode: ______________ Tel No: ______________
Email: ______________________________________
Please tell us if you have any special requirements:
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Please note that the event will be held in Room 2, Riddles Court
which is on the first floor and not at present accessible by lift.

Return this booking form to:

Elizabeth Bryan
WEA Lothian Office,
Riddles Court
322 Lawnmarket
Edinburgh EH1 2PG
Tel: 0131 225 2580
Email: e.bryan@weascotland.org.uk

For further information about

the Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust visit our website
www.patrickgeddestrust.co.uk

By Leaves We Live
A Talk and A Walk
in celebration of Patrick Geddes
and his contribution to Education
and Town Planning in Edinburgh

Saturday 20th June 2009

Riddles Court,
322 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh
This FREE event is being organised by the Workers
Educational Association (WEA) and the Sir Patrick
Geddes Memorial Trust in support of The Old Town
Festival 2009 (15-28 June) - a lively two-week
celebration of people and place.

Background

Programme

Patrick Geddes was an educationalist, pioneer of the

environmental movement and an architect of the
regeneration of Edinburghs Old Town.

10.00am

Coffee and Scones

View the Patrick Geddes Illustrated Ceiling
in Riddles Court

In 1884 he set up home in St James Court, Lawnmarket.

By the late 19th Century much of Edinburghs Old Town
was in a state of dilapidation and decay. Rather than
demolish and rebuild afresh Geddes believed in the
renewal of the Old Town through making the most of its
history, improving the existing natural and built
environment, and attracting people to live and learn in
the area.

10.30am

Welcome and Introductions

Elizabeth Bryan, WEA Area Tutor Organiser

10.40am

Patrick Geddes and the Summer Meetings

Talk by Sofia Leonard, Trustee of the
Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust and Former
Director of the Geddes Centre for Planning
Studies at the University of Edinburgh
Questions/Discussion
Chaired by Joyce Connon, WEA Scottish
Secretary

Find out how Patrick Geddes reinvigorated Edinburghs

Old Town at this free event.

Edinburgh Summer Meeting (1896)

Patrick Geddes Archive,
Strathclyde University Archives

11.45am

Hidden Gardens and Green Spaces of the

Old Town
Explore some of Geddes ideas in a guided
walk round the Old Town led by Jean
Bareham, WEA tutor and Founder of
GreenYonder Tours

1.30pm

Close of the Event

Built in 1590, Riddles Court was lying derelict when Patrick

Geddes commissioned the top architects of the day to renovate the
building and turn it in to a self-governing University Hall of
Residence in 1890. Riddles Court was also a venue for the Patrick
Geddes Summer Meetings and students taking part in these
events from around the world lodged here. Riddles Court boasts
many features from the Geddes era including a fine painted ceiling
by the artist Thomas Bonnar comprising 40 illustrated panels
commissioned by Patrick Geddes, in 1897, and restored by the City
of Edinburgh Council in 1996.