Liberton Bank House may look like an unassuming 18th century home, but it once belonged to women’s rights activist Mary Burton and housed author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle during his childhood.
The historic building was de-listed in 1997, giving owners the power to propose its demolition in order to build a new McDonald’s drive-through. After several years of backlash from local residents, the City of Edinburgh Council finally refused the application and the house was re-listed under category C in 2000.
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Liberton Bank House was purchased in 1844 by Mary Burton, making a home for her widowed mother and her brother, the lawyer and historian John Hill Burton. She lived in the house until 1898, and made several big changes in women’s rights while there.
A single woman with an independent income, which was a rarity for the time, Mary was a supporter of the Edinburgh National Society for Women’s Suffrage. She was an advocate for women’s access to education - and went to court in 1868, unsuccessfully, for the right to register to vote.
The following year, she campaigned for the Watt Institution (which became Heriot-Watt University) to admit female students on equal terms to men, 23 years before Scottish legislation required universities to do so. Her niece, Ella Burton, was one of the first women to benefit from the change.
Mary went on to become the first woman on the School’s Board of Directors, and then the first woman governor of Heriot-Watt. She died in Aberdeen in 1909, leaving money for students ‘irrespective of age or sex’, and to the Edinburgh Women’s Suffrage Society in her will.
The majority of her life was spent at Liberton Bank House, where at one point she housed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle while he was a student at Newington Academy. The Doyles and the Burtons were family friends, and after Mary’s brother passed away she was already taking care of his orphaned children.
With Doyle’s father suffering from alcoholism, it was decided that he would live with the Burtons. From around 1863 to 1868 he lived at Liberton Bank House, and even produced his first fiction works here.
At the age of six, he produced the story of a man and a tiger under Mary’s care. In a article published in The Idler magazine in January 1893, the author wrote: “I was six at the time, and have a very distinct recollection of the achievement.
“It was written, I remember, upon foolscap paper, in what might be called a fine bold hand-four words to the line, and was illustrated by marginal pen-and-ink sketches.”
Arthur’s family was reunited and lived in a tenement building on Sciennes Place, before he went on to education in Lancashire and then Austria. The author is most known for his Sherlock Holmes series and other mystery novels, though has also produced historical books and works for the stage.
It wasn’t until 1970 that Liberton Bank House gained it’s category B listing, but alterations to the home and its surroundings resulted in it being de-listed in 1997. The installation of a new staircase and modern windows were a factor in the change.
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The construction of the Cameron Toll Shopping Centre in 1981 had also transformed the rural setting of the home, which was worsened by the extension of the Cameron Toll car park.
The owners of the home, the Cameron Toll Partnership, put forward the proposals for a Mcdonald’s drive-through - and were met with disapproval from locals. Historian and biographer Owen Dudley Edwards said at the time: “It is an effort to sell Scotland’s cultural past for a hamburger.”
Owen added that Arthur’s homing at Liberton Bank House wasn’t known until the 1970s, when the discovery of a family diary brought to light the alcoholism of his father and the family's temporary separation.
Dr Allen Simpson, who led the campaign to stop the demolition, said: “I think it’s important that it’s not demolished, and it would be nice if it could be retained as a private house.
“If it has to be an office or shops, so be it, but at least let’s have the house preserved.”
A spokesman for McDonald’s responded: “We have only just been made aware of the Sir Conan Doyle connection. It’s something we are discussing, with other matters, with planners.”
Ultimately, the plans were removed and the building was re-listed under Category C. While the building was saved, finding a use for Liberton Bank House took some time. The development of Cameron Toll made it undesirable for residential use and years of being empty, restoration was needed.
Eventually, the Cockburn Conservation Trust and Dunedin School worked together to transform the premises into a ‘second chance’ school for fragile and vulnerable children - which had been based in the nearby Scout Hut and was seeking a new home.
It wasn’t until 2007 that the building was open and ready for an academic year, with the total project costing around £800,000.
