JK GILLON

Thirty thousand people thronged the Meadows on May 6, 1886 when Prince Albert Victor opened the International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art. The Exhibition building was an imposing structure comprising a Grand Hall, fronting the main entrance at Brougham Place, with a range of double courts extending eastwards and arranged on either side of a central corridor. The Grand Hall had a 120-feet high central dome decorated with signs of the Zodiac, an impressive collection of statues around the entrance, a Grand Organ and orchestra platform and could hold 10,000 people. By the opening day, 12,000 season tickets, at a guinea each had been sold.

Over 20,000 exhibits illustrated the 'material progress of the age' and there were 1,725 works of art in the fine art galleries. The list of items displayed included 'educational appliances; Italian furniture and marble; violins from Prague; Turkish embroidery; illustrations of mining, pottery, sugar-refining, sea industries, paper-making, printing; and railway, tram-way and other vehicular appliances'. The Women's Industries display ranged through Belgian glove making, Fair Isle, Shetland and Icelandic knitting, Irish linen and artificial fly production.

The grounds were laid out with walks, rockery, fountain and bandstand. The principal open-air attractions were the electric railway which ran between the main Brougham Place entrance and Middle Meadow Walk; the working man's model dwelling-house, which included the most modern appliances for sanitation and convenience; and the refreshment rooms, both temperance and otherwise. The Exhibition buildings and grounds were lit by 3,200 electric lamps in the largest illumination scheme ever attempted in Scotland.

One of the most popular features of the Exhibition was the 'most novel and picturesque'; Old Edinburgh Street consisting of various buildings which existed in Edinburgh during the 17th-century. The Street was entered through a replica of the Netherbow Port, and the buildings were arranged to form a street typical of Old Edinburgh with a short High Street, market place, mercat cross, two closes and a copy of the Old Tolbooth. Architectural styles were apparently reproduced with 'great fidelity and the imitation of old stonework was particularly marvellous'. The ground floors were laid out as forty-four shops and workshops in which attendants dressed in 17th-centry costumes sold souvenirs of the Exhibition.

Queen Victoria visited in August, 1886. It was originally intended to retain the Grand Hall and the model dwelling-houses, after the exhibition closed on October 30, but an act of Parliament forbids all permanent buildings within the Meadows, and they were demolished. Surviving relics include the Masons' Memorial Pillars and Prince Albert Victor Sundial, both at the west end of the Meadows; the Brass founders' Pillar, now in Nicolson Square Gardens; the six Doulton tile panels depicting great inventors, displayed in the Cafe Royal; and the whale jawbone arch on Melville Drive.