Chambers house

Well things seem to be improving. I can once more upload photos!

This small white painted house looks down on the Cuddy Burn, just a little way along Biggiesknowe from Bridgehouse Terrace. The town at that time consisted of two parts, the old, outside the town walls on the north side of the burn, and that within the walls on the south side. Biggiesknowe was considered part of the old town. At the other side of the house, actually on Biggiesknowe, it looks quite different. Because of the slope, the road is level with the upstairs, and a "bridge" crosses the area of land dug out round the house, to the door. On the other side there is only one small window on the lower level, looking out onto the retaining wall!

This house was built by the father of one James Chambers, a cotton manufacturer in Peebles, as a wedding present to the said James at the end of the 18th century. There James' family were born, William in 1800, and Robert two years later, being the two best known. At a time when most of the buildings were thatch-roofed cottages, inhabited by weavers and labourers, this new slate roofed house must have been thought of as quite grand. The living accommodation was all on the level of the street, with workshops downstairs, and store rooms upstairs in the attics.

The Chambers family moved to Edinburgh after the collapse of James's businesses, where William and Robert were to become famous in the world of bookselling and publishing. Their dictionaries and encyclopedias are still in use today, and many of their works available in print.