Edinburgh Allotment Gardens Have a Long History

Note! 13 seconds black screen before video begins. Super 8 ‘experimental’ film showing Edinburgh allotments.

The history of Edinburgh’s allotment gardens is intricately interwoven with the history of the city’s development and expansion, beginning in the era when Edinburgh was little more than a large town surrounded by villages and open fields. An 1851 town plan shows ‘Patriotic Society Allotment Gardens’ in an undeveloped area west of the town centre.

The 1892 act obliged Scottish local authorities to provide allotments for the ‘labouring population’ if six or more ratepayers came forward to express an interest and a need.

The onset of World War I (and the U-boat blockade that threatened to starve Britain into defeat) altered the character and the concentration of allotments in Edinburgh significantly. At the height of the conflict, over 194 acres of urban land were cultivated by 3,400 plotholders. Allotment sites sprouted up all over the city, replacing parkland and playing fields with potato and pea patches.

World War II, of course, brought a reprise of the First World War allotment surge in the form of the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign. By 1941, patriotic Edinburgh citizens were cultivating 5,543 allotments and countless home gardeners had responded to the call to ‘Put your gardens on war service today!’. The Scottish Gardens and Allotments Committee (housed within the Department of Agriculture for Scotland) tracked allotment provision throughout Scotland and recorded a wartime peak of close to 70,000 allotments across Scotland.

In 1952, the Town Planning Officer recommended an overall standard of provision of about one plot for every 125 citizens in the city of Edinburgh. Despite the intentions of the planners, the 50s and the 60s were not good years for Edinburgh’s allotments. Vegetables were cheap, and other recreational pursuits occupied potential plotholders. Allotments suffered from a poor public image and ebbing interest.

Presently, Edinburgh has a waiting list of 450 persons for just 1100 plots on 20 sites.

Link to Edinburgh’s Allotment website here. Be sure to read both the Allotments strategy (PDF) and the Allotments strategy appendices (PDF).

The Federation of Edinburgh and District Allotments and Gardens website here.