{"id":56348,"date":"2025-04-28T02:53:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T02:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/56348\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T02:53:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T02:53:25","slug":"forgotten-history-coming-back-to-life-at-the-lost-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/56348\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten history coming back to life at The Lost Close"},"content":{"rendered":"

While renovating The Lost Close just off The Royal Mile the owners found an engine in the attic.<\/p>\n

The rare 19th century Crossley Otto Silent engine is one of only three in existence (the other two are in the US and in Denmark) and it has now been restored and given pride of place by moving it downstairs to the underground vaults. The engine is in near original condition, but whether it was installed in the building or bought second hand <\/p>\n

Research revealed a royal connection. In the 1800s, Edinburgh Police Chambers and Balmoral Castle, the Royal Family\u2019s Scottish residence, had the same system installed; adding to the royal connection, this rediscovered engine had originally been\u00a0installed in the short lived \u201cRoyal Aquarium\u201d at Waverley, before being moved to the police chambers in 1881 where it was installed for the purpose of ventilation.<\/p>\n

The story of the engine will be told in May at an event held at The Scottish Storytelling Centre. Details below.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Andrew Landsburgh, Director and Founder of CoDE Concepts, said\u00a0\u201cThis is one of the most exciting finds in Scotland. We found it during The Court\u2019s renovation, posted a photo online not knowing what we had, and suddenly experts from around the world were contacting us telling us we\u2019d uncovered something incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat began as a refurbishment turned into the discovery of a vital piece of Edinburgh, and the world\u2019s industrial heritage. This engine connects us directly to Scotland\u2019s innovative past and the very beginnings of technology which still powers the modern world. We\u2019ve brought it down from the attic to The Lost Close, the underground vaults of the building, where visitors can experience this historic find firsthand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story of this extraordinary discovery will be featured in an upcoming documentary titled \u2018Potential Energy\u2019 airing from 23rd\u00a0May, which delves into how the engine was found, its relocation from the attic to The Lost Close, underground vaults of the building and the possibilities of restoring it for modern use.<\/p>\n

The engine is currently on display at The Lost Close. To mark this discovery, The Lost Close is launching the Scottish Innovations Tour this June, exploring the country\u2019s contributions to innovation and industry. Visitors will journey through The Lost Close, now the permanent home of the Crossley \u2018Otto Silent\u2019 engine, and uncover Edinburgh\u2019s role in shaping global technological progress.<\/p>\n

James Armandary, Tourism Development Lead of The Lost Close, said\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThis is an incredibly exciting addition to The Lost Close. It\u2019s not every day you uncover a piece of engineering history that bridges the gap between Scotland\u2019s past innovations and technology we take for granted today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis building continues to surprise us with its storied history and with the launch of the Scottish Innovations Tour, visitors will not only be able to see the engine up close but also explore Edinburgh\u2019s long-overlooked role in shaping global industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lost Close, hidden for nearly two centuries beneath layers of rubble from the Great Fire, was also rediscovered during renovations in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"image_pdf\"<\/a>\"image_print\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.<\/p>\n

Like this:<\/p>\n

Like Loading…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While renovating The Lost Close just off The Royal Mile the owners found an engine in the attic.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4154,4155,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-56348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-edinburgh-local-news","11":"tag-edinburgh-news","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114413332327417392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}