His influence has tended to rise and fall and rise again. Geddes himself was an awkward writer, – more of that in a moment. The study under review here joins a varied and thoughtful shelf. My own favourite is the Johnson Terrace Garden but perhaps the most spectacular is the recent renovation of Riddles Court, one time Baillie Macmorran’s house, one time a university hall restored under the direction of Professor Geddes, now the Patrick Geddes Centre restored to 21 st century standards by the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust and now managed by its own trust as an events centre offering everything from weddings to study days. The Geddes effect is evident in many Edinburgh activities. In short, for many in Edinburgh Geddes was an inspirational figure.
You will have learnt that he was a ‘polymath’ and practised ‘conservative surgery’ in Edinburgh and that there was an especial virtue and Scottish quality to these things. You might have followed the Patrick Geddes Heritage Trail and inspected exhibitions which displayed much material from those exhibitions prepared by Geddes himself. If you are wise you will avoid the controversy which attributes credit for this to his devoted wife Anna or perhaps his industrious daughter Nora who appears in many of the photographs. If you are fortunate you will be invited into the family home, he created at 14 Ramsay Garden and go on to inspect the garden on Johnson Terrace once cultivated by the children of Castlehill School and now in care of the Scottish Wildlife Trust as an urban wild life garden. You may meet him in the tranquil garden behind John Knox House where he gazes wisely down from his pedestal. There is a plaque in Chessel’s Court off the Canongate which credits him with creating gardens and playgrounds as part of the rehabilitation of the housing. If you have lived in Edinburgh for more than 50 years as I have you will have met Professor Patrick Geddes on several occasions.
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