Sir James Steel, 1st Baronet (1829–1904) was a Scottish builder and businessman who served as
Lord Provost of Edinburgh
The Right Honourable Lord Provost of Edinburgh is elected by and is the convener of the City of Edinburgh Council and serves not only as the chair of that body, but as a figurehead for the entire city, ex officio the Lord-Lieutenant of ...
from 1900 to 1903.
He was the largest building firm in Edinburgh in his day. His rise to fame and fortune is described as a textbook "rags to riches" story.
Life
He was born on 13 March 1829 at Summerside Mains in
Cambusnethan
Cambusnethan is a historic parish in North Lanarkshire in Scotland. The largest settlement in the parish is Wishaw, and Cambusnethan now appears on maps as a village almost contiguous with Wishaw. The village is approximately long, straddling ...
to James Steel (1791–1871), a farmer, and Marion Reid (c. 1800 – ?). While serving as Lord Provost of Edinburgh he named two streets after the farm he was born on, Summerside Place and Summerside Street.
In 1866 he began a building firm in Edinburgh, linked to a stone quarry business which he already owned. He was then living at 11 Lothian Road. His building work is characterised by an enormous flair, and his elegant terraces in the West End were clearly aimed at the more affluent sections of the Edinburgh population. These include: Eglinton Crescent, Coates Gardens, Buckingham Terrace (west), Glencairn Crescent, Belgrave Place and the west end of Belgrave Crescent. In these proposals Steel replaced the original architect
John Chesser (who he originally worked with) with his own architect
Alexander Macnaughtan and was threatened with legal action for variance from the plan. This resulted in the final section of Buckingham Terrace being built omitted (later built on as a church).
He entered Edinburgh Town Council in 1872 and served as a magistrate for many years.
In 1878 he bought several acres of land west of
Dean Bridge
The Dean Bridge spans the Water of Leith in the city of Edinburgh on the A90 road to South Queensferry, Queensferry on the Firth of Forth. It carries the roadway, long and broad, on four arches rising above the river.H Coghill, ''Discover ...
from the bankrupt
Alexander Learmonth who had inherited the land from his successful father
John Learmonth
John Learmonth of Dean, DL FRSE (26 May 1789 – 17 December 1858) was Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1831 to 1833. He was co-funder of the Dean Bridge project in western Edinburgh and gives his name to many of the streets in Comely Bank, the ...
.
In 1894 he bought a 33-acre site between Queensferry Road and
Comely Bank
Comely Bank (; , IPA: �pɾuəxˈçɛnəɫ̪t̪ʰə is an area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It lies southwest of Royal Botanic Garden and is situated between Stockbridge and Craigleith. It is bound on its northernmost point by Carri ...
and developed this as dense (but attractively laid out) four storey tenements. The area is now the Comely Bank/Learmonth estate. Its centrepiece is the dramatic switchback street, Comely Bank Avenue.
In 1900 he succeeded
Sir Mitchell Mitchell Thomson as
Lord Provost
A lord provost () is the convenor of the local authority, the civic head and the lord-lieutenant of one of the principal cities of Scotland. The office is similar to that of a lord mayor. Only the cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Stirlin ...
. He was succeeded in turn in 1903 by
Sir Robert Cranston. He was created a Baronet by
King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...
in 1903 during his first visit to Scotland.
He died at 32 Colinton Road in Edinburgh on 3 December 1904. He is buried in
Dean Cemetery
The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and o ...
in the west of the city. The grave lies in the first northern extension attaching the main cemetery, just north-east of the huge obelisk to
Alexander Russel
Alexander Russel (or sometimes Russell) FRSE (1814–1876) was a Scottish newspaper editor, who spent nearly 30 years as the editor of ''The Scotsman''.
Early life
Russel was born on 10 December 1814 in Edinburgh; his father, a solicitor an ...
l.
The large red granite obelisk to Steel includes a fine bronze bust by the sculptor
John Stevenson Rhind, erected in 1906. The monument previously held bronze dogs lying on the shoulders of the monument. These were stolen in the 1980s.
Family
Lady Steel is listed as still living at 32 Colinton Rd in 1910.
[Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1910]
He is not the grandfather to
Sir William Steel Lord Provost from 1938 to 1941.
Other positions
*Chairman of the Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company
*Chairman of the
Broxburn
Broxburn (, ) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It is from the West End of Edinburgh, from Edinburgh Airport and to the north of Livingston. Originally a village known as Easter Strathbock in the medieval period, by 1600, the village ha ...
Oil Company
*Member of the Iron and Steel Institute
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steel, James
1830 births
1904 deaths
Lord provosts of Edinburgh
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Burials at the Dean Cemetery
19th-century Scottish businesspeople