Merchiston
| Merchiston | |||
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| Coordinates | 55 ° 56 ′ N , 3 ° 13 ′ W | ||
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| Post town | EDINBURGH | ||
| ZIP code section | EH10 | ||
| prefix | 0131 | ||
| Part of the country | Scotland | ||
| Council area | City of Edinburgh | ||
| British Parliament | Edinburgh South | ||
| Scottish Parliament | Edinburgh Southern | ||
Merchiston is an affluent, primarily residential area in southwest Edinburgh . The residential buildings are largely a mixture of later Georgian , Victorian and Edwardian mansions - some of the later ones by Edward Calvert .
A campus , formerly the largest part of Edinburgh Napier University, is located in the district; it includes the Merchiston Tower , once the home of John Napier , 8th Laird of Merchiston and inventor of logarithms . The university uses several other buildings in the area, including former schools and churches. The tower was added to Merchiston Castle School in 1914 by John Scott Napier, 14th Laird of Merchiston , who moved it to Colinton (retaining the Merchiston Castle name) until 1930, when the school moved to Colinton .
The neighborhood is home to writers Ian Rankin , Lin Anderson , Colin Douglas , Alexander McCall Smith and comedian Dylan Moran . JK Rowling has moved her longtime Merchiston residence to Cramond . Merchiston was also where Gavin Hastings and Scott Hastings grew up.
There are several private schools in the area, including George Watson's College and a Steiner School. The S-Bahn runs along the edges of the district, where it meets Craiglockhart in the west . The Union Canal runs to the north of Merchiston . North of the canal (known as "North Merchiston" or Shandon , sometimes counted as Polwarth ) is the "Craiglockhart Primary School" and the former Merchiston Railway Station, a station of the now closed Caledonian Railway to Edinburgh Princes Street Railway Station .
Other localities in the area are Morningside in the southeast, Burghmuirhead (including Holy Corner and Church Hill ) in the east and Bruntsfield in the northeast.