Published by the Word Bank in 2021, copies of Happy Homes are now available from Thirsty Books.

In their 160th year, the Edinburgh ‘Colonies’ have a remarkable history and an enduring charm. In building the Colony houses the Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company Ltd. (ECBC) constructed the equivalent Scotland’s 30th largest burgh. What had taken many towns centuries to achieve, a group of Edinburgh building tradesmen completed in fifty years and built homes for over 12,000 individuals on 11 different sites.

It was a transformative cooperative achievement which challenged tenement landlords in the Old Town. ECBC was remarkably inclusive – a £1 shareholding bought a stake in the governance of the company for both men and women. It was innovative with corporate status as a Limited Liability Company only seven years after the legislation passed through Parliament. And it was imaginative by virtue of the design and build of the homes which included gardens, kitchens, and a front door in stark contrast to the multi-storey living of the Old Town. Solid, stone-built structures fashioned by first class tradesmen.

Based on wide-ranging research this book examines the distinctive Colony design features and how these evolved over time influencing working-class housing developments across Scotland.

Comments on Richard Rodger’s The Transformation of Edinburgh:

‘a stunning mastery of the Scottish legal system. . . the work is original and unlikely to be superseded.’
- Helen Meller, Economic History Review

‘Richard Rodger has written a marvellous book.’
- David McCrone, Scottish Affairs

‘should be required reading not only for social and urban historians but also for the municipal powers-that-be in modern day cities.’
- Andrew Newby, University of Helsinki

Richard Rodger is Professor Emeritus of Economic and Social History at the University of Edinburgh.