Holy Corner is a residential neighbourhood in Edinburgh’s Burghmuirhead neighbourhood. Located between the neighbourhoods of Bruntsfield and Morningside, Greenhill is a natural area that is a part of both. Holy Corner is a slang word commonly used by locals. Holy Corner was given its unusual moniker, most likely due to the abundance of churches found there. Christ Church and Morningside United are the two established churches in the area. Napier University’s Merchiston Campus can also be found in Holy Corner.
Holy Corner is a significant intersection in S Central Edinburgh, located 1.4 miles (2.2 km) south-southwest of the city centre at the crossroads of Bruntsfield Place, Morningside Road, Colinton Road, and Chamberlain Road. The area was formerly known as Burghmuirhead, but it was renamed after the four churches that sit on its four corners: Morningside Baptist Church (originally named Morningside Free Church and constructed by William McGibbon and Thomas Ross in 1872), Morningside United Church (originally constructed as Morningside Congregational Church in 1927 on the site of a United Presbyterian Church constructed in 1863), Christ Church Morningside (constructed by Hippolyte J. Blanc in 1878), and
Holy Corner is located in a bustling neighbourhood to the south of the city’s core, and its members are dedicated to getting involved in the lives of their neighbours and the world at large.
In 1980, Morningside North Parish Church was renamed the Eric Liddell Centre to honour the Christian charity that bore his name. Liddell’s story was dramatized in the Oscar-winning film “Chariots of Fire,” which was released the previous year. An Iyengar Yoga Centre, a Christian Healing Centre, and, until 2005, the Edinburgh base of the Western Buddhist Order have all contributed to Morningside’s growing aura of “holiness” in recent years.
The Church Hill Theatre, located on Church Hill in Morningside, was formerly Morningside Free Church and was also designed by Edinburgh architect Hippolyte Blanc (1844-1917), who was well-known for his Gothic revival-style constructions, like nearby Christ Church.
Many of the street names in Morningside have religious or biblical connotations, suggesting that religion is an underlying theme in the area. There are a number of streets named after biblical rivers in Morningside, including Canaan Lane, Eden Lane, Nile Lane, and Jordan Lane.