Robert Louis Stevenson’s Birthplace - Scottish author, poet, essayist and travel writer

Birthplace of Robert Louis Stevenson – image © Steve Kydd

Robert Louis Stevenson was born on 13 November 1850 at 8 Howard Place, in the Warriston area of Edinburgh. The future author of Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped and A Child’s Garden of Verses spent his earliest years here. After marrying in 1848, his parents made the house their first home.

He was the only child of Thomas Stevenson (1818–1887), a lighthouse engineer, and Margaret Isabella Balfour (1829–1897). On his father’s side, he belonged to a distinguished family of engineers whose work helped make Scotland’s dangerous coastline safer for sailors. His paternal grandfather, Robert Stevenson, was celebrated for the Bell Rock Lighthouse. His maternal grandfather, the Reverend Lewis Balfour, was minister of Colinton, where young Stevenson spent happy childhood visits.

Christened Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson, he was named after his two grandfathers, with his mother’s family name added. Around the age of eighteen, he changed the spelling of “Lewis” to “Louis”, although family and friends continued to pronounce it “Lewis”. By about 1873, he had also dropped “Balfour”, adopting the name that would become familiar to readers around the world.

His mother wrote: “he was born at 1.30 in the afternoon, with blue eyes that later turned hazel and very little fair hair.” Among the many childhood nicknames she noted was “Smoutie”, which stayed with him until he was about fifteen.

The family moved to 17 Heriot Row in 1857. Although Heriot Row became the home most closely associated with Stevenson’s later childhood, Howard Place marks the beginning of his story. A commemorative plaque on the exterior of No. 8 records his birth and preserves the house’s place in Edinburgh’s literary history.

Robert Louis Stevenson – from “Memoirs of Myself”

“I was an only child and, it maybe in consequence, both intelligent and sickly. I have three powerful impressions of my childhood: my sufferings when I was sick, my delights in convalescence at my grandfather’s manse of Colinton, near Edinburgh, and the unnatural activity of my mind after I was in bed at night.”

Birthplace of Robert Louis Stevenson

Please note: Robert Louis Stevenson’s birthplace is not open to the public.

Two minutes walk from here is 10 Warriston Crescent, where Chopin stayed during his visit to Edinburgh in 1848.

Robert Louis Stevenson – from “Memoirs of Myself”

Further Reading