Standing Building Recording

Date 1 November 2014 - 1 March 2015

Event ID 1015333

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1015333

NT 25549 73582 A comprehensive review of the history of Gladstone’s Land, 483 Lawnmarket, was undertaken 1 November 2014 – 1 March 2015. The work aimed to develop a detailed understanding of the site, and this information will be used to inform future management and development

proposals.

The work confirmed previous theories that the building was built in several stages from perhaps as early as the late medieval period. It was significantly extended southwards c1620 with the addition of the front column of rooms with painted beam and board ceilings, probably with a timber frontage to the street. This was subsequently rebuilt in masonry to its present appearance. The newly formed NTS purchased the building for housing in the 1930s, without knowing of the remarkable survival of the painted ceilings. Their conservation in the 1930s, which involved the removal of almost all interior features not considered authentic to the 17th century, revealed the ceilings concealed under later plaster. These ceilings have been restored and de-restored several times and the building itself altered internally and externally several times in the 20th century.

Archive: NTS and NRHE (intended)

Funder: The National Trust for Scotland

Tom Addyman, Kenneth Macfadyen, Jenni Morrison and Nicholas Uglow – Addyman Archaeology

(Source: DES, Volume 17)