Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1095693
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1095693
13. James' Court, 501 Lawnmarket.
The buildings that face the Lawnmarket are modern, but in the W. wall of one of them has been inserted a weatherworn lintel from a house long since demolished. This has in the centre a shield surmounted by a crown, with a representation of God the Father above supporting Christ crucified. The shield, which bears a quartered coat, now indecipherable, is flanked by two sets of initials, A S and, probably, E I. On either side runs the inscription BLISSIT BE THE LORD I[N] AL HIS GIFTIS FOR NOV AND EVIR.
The buildings at the N.E. corner [NT27SE 263] were erected in 1723 by James Brownhill (1), from whom the Court takes its name. Above North Bank Street they rise in an impressive façade of no fewer than eight storeys, while towards the front there are six. But only the E. part of Brownhill's work has survived, the W. portion having been burnt down in 1857 (2) and replaced by the offices of the Free Church of Scotland and of the Edinburgh Savings Bank. A drawing preserved in the National Gallery shows both portions complete. The buildings are well planned with a solid-newel stair, continuous from ground to top, which may be entered either from the street or from the Court. Some of them still have panelled rooms of the early and later parts of the 18th century.
To the S. of Brownhill's building stands an older tenement [NT27SE 262], much altered and recently harled, which has an irregularly-shaped stair-tower projecting from its N. end, and what may have been a stair-turret projecting from half-way up its W. wall.
RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941
(1) O.E.C., iii, p. 247. (2) Drummond, Old Edinburgh. vi.
