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Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1097368
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1097368
112. Shoemakers' Land, 213-217 Canongate.
This property once included a double tenement, through the centre of which, at ground level, ran a passage giving access from the Canongate, on which it fronted, to Shoemakers' Close. In the court formed by the Close stood the Hall of the Incorporation of Cordiners, erected in 1682. In 1725 the brethren reconstructed the front buildings, leaving the lower part of the passage walls untouched. In time the Hall disappeared; the surviving fragments of other contemporary buildings standing on the site were reconstructed; and finally, in 1882, the E. half of the tenement facing the street was taken down and rebuilt. The surviving W. half of the front tenement, containing in all five storeys, a cellarage and an attic, is built of rubble with back-set and chamfered ashlar dressings, but the wall-head and the cornice are both modern. At the E. end is the entrance to a newel-stair which was originally common to both halves of the tenement but which now serves the W. half only. The entrance to the Close adjoins this stair and the remainder of the street floor is occupied by two shops. The four upper floors have each five large windows facing the street, and also, beside the W. gable, a narrow light which served a closet. Since the stair is a turnpike its windows are not in alinement with the others. A panel, removed from the demolished part of the front, has been inserted into the centre of the portion that survives between the windows ofthe first and second floors. This panel is carved with a niche in shallow relief and is dated 1725 in the spandrels; in the arch-head is a cordiner's rounding knife surmounted by a crown, and below runs the inscription
BLESSED IS HE / THAT WISELY DO/TH
THE POOR MAN'S / CASE CONSIDER /
1725.
The Close still retains some interesting features, survivals of late 16th- or early 17th-century buildings. For example, the N. end of the W. wall is set out on chequered corbelling to carry the masonry above it, the corner opposite is chamfered for easier passage, and corbelling for the newel-stair projects near the S. end of the E. wall. The existing stair is partly that of the earlier building although its outer side dates only from the 18th century; contrary to the usual practice, it turns from right to left. Each floor of the surviving tenement was a separate flat, apparently of four rooms in the first instance. Several of the rooms still retain their wall-panelling, but with two exceptions the fireplaces are of later date than this.
RCAHMS 1951
