Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1097531
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1097531
12. Milne's Court, 517 Lawnmarket.
This court, built on the N. side of the Lawnmarket by James Mylne, King's Master Mason, is the earliest of the post-Revolution housing-schemes. Entered from the main street through a passage in the lower part of a large and handsome ashlar-fronted tenement [NT27SE 265 etc], six storeys and an attic in height, the Renaissance entrance bearing the date 1690 within the pediment. The ground floor of the front building has been converted into shops. The upper ones, all considerably modernised inside, are entered from two spacious solid-newel staircases embodied in the back of the building and not projecting from it. The contemporary block on the N side of the Court [NT27SE 266] is built of rubble throughout. Five-storeyed towards the Court, it has six floors and an attic behind, where the ground falls steeply to North Bank Street; and, as in the other block, a passage runs through the base while access to the upper floors is had by a sold-newel stair. The stark, cliff-like, N elevation, partly hidden by the High Church, is relieved above the eaves by crow-stepped gablets and massive chimney-stalks. The internal accommodation is well planned, with good rooms conveniently arranged; some of these are panelled and have moulded and carved fireplaces. The six-storeyed building on the E. side of the Court [NT27SE 5765], which is entered from a projecting, octagonal stair-tower, must on the evidence of its boldly moulded doorway be three-quarters of a century older than the foregoing, but internally it contains nothing of interest. The low extension on its S. side, now a workshop, is contemporary and has a bolection-moulded fireplace in the common gable.
RCAHMS 1951
