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Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1097644
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1097644
22. Mary King's Close.
The original backwall of the Royal Exchange rises like a cliff above its extension in Cockburn Street which contains the lower entrance to the City Chambers. The westernmost opening in the lowest tier of windows in the back wall is a doorway, closed by a grating, which to-day debouches on the roof of the extension. This doorway is the outer end of a narrow close, which in 1752 was encased within the W. side of the Royal Exchange. From this point the close runs steeply upwards towards the High Street, where it joins the staircase that gives access, at a higher level, to a series of vaulted cellars situated beneath the forecourt of the Royal Exchange. The wall on the W. side of the close is the original outer wall of the Exchange, but part of the opposite wall is of earlier date, containing windows and doors, which are relics of a time when the close stood open to the sky. The apartments into which these open, however, are apparently not earlier than the 17th century.
The close takes its name from Alexander King, who was alive in 1601, and from Mary King, who was probably his daughter. But at an earlier stage it was known as Towrs' Close, George Towrs or Touris, of the family of Touris of Inverleith, having owned property on its E. side (1). One of the last strongholds of the plague, the close acquired the reputation of being haunted and was abandoned about the middle of the 17th century. Its buildings were then allowed to fall into ruin (2). When the foundations of a house in this close were being cleared in 1859 a 15th-century carving was found, representing the administration of Extreme Unction, evidently one panel of an altar retable portraying the Seven Sacraments. This is now in the National Museum (3). (Cf. Fig. 185.)
RCAHMS 1951
(1) O.E.C., xii, p. 28. (2) Wilson, Memorials, ii, p. 13 and O.E.C., xxii, p. 6. (3) P.S.A.S., viii (1868-70), p. 33 and lxii (1927-8), p. 206.
