Architecture Notes

Event ID 724469

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Architecture Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/724469

(North) Foulis Close is given on Edgar 1742 and Kirkwood 1817 as Fowler's Close, a name which evidently dates at latest to 1635, when a Mr John Fouller is listed as owner and occupier on its west side. He appears in RMS (Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, Vols I-XI) 1627 as son of the late William Fowlar, merchant burgess, and the form of address "M" or "Mr" would suggest that he was a lawyer. The alternative Foulis' Close for the close appears on Ainslie 1780 and possibly derives from John Foulis, apothecary and owner of a tenement in the close at some date prior to 1746; but it does not seem impossible that "Fouller" and "Foulis" might be one and the same. The prefix "North" was added to distinguish the close from the other "Foulis Close", a name which is quite differently derived. (from Stuart Harris, "Place Names of Edinburgh", 1996, page 277)