Architecture Notes

Event ID 770723

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Architecture Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/770723

Was situated on the site of the West pavement of George IV Bridge.

(Undated) information in NMRS.

Gosford's Close was swept away in the building of George IV Bridge in about 1830. Shown as Gosford's Close on Edgar 1742, it got this name from Alexander Acheson of Gosford, East Lothian, who had a tenement here in the 1580s, although as a "burgess dwelling to landward" he was excused certain of the taxes upon burgesses. From a slightly earlier period the close was Dickson's Close, for Allan Dickson, frequently a bailie between 1550 and 1565; and in 1635 Andro and Charles Dikesone are listed among owner occupiers on the west side of the close. Yet earlier it was Aikman's Close, for James Aikman, merchant, tenant of a booth in the Boothraw in 1482 and mentioned in RMS (Register of the Great Seal of Scotland) 1491 as owning property on the south side of the High Street.

(from Stuart Harris, "Place Names of Edinburgh", 1996, pages 300-1)