NTS Documentary Reference Event

Date February 2013 - February 2013

Event ID 933898

Category Documentary Reference

Type Reference

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/933898

Gladstone’s Land is a 7-storey (including cellar and attic) tenement on the Lawnmarket end of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. It dates largely from the 17th century, though parts of the rear of the building date back to the 16th century. The back tenement and a later 18th century north wing were demolished c. 1895 during works to restore neighbouring Lady Stair’s House.

Gladstone’s is certainly the earliest and most complete survival in Scotland of this type of tall, narrow-fronted dormer-gabled tenement, and its arcaded ground floor and dressed stone frontage, with curved stone forestair, are of considerable rarity.

Historic Building Recording work carried out in 2000 on the Bar Parlour at Gladstone’s Land noted a number of recesses that may have been presses or cupboards as well as historic wall coverings dating to the rooms use as a public house and earlier. The original floor level was identified as being 0.47m above that of today; and the removal of planking in a recess revealed a well preserved sash & case window. On the exterior a blocked-in window correlates with the position of the recess, and it is highly likely that this occurred in the 19th century.

Within the interior of Gladstone’s Land, the painted walls and ceilings of the first, second and third floor front rooms are noteable, with the second floor ceiling having been dated to 1620. The Historic Building Recording work in 2000 recorded two sequences of decoration in the southern wall of the Bar Parlour.

(Information from NTS, February 2013)

Information from NTS