Edinburgh, 304 Lawnmarket, Brodie's Close, Roman Eagle Hall

19. 300-302 and 306-310 Lawnmarket.

The tenement No. 306-310 [NT27SE 662], of four storeys with an attic and garret, which stands on the S. side of the Lawnmarket between Brodie's Close and Fisher's Close, may be as early in date as the end of the 16th century; but if this is the case, it must have been remodelled in the 17th century, being then provided with its present attractive ashlar front, which is set forward some 6 ft. in advance of the original building line and may possibly replace an older wooden front. Unlike its neighbour on the W. this tenement does not extend S. between the two closes; on the contrary, and probably as the result of an early rearrangement, its upper flats extend E. into the adjoining tenement, Nos. 300-302 [NT27SE 267], whose front is built of harled rubble up to the second floor but is timber-framed above. This is one of the only three surviving examples of that form of construction.

In the westernmost of the two fronts a shop at one end balances the arched entrance to Brodie's Close at the other, while a moulded doorway between gives entry to the central turnpike by which the upper floors are reached. The shop front is modern and the close entry has a modern wooden archivolt. Immediately above can be traced the remains of a string-course, broken away where windows have been enlarged. The windows in the centre of the front are placed to suit the stair within, and consequently are not in line with the pairs of windows which flanks them on every floor. But a uniform treatment obtains at the wall-head, where a high central gab let surmounts the staircase and is flanked by two lower ones. The wall-head has been raised to suit the modern roof which is flatter in pitch than the original one. The E. front has a shop at its W. end and the entry to Buchanan's Court at the other. The timber superstructure oversails the wall below and terminates in a tall central gable. The first flat, now used as business premises, has a good early 18th-century fireplace of marble carved with egg-and-dart enrichment, while the walls in three of the five rooms have traces of panelling. Some of the panels are known to have been painted with landscapes. The second floor, likewise, still shows traces of panelling upon its walls although there has been much alteration. The third floor not only retains a considerable amount of panelling, but has also an elaborate ceiling of modelled plaster, unfortunately not in good condition and now, owing to sub-division of the original space, extending over two rooms and a passage.

BRODIE'S CLOSE.

An archway bearing the number 304 is situated at the E. end of the tenement comprising Nos. 306-310 Lawnmarket. It is wider than the original pend inside, the end of which can be seen 6 ft. within. Side by side with this is the entrance to a disused bake-house [NT27SE 5861] which stands below the level of the street and has one oven* to the front and another to the back. An archway at the inner end of the pend supports the back wall of the tenement and gives entry to a tiny court which opens in turn into another and somewhat larger one, a building between the two courts being carried on a wide vault open at either end. The three-storeyed main block on the W. side of the courts, which runs W. to form the E. side of Fisher's Close, taken together with its E. extension of two storeys above the vault between the courts, makes one property which is T -shaped on plan. These buildings are probably to be dated to the late 16th century, but, if so, they must have been remodelled in the century following and have had added to them the turnpike stair that projects into the smaller court. The stair seems to have risen originally no higher than the first floor, but the staircase probably contained a chamber above the stair-head, and in that case the only access from the first to the second floor would have been the turret stair that is corbelled out over Fisher's Close from the W. wall of the main block.

The buildings have been so extensively altered that only the present arrangement can be described. But it may be suggested that at an early stage wooden balconies of the kind known as "galleries," projected from the E. side of the main block and from both sides of its E. extension. In the smaller court the first doorway, which alone has a moulded cornice, opens into the turnpike. Beyond this are two doors side by side beneath the open vault . The nearer one, raised a few steps above the level of the court, leads into a vaulted cellar, which has a recess at the N. end and a built-up window to the E. When the turnpike came to be built, this window apparently derived light through its well. The other door opens into a long cellar having a lofty, elliptical vault strengthened by stout ribs on the soffit; two ribs are still left, but there may have been a third farther S. The cellar has one window to the W. but to the E. there are three, the central one of which has been a doorway at some earlier time.

Near the foot of the turnpike there is a little window with a flue formed in the soffit while the back of the recess is framed for a wooden case; possibly a lamp was placed here at night to light both the entrance and the court to the S. A few steps higher up may be seen the position of the window which lit the N. cellar. The first doorway on the staircase gives entry to the lower of the two rooms in the extension that are supported on the vault. This room, lit by two windows facing S., has a bolection-moulded fireplace of about 1700 and a contemporary plaster cornice, but the pine panelling on the walls is considerably later. Behind the panelling on the N. side a little wooden stair leads to a room above; this is low in the ceiling and is lit from the S. Its W. corner, however, which is partitioned off to make a closet, is lit by a small window inserted in a former doorway, once apparently the entry to a balcony.

[NT27SE 661] The first floor of the main block to-day accommodates a single large and lofty room, oblong but for the inward projection of the turret stair on the W. side. This apartment is known as the Roman Eagle Hall, on account of its former use as the meeting-place of the Roman Eagle Lodge of Masons. Originally, however, it was no doubt divided into two if not into three rooms en suite, the triple division being perhaps the more probable one as it would account for the ceiling being in three sections. The northernmost section is of wood, divided by moulded ribs into panels containing tracery work of late Gothic type, planted on the under surface of the boards above and still showing traces of paint and gilding. If not a reproduction, this part of the ceiling may be ascribed to the 16th century. The middle and southern sections, which respectively bear the dates 1646 and 1645, are of plaster, patterned with moulded ribs and bearing cast ornaments within each of the panels so formed. In both of these latter sections the devices are generally similar in type although they differ in detail. There are no windows at the N. end of the room, where the side walls are overlapped by the turnpike and by the adjoining tenement on the W. The central part has two lights to the W., as well as a fireplace of late 17th-century or early 18th century type to the E. The S. end has a window to the W. and two others to the E.; between these latter is a press, evidently the back of one or other of two doorways which are still traceable outside, although they have been built up, and which seem to have led to a balcony. Above the first floor the turnpike is continued with wooden steps, a circumstance which suggests that it has been extended. That it has also been an addition to an existing building may be inferred from the presence of a built-up window in the main E. wall; this is still visible inside the stair-well immediately below the second floor. The second floor of the main block has become a store. In the party wall on the N. can be seen a built-up window, a circumstance which is in itself sufficient to indicate that the tenement facing the Lawnmarket is an earlier building than this one. The S. gable contains a late fireplace, beside which a window has been broken out. There is one 17th-century window near the turret stair to the W., while facing E. here are two with a press between them, evidently the back of a small built-up window which appears outside.

RCAHMS 1951

*The possession of an oven was a perquisite of a king's burgess (Leges Burgorum, xviii, Acts Parl. Scot ., vol. i).The staff of the bake-house was restricted to " a mayster tua servandis and a knaybe" (ibid., lxi.). In 1636 the magistrates forbade the baking of bread in "heich houses," on account of the risk of fire, and restricted bake-houses to "laich cellars or volts upone the grund."(B.R., 1626-1641, p. 177). In 1725 John Grant, Writer, who then owned this bake-house, was allowed to make a cellar below the street in front (Minutes of Town Council,17th March, 1725).

Photographic survey by the Scottish National Buildings Record in 1955.