Edinburgh, 181 High Street, Bull's Close

Stood on the site of East pavement of Cockburn Street.

Bull's Close, or The Bull Close is shown as Bull's Close on Edgar 1742 and got its name from the Bull Tavern or Cellar which was in the close from some date prior to 1705. Two taverns, the "Union" and the "Perthshire", are shown in the close on Ordnance Survey 1852. The name also attached to the "Bull Turnpike" at 189 High Street, which may possibly have been the "Black Turnpike" mentioned in Town Council Minutes 1641 and once the mansion of Henderson of Fordell. The close was earlier Adamson's Close, from John Adamson, burgess, who got a feu here from the Abbot of Newbattle in 1549, in return for the help he had given in rebuilding a tenement belonging to the Abbey but burned down by Hertford's army in 1544. It was also known in the seventeenth century as Caichpele Close, for the "cachepele" or real tennis court which was approached by the Fleshmarket and Old Provost's Closes as well as this one. The close was swept away by the construction of Cockburn Street in 1859. (from Stuart Harris, "Place Names of Edinburgh", 1996, pages 131-2)