Edinburgh, 42 High Street, South Gray's Close, Lord Selkirk's House
Museum (20th Century)
Site Name Edinburgh, 42 High Street, South Gray's Close, Lord Selkirk's House
Classification Museum (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Museum Of Childhood
Canmore ID 115460
Site Number NT27SE 1163
NGR NT 26071 73653
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/115460
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
Demolished March 1965.
REFERENCE: NMRS PLANS
Copy of 1967 survey by City Architect's Dept.of arcade -1 dyeline print of arcade at No 40.
REFERENCE: SCOTTISH RECORD OFFICE
Reparation of Sir John Ramsay's house in South Gray's Close. The house is noted as on the South side of the street a little above the Netherbow.
GD 143/Box 3/4/22
Acknowledgement of money still due by Sir John Ramsay of Whythill to William Clark, Burgess and Wright.
1693 GD 143/Box 3/4/1
Repair of the head of the Turnpike entry in Gray's Close (described as above the Netherbow), pointing two roofs in Leith and mending holds on the Easter house. Account for ?68.9.0 (Scots) to Sir John Ramsay from John Mein.
1695 and 1696 GD 143/6/3/57
Alterations affecting the Lodging in Gray's Close belonging to Sir John Ramsay of Whythill.
payment of ?1.10.0 to Gilbert Kirktoun, Clerk to the Dean of Guild Court 'in with the Answers made by you to the Earl of Hyndfoord's bill anent the sloping of the back stair leading to your lodging'. Payment made by Andrew Ramsay, advocate, for Sir John Ramsay.
1711 GD 143/Box 4/2/9
Alterations affecting the Lodging in Gray's Close belonging to Sir John Ramsay of Whythill.
Payment of 14s (Scots) for a copy of a Bill given into the Dean of Guild Court 'by the Earl of Hyndfoord who has bought the 2 storeys below your lodging in Edinburgh in order to procure a warrant for heightening a jam in his lodging and to slope your back stair'. Payment made by Andrew Ramsay for Sir John Ramsay.
1711 GD 143/Box 4/2/9
Alterations affecting the Lodging in Gray's Close belonging to Sir John Ramsay of Whythill.
Payment of ?2.0.0 'to the Dean of Guild's officer for imtimating a stop to the Earl of Hindfoord's building below your lodging and prejudging (prejudicing) your stair 40s (Scots) it being the custom to consign that much.
Payment made by Andrew Ramsay, advocate, for Sir John Ramsay.
1711 GD 143/Box4/2/9
REFERENCE: SCOTTISH RECORD OFFICE
In His Majesty's General Register House, Record Office, Edinburgh, are preserved a Plan, and an Explanation by William Bell, of John Ronaldson's property adjoining Gray's Close, to scale of 20 feet to 1 inch, and an Elevation of the Front of the Close and the adjoining shop dominated the "Cheese Warehouse" to scale of about 1 inch to 4 feet. On the Elevation is engraved the name of J Ainslie, Sculpt. Reference: 16B...587
Publication Account (1951)
40. Hyndford's Close and South Gray's Close, 34 and 40 High Street.
The entries to these closes pass beneath the E. ends of two rubble-built tenements, facing the street, which, to judge by their architectural detail, appear to have been built simultaneously in the late 17th century. In the centre of their front is a newel-staircase, entered from the pend of South Gray's Close and serving both "lands." The tenement on the E. has six storeys, and the one on the W. had the same number until its uppermost floor was removed. Owing to the fall of the site, however, there is a difference in the levels of the two tenements, the W. one standing on higher ground, and it was thus impossible for the three string-courses that enriched the superstructure to be carried continuously across the front of both. These string-courses run as sill-courses beneath the four back-set windows of the W. tenement, continue above the staircase windows, and return downwards to form the sill-courses of the four similar windows of the E. building. The lower storeys have been modernised, and the upper ones, which contain two flats on each floor, call for no remark. As a plaque on the first-floor front of the W. "land" records, this was the birthplace both of Henry Erskine, Lord Advocate (b. 1746) and of his brother Thomas, afterwards Lord Chancellor (b. 1749).
Both tenements have extensions to the back. The easternmost of these has five storeys, reached from a newel-stair with a moulded entrance in Hyndford's Close, and can hardly be earlier than the 18th century. The extension to the W. contains a long vaulted cellar, probably of the 17th century, but the two storeys above have been reconstructed at some later date. What had been the ground and first floors were gutted in the late 18th century and turned into a hall with a gallery at the sides and a proscenium opening at the S. end. The floor that was then removed has now been replaced; but the upper part of the proscenium still exists, as does the enriched, coved, plaster ceiling of the hall, which is lit by cupolas.
RCAHMS 1951
Project (1997)
The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (http://www.pmsa.org.uk/) set up a National Recording Project in 1997 with the aim of making a survey of public monuments and sculpture in Britain ranging from medieval monuments to the most contemporary works. Information from the Edinburgh project was added to the RCAHMS database in October 2010 and again in 2012.
The PMSA (Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) Edinburgh Sculpture Project has been supported by Eastern Photocolour, Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Historic Scotland, the Hope Scott Trust, The Old Edinburgh Club, the Pilgrim Trust, the RCAHMS, and the Scottish Archive Network.
Field Visit (8 August 2002)
Silhouettes of three children with a pram, all joined together, hang from a black sign with lettering. Figures decrease in height as they move away from the wall: boy with hat, two girls in full old-fashioned skirts, the smaller one pushing a tiny pram.
The sign probably dates from 1956 when the building's interior was recast by the City Architect's Department.
Inspected By : D. King
Inscriptions : Gilt lettering on black upper part of sign: MUSEUM OF CHILDHOOD
Signatures : None
Design period : Possibly c1956
Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN0762)
