Edinburgh, Leith, 36-38 Shore, The King's Wark
Tenement(S) (15th Century)
Site Name Edinburgh, Leith, 36-38 Shore, The King's Wark
Classification Tenement(S) (15th Century)
Alternative Name(s) 59-65 Bernard Street
Canmore ID 52017
Site Number NT27NE 88
NGR NT 2710 7651
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52017
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
NT27NE 88 2710 7651
Two early 18th-century tenements side by side occupy part of the site of the 'King's Wark' (NT27NE 3). The northernmost, at the S angle of the junction of Bernard Street and The Shore, was restored by Robert Hurd and Partners 1972-8; its street floor is a public house. The other, 36-38 Shore, is dated 1711, with the initials IG and BM.
RCAHMS 1951; J Gifford, C McWilliam and D Walker 1984.
NT 2710 7651 An archaeological excavation was carried out in April 1998 prior to development of a gap site situated on the northern edge of the medieval port of South Leith and overlying part of the site for the late medieval royal complex, the King's Wark (constructed c 1433-65) (NT27NE 3). A post-medieval moulded stone doorway, decorated with the armorial device of the mid-16th-century Queen Regent Mary of Guise, was incorporated and reused within the present street frontage and will be retained within the new building.
Four trenches were excavated across the footprint of the proposed development and revealed that the survival of stratified archaeological deposits was constrained by the presence of a complex series of late post-medieval (17th-18th century) cellars; as such the archaeological remains were restricted to the southern third of the site. The stratified sequence of deposits and walls revealed five main phases of occupation: pre-15th-century midden and beach deposits; construction of the King's Wark complex; late 15th-century land reclamation to the E of the King's Wark complex; probable late 16th-century reconstruction of southern range of the King's Wark known as 'The Vaults'; and 17th to 18th-century redevelopment. Of particular interest were the remains of a 15th-century sea wall or quay, running E-W across the S of the site. The position and date of the wall suggests that it relates to the King's Wark complex, although an earlier date of construction is also possible.
Sponsor: Gregor Homes.
J A Lawson 1999
NMRS Printroom.
W. Schomberg Scott Photograph Collection, Acc no. 1997/39
3 different prints of exterior views of the King's Wark.
Publication Account (1951)
No. 224 Houses in Leith (part).
The division of The Shore immediately S. of Bernard Street contains two early 18th-century tenements side by side, which occupy part of the site of the palacium de Leith, popularly known as "The King's Wark" (RCAHMS 1951 No. 249). Each of the three houses has a central gablet, surmounted by a chimney stalk and flanked by wooden dormers facing the street, and contains three storeys and an attic. In the northern most [NT27NE 428], which constitutes Number 65 Bernard Street and Number 36 The Shore, the front and the gable exposed to Bernard Street have recently been reharled. The quoins and window margins are back-set, and the skew-puts are scrolled. The street floor has been altered to form licensed premises. The adjoining tenement, Numbers 36-38 The Shore [NT27NE 88], is rather plainer in treatment but also has scrolled skew-puts. A doorway near the centre, set between an extension of the public house on the left and a shop on the right, has a moulded architrave surmounted by an elaborate broken pediment which contains a cartouche dated171 [ 1 ?] and bearing an intricate monogram apparently of the initials I G* and B M. Both buildings lookout behind on a court, which is entered from a pend passing beneath the contemporary tenement Number 61 Bernard Street [NT27NE 1530]. This latter building, recently reharled, is three storeys and an attic in height and has a central gablet towards the court. The ground floor contains a shop, on the right of which is the moulded archway through which the pend is entered; while the remains of a forestair which gave access to an adjoining property are still visible on the left.
RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941
*Probably for James Gray, portioner of Leith head, who is mentioned in a deed of 1717. His wife's name is not recorded.
Publication Account (1981)
First mentioned in 1477, the King's Wark was designed to hold wine, grain and other provisions. It was apparently a large block, a prominent object on Leith's shore occupying a place between Bernard Street and Broad Wynd. At NT 2711 7650 there is a public house called the King's Wark, but its external walls are harled making it impossible to determine whether any remains of the original building exist (Ordnance Survey Record Cards, Reference NT 27 NE 3).
Information from ‘Historic Edinburgh, Canongate and Leith: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1981).
