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Edinburgh, Cowgate, St Anne's Roman Catholic School
Flats (20th Century), School (17th Century), Theatre (19th Century)
Site Name Edinburgh, Cowgate, St Anne's Roman Catholic School
Classification Flats (20th Century), School (17th Century), Theatre (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Blackfriars Street; New Skinner's Close; Skinner's Hall
Canmore ID 52333
Site Number NT27SE 307
NGR NT 26071 73601
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52333
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
NT27SE 307 26071 73601
NT27SE 1425 26090 73592 St Anne's Roman Catholic School
Built in 1643 as the Skinners' Hall. Originally approached from a close to the N it looks like a nobleman's town house. Three storeys and attic of rubble, T-plan, the stem running W towards Blackfriars Street and extended further W by a plain tenement of c.1800. In the N re-entrant angle is a large octagonal stair-tower. The rear to South Gray's Close has been altered. From the crowstepped S gable extends a long range built c.1850 after the house's conversion into the United Industrial School. Further conversion into housing by the City Architect's Department, 1981.
RCAHMS 1951; J Gifford, C McWilliam and D Walker 1984.
Publication Account (1951)
44. St. Anne's School, 31 Blackfriars Street.
The short, unnamed lane on the E. side of Blackfriars Street leads to a little paved yard, enclosed on E. and S. by the T -shaped block of St. Anne's School, through the longer limb of which passes a pend giving entry to the lower ground at the back, now the playground. The older part of the buildings, dating from the early 18th century, comprises two rectangular ranges, one of which, three-storeyed at the upper end but with an additional storey at the lower one, runs N. and S., overlooking South Gray's Close behind, while the other, containing four storeys, runs E. and W. Both are served by a spacious turnpike in a semi-octagonal stair-tower rising within the N. re-entrant angle. The original purpose of the buildings was clearly domestic, but the shorter range was long since gutted to make classrooms, while the longer one has been almost wholly rebuilt. The masonry throughout is rubble. The windows, where unaltered, have back-set and chamfered margins, those of the top storey, which are semi-dormers, having triangular pediments one of which is surmounted by a small spherical finial. The entrance, situated in the stair-tower, has moulded architraves with lugs, and a moulded cornice. The only internal features possessing any special interest are three 18th-century fireplaces, all of which are closed up, and some sections of pine panelling of late 18th-century date. Some part of the building is thought to have been used as the Skinners' Hall, an inference that is to some extent supported by the fact that South Gray's Close was known as Skinners' Close.
RCAHMS 1951
