Edinburgh, 104 St Leonard's Street

146. "Castle of Clouts," 104 St. Leonard's Street.

This rubble-built tenement of three storeys and an attic, which stands beside the entrance to Park Brewery, takes its name from the calling of its first proprietor, a wealthy tailor called Hunter, whose shop was in the Lawnmarket. The house consists of an oblong main block, running N. and S. and surmounted on the W. by a central gablet, and a rectangular central wing projecting on the E. to contain the newel-stair by which the upper floors are reached. This wing has recently been extended in brickwork to the N. to provide accommodation for lavatories. The entrance, which is intact, has a moulded architrave, and the lintel curves upwards at the centre. A projecting panel above it is covered by the modern brickwork, but the date 1724, the year in which the land was acquired, can still be seen cut on the masonry between this panel and the lintel.

The lowest floor of the building has been remodelled as a public-house. On each of the upper floors there was originally a flat of four rooms. Although the flats have now been subdivided, some of the rooms still retain their original stone fireplaces, moulded with a small, quirked, edge-roll, together with remnants of panelling of a late type.

RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941

Photographic survey of buildings in the St Leonard's area, Edinburgh, by the Scottish National Buildings Record/Ministry of Works in December 1965. Several of the buildings have since been demolished.