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Edinburgh, 493 - 495 Lawnmarket, 3, 5, 7 James' Court

Tenement (18th Century)

Site Name Edinburgh, 493 - 495 Lawnmarket, 3, 5, 7 James' Court

Classification Tenement (18th Century)

Alternative Name(s) James's Court, James Boswell's House

Canmore ID 52282

Site Number NT27SE 262

NGR NT 25539 73578

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52282

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT27SE 262 25539 73578

Five storeys high with a very irregular stair-turret and outshot at the N end; apparently 16th or 17th century. The timber-framed upper floors at the NE corner and balconies on the E flank belong to the remodelling for Patrick Geddes by S Henbest Capper, 1892.

RCAHMS 1951; J Gifford, C McWilliam and D Walker 1984.

Architecture Notes

REFERENCE:

Original drawings by J Jordan, 13 Castle Street, of reconstruction of Nos 3-7, for the Edinburgh Social Union (Patrick Geddes, etc) in the Dean of Guild records, City Chambers, 1891.

(Undated) information in NMRS.

Activities

Publication Account (1951)

13. James' Court, 501 Lawnmarket.

The buildings that face the Lawnmarket are modern, but in the W. wall of one of them has been inserted a weatherworn lintel from a house long since demolished. This has in the centre a shield surmounted by a crown, with a representation of God the Father above supporting Christ crucified. The shield, which bears a quartered coat, now indecipherable, is flanked by two sets of initials, A S and, probably, E I. On either side runs the inscription BLISSIT BE THE LORD I[N] AL HIS GIFTIS FOR NOV AND EVIR.

The buildings at the N.E. corner [NT27SE 263] were erected in 1723 by James Brownhill (1), from whom the Court takes its name. Above North Bank Street they rise in an impressive façade of no fewer than eight storeys, while towards the front there are six. But only the E. part of Brownhill's work has survived, the W. portion having been burnt down in 1857 (2) and replaced by the offices of the Free Church of Scotland and of the Edinburgh Savings Bank. A drawing preserved in the National Gallery shows both portions complete. The buildings are well planned with a solid-newel stair, continuous from ground to top, which may be entered either from the street or from the Court. Some of them still have panelled rooms of the early and later parts of the 18th century.

To the S. of Brownhill's building stands an older tenement [NT27SE 262], much altered and recently harled, which has an irregularly-shaped stair-tower projecting from its N. end, and what may have been a stair-turret projecting from half-way up its W. wall.

RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941

(1) O.E.C., iii, p. 247. (2) Drummond, Old Edinburgh. vi.

References

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