Description

Early 17th century. 3-storey and attic, 3-bay building with full-height square-plan turnpike stair projection to left and public house to ground with restored frontage. Random rubble with roughly squared, raised dressings; squared and snecked rubble to later public house frontage. Base course; cill courses at each floor. 2-leaf riveted timber door to turnpike. Entrance to public house to centre with slightly bowed fixed-pane window to right. Pedimented dormer windows breaking eaves with crescent and thistle finials.

INTERIOR: Predominantly refurbished interior to ground floor public house. Exposed iron-gated recess at SW corner. Upper floors incorporated into museum with adjacent tollbooth (see separate listing). Mostly renovated but some early 17th century panelling and a 17th century ceiling with painted beams with arabesques survive.

Predominantly 12-pane glazing to timber sash and case windows with horns. Grey Scottish slate. Lower portion of W gable is crowstepped. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

Part of an 'A Group' comprising Canongate Parish Church; Canongate Tolbooth; 167-169 Canongate; 142-146 Canongate, Huntly House; 140 Canongate, Acheson House and the Canongate Burgh Cross which together form the historic core of the former Canongate Burgh (see separate listings).

Nos 167-169 is a rare survival of a traditional, early 17th century building occupying a critical location on the Canongate beside the 16th century tollbooth (see separate listing). The Canongate has a rich heritage of traditional 17th century buildings and Nos 167-169, with its traditional rubble construction and arrangement of wall to window at upper levels, contributes significantly to this. The 3rd storey and attic are integrated into the adjacent tollbooth (now a museum) and the survival of oak panelling and remnants of decorative ceiling timbers all add to the interest. The building was extended to the rear around 1750 for residential use. The public house to ground floor was established in 1820 and the frontage was sympathetically altered, remaining in keeping with its surroundings, during the mid 20th century.

The historic and architectural value of Edinburgh's Canongate area as a whole cannot be overstated. Embodying a spirit of permanence while constantly evolving, its buildings reflect nearly 1000 years of political, religious and civic development in Scotland. The Canons of Holyrood Abbey were given leave by King David I to found the burgh of Canongate in 1140. Either side of the street (a volcanic ridge) was divided into long, narrow strips of land or 'tofts'. By the end of the 15th century all the tofts were occupied, some subdivided into 'forelands' and 'backlands' under different ownership. Fuedal superiority over Canongate ceased after 1560. The following century was a period of wide-scale rebuilding and it was during this time that most of the areas' mansions and fine townhouses were constructed, usually towards the back of the tofts, away from the squalor of the main street. The 17th century also saw the amalgamation of the narrow plots and their redevelopment as courtyards surrounded by tenements. The burgh was formally incorporated into the City in 1856. Throughout the 19th Century the Canongate's prosperity declined as large sections of the nobility and middle classes moved out of the area in favour of the grandeur and improved facilities of Edinburgh's New Town. The Improvement Act of 1867 made efforts to address this, responding early on with large-scale slum clearance and redevelopment of entire street frontages. A further Improvement Act (1893) was in part a reaction to this 'maximum intervention', responding with a programme of relatively small-scale changes within the existing street pattern. This latter approach was more consistent with Patrick Geddes' concept of 'conservative surgery'. A renowned intellectual, Geddes, who lived in the Old Town, was a pioneer of the modern conservation movement in Scotland which gathered momentum throughout the 20th century. Extensive rebuilding and infilling of sections of the Canongate's many tenements took place, most notably by city architects, E J McRae and Robert Hurd (mid 20th century) with some early frontages retained and others rebuilt in replica.

List description updated at resurvey, 2007/08

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17572271

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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