Description

Dated 1685. Rebuilt 20th century. 4-storey, 4-bay residential and commercial structure, notable for its widely spaced regular fenestration. 1970 red-painted harl with chamfered ashlar dressings. Moulded eaves course. Pedimented date panel between ground and first floors. Doorway to 2nd bay. Return to right side with small openings at each floor and small section of exposed corbelling at 3rd floor.

Predominantly 15-pane timber sash and case windows. Fixed-pane plate glass to ground. Broad end stack to W. Clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: Partly seen (2007). Extensively refurbished as offices.

Statement of Interest

126 Canongate is a well-proportioned 17th century house particularly notable for its widely spaced windows and elegant proportion, contributing to the wider Canongate streetscape. Forming part of a brewery complex during the 19th and 20th centuries, a wide segmental-arch (now removed) to the immediate W led to the Youngers Holyrood brewery (closed 1990) to the rear which occupied a large plot leading down to Holyrood Road to the South. A 20th century battlemented parapet was removed from the building in 1990. Much of the brewery site was cleared for mixed-use redevelopment during the 1990s.

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, a short distance to the North. 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'. Geddes was a renowned intellectual who lived in the Old Town and 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). Statutory address revised from 124 Canongate to 126 Canongate, December 2012.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17795748

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)