Description

Mid 19th century. 3-storey, 7-bay, symmetrical commercial and residential tenement with voussoired pend and 2-storey corniced oriel window and crow-stepped attic gable with star finial to centre bay; flanked by shops to ground. Squared and snecked rubble with ashlar dressings and painted ashlar to ground. Moulded margins and buckle quoins. Cornice between ground and 1st floors; eaves course. Carved panel between storeys of oriel window. Shops with architraved doors and windows, panelled timber doors. Rear elevation with stair windows between floors and some later alterations at ground.

8 and 12-pane timber sash and case windows at upper floors; 6-pane glazing pattern to fixed plate-glass windows to shops. Scottish slate. Broad end stacks and further axial stack to attic. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

Constructed around 1860, Nos 154 to 166 Canongate is a good example of integrated commercial and residential tenement design. Its large oriel window to the centre is of particular note, while the shop fronts remain relatively unaltered, adding further interest to the streetscape. The Canongate has a rich and varied history of tenement building of which the symmetrical and well detailed principal elevation at Nos 154 to 166 is an integral part. The central pend leads to Sugarhouse Close where sugar refining was conducted between 1752 and 1824. The first refinery or 'sugar workhouse' on the site, belonging to the trustees of the Edinburgh Sugar House, was destroyed by fire in 1800.

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).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17795776

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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