 | |
  Location within Scotland | |
| Location | 477B Lawnmarket Royal Mile Edinburgh EH1 2NT |
|---|---|
| Type | Historic house |
| Website | https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/gladstones-land |
Gladstone's Land is a surviving 17th-century high-tenement house situated in the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has been restored and furnished by the National Trust for Scotland, and is operated as a popular tourist attraction.
The "Land" (sited at 481 and 483 Lawnmarket) was originally built in 1550, [1] but was bought and redeveloped in 1617 by a prosperous Edinburgh merchant and burgess, Thomas Gledstanes, and his wife, Bessie Cunningham. The work was completed in 1620. Its prominent siting on the Royal Mile (between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood) and the extent of its accommodation mark out the affluence of its mercantile owner. Today, the restored building allows an insight into varieties of Edinburgh life of the period. The cramped conditions of the Old Town, and the physical size of the lot, meant that the house could only be extended in depth or in height. As a result, the house is six storeys tall. [1]
Gledstanes resided on the upper floors, and let out parts of the building to an assortment of tenants of different social classes, including another merchant John Riddoch, a knight James Crichton of Frendraught, and a guild officer. [2] [1] William Struthers, who lived in the house from 1626 to 1633, was minister of nearby St Giles, and was involved in an infamous witch trial. [3]
John Riddoch and his wife Margaret Noble kept a shop and tavern in the house. [4] Isobel Johnston was their "tavernar" or landlady. [5] Riddoch died aboard ship in November 1632 in sight of Leith and his will lists the kind of goods they sold, including raisins, figs, ginger, sugar, sugar candy, laundry starch and smalt, cinnamon, liquorice, and clay tobacco pipes. [6] Andrew Pringle had the shop after Riddoch, while his servant Alison Hume managed the tavern. [7]
By 1636 Gledstanes shared ownership with the merchant and shipowner David Jonkin, and their tenants included two lawyers, Andrew Hay and John Adamson. [8] David Jonkin had been fined for breaking Edinburgh's market regulations in 1624 when it was discovered he was buying imported food in Burntisland to profiteer during a famine. [9] He supported the Scottish Covenant in 1639 by selling firearms to the Earl of Argyll and buying a warship in Holland. [10]
In 1934, the building was condemned and scheduled for demolition, until it was rescued by the National Trust for Scotland. [1] [11] Under the auspices of the Trust, restoration of the building was carried out by the architect, Sir Frank Mears, in consultation with the Ancient Monuments Department of the Ministry of Works in Edinburgh. [1] [11] Original renaissance painted ceilings were uncovered in the process. [12]
Today the restored premises offer a glimpse of 17th-century life, with open fires, lack of running water, and period decoration and furniture. At ground level, there is an arcade frontage and reconstructed shop booth, complete with replicas of 17th-century wares. This would originally have provided shelter for the merchant's customers. On the left of the building, a curved stone forestair with iron railings leads from the street to a door at 1st floor level. [1]
The sign above the entrance to the building displays the date 1617 and a gilt-copper hawk with outstretched wings. Although not an original feature, the significance of this is that the name "Gledstanes" is derived from the Scots word "gled" meaning a kite or hawk. [13]
By the late-18th century, Edinburgh's Old Town was no longer a fashionable address. Increasing pressures from population growth encouraged the flight of the affluent from cramped conditions to the developing New Town. Today, visitors to the city can contrast Gladstone's Land to the Trust's restored example of a New Town residence, The Georgian House, at No. 7 Charlotte Square.
Gladstone's Land was closed between February 2020 and May 2021 for a £1.5 million restoration. [14] It now has a museum on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors, with an ice cream parlour and retail space on the ground floor and holiday flats on the upper floors. The museum showcases the lives of merchants and tradespeople throughout 500 years with options for daily self-guided visits and guided tours, as well as specialty tours Tables Through Time: Food in Gladstone's Land and Intimate Lives: The history of sex and desire in Edinburgh’s Old Town (16+). [15]
The Royal Mile is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century (1901), describing the city "with its Castle and Palace and the royal mile between", and was further popularised as the title of a guidebook by R. T. Skinner published in 1920, "The Royal Mile (Edinburgh) Castle to Holyrood(house)".
A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, in Edinburgh, tenements were developed with each apartment treated as a separate house, built on top of each other. Over hundreds of years, custom grew to become law concerning maintenance and repairs, as first formally discussed in Stair's 1681 writings on Scots property law. In Scotland, these are now governed by the Tenements Act, which replaced the old Law of the Tenement and created a new system of common ownership and procedures concerning repairs and maintenance of tenements. Tenements with one or two room flats provided popular rented accommodation for workers, but in some inner-city areas, overcrowding and maintenance problems led to shanty towns, which have been cleared and redeveloped. In more affluent areas, tenement flats form spacious privately owned houses, some with up to six bedrooms, which continue to be desirable properties.
Bute House is the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland located within Charlotte Square in Edinburgh. Alongside two other personal offices at the Scottish Parliament Building and St. Andrew's House, Bute House also contains a smaller office used by the First Minister when in official residence.
The Hub is a public arts and events building in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. Located at the top of the Royal Mile, it is a prominent landmark as its tall Gothic spire is the highest point in central Edinburgh, and towers over the surrounding buildings below Edinburgh Castle.
The Mound is an artificial slope and road in central Edinburgh, Scotland, which connects Edinburgh's New and Old Towns. It was formed by dumping around 1,501,000 cartloads of earth excavated from the foundations of the New Town into Nor Loch, which was drained in 1765 and forms today's Princes Street Gardens.
Lady Stair's Close is a close in Edinburgh, Scotland, just off the Royal Mile, close to the entrance to Gladstone's Land. Most notably it contains the Scottish Writers' Museum.
South Bridge is a road bridge and street in Edinburgh, Scotland, between the High Street, where it meets the North Bridge, to Nicolson Street at the south. It forms a continuous roadway over the steep valley scoured parallel to the High Street when the crag and tail landscape of the city was formed. The bridge dips down from the High Street to the Cowgate, which runs under the largest arch of the bridge, before climbing back up to its terminus at Nicolson Street.
Scottish renaissance painted ceilings are decorated ceilings in Scottish houses and castles built between 1540 and 1640. This is a distinctive national style, though there is common ground with similar work elsewhere, especially in France, Spain and Scandinavia. An example in England, at Wickham, Hampshire, was recorded in 1974. There are records of over 100 examples, and a much smaller number of painted ceilings survive in-situ today. Some salvaged painted beams and boards are stored by Historic Environment Scotland. The paintings at Crathes Castle, dating from 1597 and 1602 are probably the best known.
The Georgian House is an 18th-century townhouse situated at No. 7 Charlotte Square in the heart of the historic New Town of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has been restored and furnished by the National Trust for Scotland, and is operated as a popular tourist attraction, with over 40,000 visitors annually.
Acheson House is a 17th-century house in the Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was built in 1633 for Sir Archibald Acheson, 1st Baronet, Secretary of State of Scotland for King Charles I. It did not stay in the Acheson family, and during the 19th century it declined like much of the Old Town. Slum clearance led the city council to acquire the building in 1924, but the Marquess of Bute bought it to have it restored during the 1930s. It was later used by church and arts groups, but was vacant between 1991 and 2011. In November 2011, Acheson House became the base for the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust. The ground floor of the building will become part of the Museum of Edinburgh, based in the adjacent Huntly House.
The Luckenbooths were a range of tenements which formerly stood immediately to the north of St. Giles' Kirk in the High Street of Edinburgh from the reign of King James II in the 15th century to the early years of the 19th century. They were demolished in 1802, apart from the east end of the block which was removed in 1817.
Baillie John MacMorran (1553-1595), a merchant and Baillie of Edinburgh, was killed during a riot at Edinburgh High School. His house at Riddle's Court is a valued monument on Edinburgh's Lawnmarket.
John Bothwell of Auldhamer, Lord Holyroodhouse (c.1550–1609) was a 16th-century Scottish judge and Senator of the College of Justice residing at Holyrood House prior to it becoming a royal palace.
Margaret Livingstone, Countess of Orkney was a Scottish courtier and landowner. She was a daughter of William Livingstone, 6th Lord Livingston and Agnes Fleming.
Alexander Riddoch DL was a Scottish merchant who served eight non-consecutive terms as Provost of Dundee. His nicknames included the "Old Hawk". "The Gudeman of Blacklunans" and "Archdeacon of the Self-Elected".
William Struther(s) (1578–1633) was a high-ranking Scottish church minister and poet. He was involved in an infamous witch trial in Edinburgh. He was renowned for his "spiced sermons". His huge endowment in his will created the Struthers Bursaries in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, which was responsible for funding many hundreds of Divinity students.
John Provand was a Scottish merchant in 16th-century Edinburgh.
David Jonkin was a Scottish merchant and shipowner. He imported sugar, French wine, Swedish timber, linen from Haarlem, and lint from Poland.
Alexander Oustean or Oustian or Austin was a Scottish tailor and member of Edinburgh burgh council.
The Justiciary Building is a judicial structure in the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh, Scotland. The structure, which operates in conjunction with similar facilities in Glasgow and Aberdeen, is dedicated for the use of the High Court of Justiciary, which is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. It is a Category B listed building.
55°56′58″N3°11′34″W / 55.94944°N 3.19278°W
