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Summary

Description

Alexander W Macnaughtan, 1902. Asymmetrical 5-storey 8-bay Scots vernacular/Arts and Crafts tenement block, stepped to slope. Original corniced, pilastraded timber shopfronts; 2-storey at outer left and left/centre. Wide wallhead gables, jerkin-headed to left with hooded oculus, crowstepped with gable apex stack to right. Keyblocked round-arched pend (gated) to Morrison's Close with broken pediment and carved thistle over (see Notes); roll-moulded segmental-arched pend (gated) to Bailie Fyfe's Close at outer right with heraldic panel in decorative surround and oculus over (see Notes). Squared and snecked stugged sandstone; polished dressings; irregular corbel course at 2nd floor. Yellow brick with red ashlar cills and lintels to rear. Predominantly single and bipartite irregular fenestration.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: wide segmental pediment to shop at right (modern glazing); quadripartite window above with canted recessed outer bays, fluted pilasters and triangular pediment; that to left with altered public house front at ground; tripartite window above with fluted timber pilasters and canted recessed outer bays (mark of missing segmental pediment still evident). Stone-mullioned 5-light 4th floor window to left gable; triangular and segmental-headed dormers breaking eaves to attic, that to left with timber dormerhead.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: forestair incorporating lintel dated 1572 (see Notes); deck with plain iron railings; second forestair to upper levels at right.

E ELEVATION: stugged sandstone; adjoins 95-105 High Street at ground to 3rd floor.

W ELEVATION: plain rendered; to aerial gap site above 1st and 2nd floors.

Much remaining original sash and case glazing, with 6-pane upper sashes, plate glass lower. Modern plate glass shopfronts at ground. Pitched grey slate roof; crowstepped skews; coped end, apex and ridge stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: part seen 2002. Egg and dart moulded cornice in shops at 109 and 119; original plain chimneypiece and cast-iron range at 1st floor rear E room.

Statement of Special Interest

The westmost wallhead gable of the tenement acknowledges the tall, tenemental form of a typical early 18th century High Street dwelling that, until 1970, adjoined the building to the west. (Photographs of this tenement can be seen in the NMRS collection Refs. ED/5048, ED/5049). Many slums in the Old Town were demolished as a result of the 1867 Improvement Act and the preferred style of rebuilding was the picturesque Scots vernacular or Baronial tradition. During the 1890s this work continued and many of the better-preserved buildings were reconstructed. However, the 'fine old stone land' (Wilson p46) that stood on the site since the early 17th century was lost. A 2nd floor lintel on the present building, dated 1612, recalls this tenement (or is possibly re-cut), has the initials 'IT' and 'IM', those of John Trotter, a wealthy burgess, and his wife Janet McMath, with the Trotter arms in the centre. A second lintel at the same floor level, dated 1902, has the initials 'JS' and 'GS' and cipher between, represents the developers and petitioners J & G Stewart Ltd. The carving in the pediment over Morrison's Close is 17th century in style and may be original. Likewise, the crest over Bailie Fyfe's Close (Gilbert Fyfe owned a property there in the late 17th century) with the initials 'IP' and 'MH' is of similar style and period. The arms of Parley impale those of Hay. At the rear of the building the forestair incorporates a badly crumbling roll-moulded lintel with an inscribed rhyming couplet and date of 1572. This apparently came from the third floor of a tenement that once stood on the east side of the close. The couplet reads: 'Enemeis of God and the King; to the Earth did me doun ding'. The timber 2-storey shopfronts on the present building are of particular note and, although the upper bay to the left is missing its central segmental pediment, the architect's Dean of Guild plans illustrate the original form and those of the entire ground floor frontages.

References

Bibliography

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