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Summary

Description

Circa 1735, incorporating earlier fabric and with later alterations, including McMenan and Brown, 1987 (see Notes). 5-storey and attic 10-bay tenement (bays grouped 4:4:2); 2 2-window wallhead gables with apex stacks; shops to ground floor; short 6-storey rubble-built wing to N, bounded by Advocate's Close to W and Roxburgh's Close to E, and adjoining 4-storey wing (see Notes). Rubble with ashlar dressings; rear elevation and 6-storey wing (above ground floor) harled. Relieving arches to openings. Symmetrical tenement to left: 4 bays to either side of depressed-arched pend to Advocate's Close; modern shop fronts; 4 bays to right at 2nd storey altered, with cornice and tall plate glass windows; steep stairs to outer right with cast-iron hand-rail to round-arched entrance to flats with cast-iron gate and grille and modern 2-leaf timber boarded door; circular window above and small windows to stair at 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors. 2-bay tenement to right: modern doorway to left; depressed-arched entrance to pend to Roxburgh's Close to right.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: single bay above segmental-arched pend to Roxburgh Close, with remains of circular stair tower to left. Canted bay linking rear wing. Drum stair tower with conical roof to right of pend to Advocate's Close.

ADVOCATES CLOSE: roll-moulded surrounds to modern timber boarded doors at Nos 2 and 4, with carved dated lintels above (see Notes); corbels above doors; window (former door reached by forestair) to left; upper storeys harled. Rubble wing to N (No 8 Advocate's Close): modern mullioned and transomed windows; interior altered 1980's with timber stair linking floors; vaulted ground floor; 2 splendid 17th century chimneypieces, flanked by clustered colonnettes. Early panelling to upper floors.

12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Corniced wallhead and ridge stacks with circular cans. Grey slates.

Statement of Special Interest

Nos 343-363 comprise, to left an 8-bay tenement with central wallhead gable and pend to Advocate's Close, and to right the remaining left section of a second twin-gabled tenement, the right-hand section of which was demolished in 1930 to make way for the W extension to the City Chambers. Restoration in 1987 included rebuilding of the attic floor with wallhead gables and swept dormers. Gordon of Rothiemay's 1647 plan of Edinburgh shows the form of these tenements, with twin wallhead gables and steep steps from the street to the entrances to flats. Advocate's Close was named after Sir James Stewart, Lord Advocate, 1692-1713. Nos 2 and 4 were built for Clement Cor (Burgess and Dean of Guild, 1588), possibly incorporating an earlier building ruined during Hertford's raid of 1544; the carved lintels read SPES ALTERA VITAE, with the initials CC (Clement Cor) and HB (Helen Bellenden, his wife), and BLISSIT BE GOD OF AL HIS GIFTIS 1590. The 4-storey rubble tenement (raised from 3 in the 18th century - a monogrammed skewputt shows the original roof-line) to N of Cor's tenement was built for Nicoll Edgar, merchant burgess, circa 1615. 2 drawings in OLD HOUSES IN EDINBURGH show Advocate's Close during demolition for the foundations for the printing office (built in 1882). The E side of the Close (illustrated by Bruce Home) was demolished at this time.

References

Bibliography

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