Description

Early 18th century (restored Ian Gordon Lindsay and Partners 1958; further restoration 2002 - see Notes). Classical, 2-storey, 5-bay manse with piend-roofed wings advancing to form U-plan, set back from street. Harled with ashlar dressings. Raised margins and quoins. 4-panel timber door to centre with rectangular fanlight above. Mullioned tripartite windows to ground floor rear with narrow margins. Two-storey stair projection to rear centre. 21st century single-storey extension to right.

INTERIOR: symmetrical layout with staircases to both left and right side of building (right stair now blocked). Fine 18th century panelling to 1st floor room; scalloped shelving. Some ornamental plasterwork fire surrounds and cornicing. Broad turnpike stair to rear rising to attic level.

12-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey Scottish slate. Ashlar skews with ornamental scrolled skewputts to main block. End stacks to main block; tall stacks to outer wings. Clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: substantial, tall and square gatepiers with moulded coping and pyramid-caps. Low, squared rubble walls. Later cast-iron gates with shield crest and railings.

Statement of Interest

Canongate Manse is a rare survival of an 18th century former laird's house on the Canongate, set back from the road with a courtyard to the front. It has undergone a series of sensitive alterations while retaining much of its former character. It retains 18th century plaster field-panelled walls of considerable quality in the principal 1st floor room. The wings were added in the late 18th century. Viewed from the street, the building is framed on either side by the 1966 residential scheme by Sir Basil Spence (see separate listing). Prior to becoming the manse in 1951 the building was used as a kindergarten for underpriviledged children. The building was restored in 1958 by architect and historian, Ian Gordon Lindsay who harled the exterior, consolidated the floor plan and subdivided to create Nos 5 and 6 Reid Court within the wings. It is probable that the manse was harled to reinforce the physical and ideological association with the Canongate Parish Church (also harled).

The court takes its name from Edinburgh brewer and magistrate Andrew Reid who lived here around 1770. The site was originally home to Lord Advocate Sir John Nisbet and the Earls of Aberdeen during the 17th century.

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 revised as part of Edinburgh Holyrood Ward resurvey, 2007/08.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17572265

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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