Description

David Cousin, 1864-65 (see Notes), and Peter Lyle Barclay Henderson, 1901, incorporating earlier fabric (originally part of 5-storey 7-bay tenement by Thomas Bonnar, 1813, see Notes). Single tall storey High Street public house with Renaissance detailing (Henderson); pend to right (Bishop's Close) stone-vaulted to rear; pend to left (Carrubber's Close) with long narrow Baronial-detailed tenement block on sloping site to rear; drum staircase; further plain adjoining tenement block to N (Cousin, 1865).

S (HIGH STREET) ELEVATION: symmetrical 3-bay polished grey ashlar arcaded pub front; grey granite fluted Ionic pilasters flanking bays; scrolled foliate consoles supporting dentilled cornice and panelled entablature; central square-headed doorway with shouldered fanlight; 2-leaf glazed timber inner door; swept pediment above; flanking large key-blocked round-arched windows; moulded ingoes.

ADJOINING BLOCK TO REAR: random rubble; ashlar dressings.

W (CARRUBBER'S CLOSE) ELEVATION: 3-storey and attic 5-bay model tenement; squared and snecked sandstone; dressed margins. Painted roll-moulded stop-chamfered doorway; timber metal-studded door; moulded bishop's mitre device within round-arched shouldered surround; 2 flanking windows with iron grilles (modern) as stylised bishop's mitre devices. 4 gabled dormers breaking eaves; triangular dormerheads. Modern timber single leaf boarded door; open scale and platt stair to left with corbelled openings and plain iron railings. Regular fenestration.

N ELEVATION: 5 storeys; regular single and bipartite fenestration.

E ELEVATION: droved ashlar to Bishop's Close pend; rubble-built with stugged ashlar margins to courtyard at Bishop's Close. Drum stair in re-entrant angle to rear; timber-headed dormer breaking eaves.

Timber-framed glazing to pub front (partly reproduction). Rear ranges timber sash and case, predominantly 12-pane. Modern roof behind continuous timber fascia. Grey slates to rear ranges; coped wallhead stacks; lost cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: part seen 2002. Original ribbed plaster ceiling to pub; moulded cornice. Cellars and basement storage.

Statement of Interest

The inscription above the doorway of the Baronial tenement in Carrubber's Close reads: 'House of Archbishop Spottiswood 1578 Rebuilt 1864'. This tenement is probably by David Cousin as he constructed the adjoining tenement further north shortly afterwards in 1865, and stylistically it is within his oeuvre. The site of these buildings conforms to the burgage plots (being long and narrow) shown on James Gordon of Rothiemay's plan of Edinburgh dated 1647. There is further evidence, from the maps cited above, of the original 'Bishop's Land' that fronted the High Street and was the town house of John Spottiswood, Archbishop of St Andrew's. He inherited the house from his father, also John Spottiswood, 'Superintendent of Lothian, a reformed divine, who prayed over James VI, and blessed him when an infant in his cradle, in the Castle of Edinburgh' (Grant p208). Bishop's Land was associated with many important and aristocratic inhabitants, including Bishop Sydserf (successively bishop of Brechin, Galloway and Orkney) and Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville. A lintel from this house inscribed 'BLISST BE YE LORD FOR ALL HIS GIFTS 1578' can now be seen in the pend of North Gray's Close. This was re-instated in 1813 when the tenement by Thomas Bonnar was constructed. The lintel has a shield impaled with two coats of arms and the initials 'VN' and 'HM'. The Mitre public house is westmost in this row of High Street buildings, reduced in height circa 1970. Photographs in the NMRS collection (ED/5048, ED/5049, dated 1970) show Bonnar's 7-bay 5-storey pedimented tenement, and the early 18th century 5-storey and attic 4-bay tenement to the east, still intact. The photographs were taken just prior to demolition, which left only the ground and first floors. Little is left of Henderson's 1901 pub interior, now fitted out entirely with reproduction bar furniture.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17809129

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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