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Latitude: 55.9513 / 55°57'4"N
Longitude: -3.181 / 3°10'51"W
OS Eastings: 326346
OS Northings: 673769
OS Grid: NT263737
Mapcode National: GBR 8RG.43
Mapcode Global: WH6SM.3PH1
Plus Code: 9C7RXR29+GH
Entry Name: 189-191 Canongate, Edinburgh
Listing Name: 189 Canongate and 191 (Flats 2, 4 and 6) Canongate
Listing Date: 14 December 1970
Category: B
Source: Historic Scotland
Source ID: 366331
Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB28435
Building Class: Cultural
ID on this website: 200366331
17th century. Predominantly rebuilt, 1957 by Robert Hurd (see Notes). 4-storey, 3-bay tenement dominated by large shouldered wallhead chimney to centre with paired windows to either side at 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors. Shop to ground with central door flanked by fixed-pane display windows. Squared and snecked rubble with red stucco render. Raised cills. Metal plaque to 1st floor centre set within square chamfered ashlar recess (see Notes).
12-pane timber sash and case windows. Red pantiles. Cast-iron rainwater goods.
Nos 189-191 Canongate is a good example of a restored 17th century tenement. Its imposing central chimney adds interest and variety to the Canongate streetscape and is a typical feature of Scottish tenements of this date. Edinburgh has a rich heritage of traditional 17th century burgh tenements designed for multiple-occupancy residential use. The substantial restoration of Nos 189-191 Canongate was spearheaded by Robert Hurd, who was given the task from the late 1940's onwards, to regenerate many of the Canongate tenements. Hurd was commissioned to rebuild the street elevation of 189-191 Canongate although he may have copied another nearby building for the design of the central wallhead chimney. The upper level windows are pushed out to the sides by this central bay. The moulded surround to 1st floor centre contains a plaque announcing a Saltire Society Housing Award in 1958.
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.
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