Description

Early 17th century with later alterations, including Hardy and Wight, 1895. 4 storeys and attic, 7-bay tenement. Sandstone with ashlar dressings, stuccoed and channelled to ground floor; harled to sides and rear. Moulded string courses between floors. Red sandstone long and short quoins.

N (CASTLEHILL) ELEVATION: regularly fenestrated. Ground floor altered 1895 (see Notes); architraved and corniced surround to close entry at outer left. 5 finialled dormerheaded windows breaking eaves to attic, 3 to right separated from 2 to left by later wallhead stack.

E (BOSWELL'S CLOSE) ELEVATION: 2 gabled bays with apex stacks. Small irregular windows. Carved lintel to stair entrance (see Notes); timber panelled door in roll-moulded surround.

S (REAR) ELEVATION: 2 harled gabled bays with apex stacks, irregularly fenestrated; that to left crowstepped.

12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates; Corniced end and wallhead stacks with circular cans. Stone skews.

Statement of Interest

Built for Thomas Lowthian circa 1600. Inscription (now very worn) on lintel in close reads O LORD IN THE IS AL MI TRAIST, and initials TL. An illustration in Wilson's 'Memorials' shows the 5 dormers of Boswell's Court behind the old weighhouse, taken down in 1822. The illustration in Grant shows the form of the ground floor in 1845. The ground and 1st floors were converted by Hardy and Wight in 1895 into committee rooms and 'conversation rooms' for the General Assembly; the 2 upper floors were converted to 'dwelling houses.' Alterations included new windows and channelled stucco to ground floor. The article in the BUILDER states that the site, 'one of the few remaining ancient buildings on the High Street,' had been purchased by the Church of Scotland, and that 'the external aspect' would be 'carefully preserved, and the roughcast repaired.' Most of the old buildings on the S side of Castlehill had been demolished to make way for the top of the Western approach - Johnston Terrace, and for the new Assembly Hall.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17567526

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)