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Summary

Description

James Lithgow (builder), circa 1740, restored Gray Marshall and Associates, 1994-5. 4-storey 13-bay double tenement with restaurants including The White Hart Inn to ground. Lime rendered with indented sandstone margins (painted to ground); random rubble with polished sandstone dressings to rear. Nepus gables with apex stacks to bays 4 and 5 from left and bays 3, 4 and 5 from right. 3 piend-roofed dormers to attic. Pilastraded shop front to right. Stone-vaulted pend to Dunlop's Court in 5th bay from right. 2-leaf timber panelled door to White Hart Inn to left, with small-pane glazed fanlight above in ornate doorpiece: entablature supported by thistle-carved consoles; swan-necked pediment clasping aedicule with carved stag, flanked by obelisks; small-pane glazing to 4 windows to right, flanked by pilasters. Small pend to outer left leading to rear court.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: 2 piend-roofed semi-octagonal stair towers. Piend-roofed dormers to attic.

12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows above ground floor. Grey slates. Stone skews. Corniced stacks with circular cans.

Statement of Special Interest

The Grassmarket was the principal arrival and departure point in Edinburgh for coaches and wagons, and several busy coaching inns can be seen in old photographs. Records of the White Hart Inn go back to 1516, and well-known guests included Cromwell, Robert Burns (in 1791) and Dorothy and Mary Wordsworth (in 1803). The White Hart is presumably that associated with David I and the foundation of Holyrood Abbey. The building was damaged in a Zeppelin raid in 1916 (including loss of harling). It was restored by Gray Marshall and Associates, Architects, for the Old Town Housing Association in 1994-5 (re-roofed, wallhead gable at No 32 rebuilt; chimneys rebuilt, internal refurbishment etc). The building has considerable townscape importance as part of the N frontage of the Grassmarket, below the Castle rock, and is also important both for its historical associations and because, despite some changes, both the general configuration of the building and the frontages of the commercial premises at ground floor remain in reasonably original condition.

References

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