Canongate Tolbooth is a historic landmark of the
Old Town
In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...
area of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, built in 1591 as a
tolbooth
A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of three essen ...
, that is, the centre of administration and justice of the then separate burgh of
the Canongate
The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. It began w ...
which was outside the
Edinburgh town walls
There have been several town walls around Edinburgh, Scotland, since the 12th century. Some form of wall probably existed from the foundation of the royal burgh in around 1125, though the first building is recorded in the mid-15th century, whe ...
.
It ceased to be a municipal building in 1856 and it is now occupied by
The People's Story Museum and is protected as a
category A listed building
Category, plural categories, may refer to:
Philosophy and general uses
*Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally
*Category of being
*Categories (Aristotle), ''Categories'' (Aristotle)
*Category (Kant)
...
.
History
![Canongate Tolbooth clock - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Canongate_Tolbooth_clock_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1339785.jpg)
The tower of the tolbooth was built in 1591, and the block to the east of it at that time or slightly after, by Sir
Lewis Bellenden
Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auchnole and Broughton (c. 1552 – 27 August 1591, in Edinburgh), was the eldest son of Sir John Bellenden of Auchnole & Broughton, whom he succeeded as Lord Justice Clerk on 15 March 1577.
Career
He was knighted about 1577 ...
, baron of
Broughton and feudal superior of the burgh of Canongate and
Lord Justice Clerk
The Lord Justice Clerk is the second most senior judge in Scotland, after the Lord President of the Court of Session.
Originally ''clericus justiciarie'' or Clerk to the Court of Justiciary, the counterpart in the criminal courts of the Lord ...
of Scotland.
It served as the courthouse, burgh jail and meeting place of the town council.[
Many ]Covenanters
Covenanters ( gd, Cùmhnantaich) were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. The name is derived from ''Covenan ...
were held in the tolbooth in poor conditions in the 17th century and a riot took place in the building in May 1692. It ceased to be the meeting place of the burgh council when Canongate was annexed by Edinburgh in 1856.
In 1875 the City Architect, Robert Morham
Robert Morham (31 March 1839 – 5 June 1912) was the City Architect for Edinburgh for the last decades of the nineteenth century and was responsible for much of the “public face” of the city at the time.
His work is particularly well re ...
, extensively restored and remodelled the exterior. Internally the first and attic floors were combined to make a single floor, now The People's Story Museum.[
]
Design
The tolbooth was designed in the Scottish medieval style: it comprises a bell tower with a lower block to the east that contained the council chamber and courtroom. The tower has two bartizan
A bartizan (an alteration of ''bratticing''), also called a guerite, ''garita'', or ''échauguette'', or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging, wall-mounted turret projecting from the walls of late medieval and early-modern fortifications from the ...
s with ornamental gunloops on either side of a clock, dated 1884 and manufactured by James Ritchie & Son
James Ritchie & Son are a firm of Clockmakers in Broxburn, West Lothian, Scotland. The company was established in 1809 and is Scotland's oldest turret clock manufacturer.
The firm produces and maintains all sorts of clocks, including public cloc ...
, which is suspended over the Royal Mile
The Royal Mile () is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's ''Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century'' (1901), des ...
by wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...
brackets. Above the bartizans is a conical spire[ while at street level there is a round-arched ]pend
In Scotland, a Pend is a passageway through a building, often from a street through to a courtyard or 'back court', and may be for both vehicles and pedestrian access or exclusively pedestrians.
The term "common pend" can often be found in descr ...
that leads into Tolbooth Wynd. Architectural features of the east block include a stone forestair which leads to a door next to the tower,[ an ]oriel window
An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...
,[ and four pedimented ]dormer
A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window.
Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...
s by Morham, based on Gordon of Rothiemay's map of 1647, that replaced three piended ones.
To the east of the tolbooth, down the Royal Mile, is the Kirk of the Canongate
The Kirk of the Canongate, or Canongate Kirk, serves the Parish of Canongate in Edinburgh's Old Town, in Scotland. It is a congregation of the Church of Scotland. The parish includes the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Scottish Parliament. I ...
and the Canongate Kirkyard
The Canongate Kirkyard ( en, Churchyard) stands around Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland. The churchyard was used for burials from the late 1680s until the mid-20th century.
The most celebrated burials at the kirkyard are ...
.[
]
References
{{Government buildings in Edinburgh
Buildings and structures in Edinburgh
Tourist attractions in Edinburgh
Defunct prisons in Edinburgh
Listed prison buildings in Scotland
Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh
Royal Mile
1591 establishments in Scotland