Canongate Tolbooth
unknown (Scottish)

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Date
1591Description
Canongate Tolbooth (1591), looking east on Canongate; Canongate Tolbooth was built in 1591 as a tolbooth, that is, a courthouse, burgh jail and meeting place, for the then separate burgh of the Canongate. Commissioned by justice-clerk and feudal superior of the Burgh, Sir Lewis Bellenden (initials carved above the Tolbooth Wynd pend), in a French Renaissance ("Franco-Scottish") style with conical-capped bartizans. The building is now occupied by The People's Story Museum. A distinctive clock, dating from 1884, juts out from the side of the tower to overhang the street. A major interior alteration in 1879 combined the attic and first floor, the area now used by the museum. A reworking of the exterior also by Robert H. Morham, 1884, included the projecting clock, dormered windows with thistle finials and dentilled cill course. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 7/6/2012)
Type of Work
courthouseSubject
architecture, timekeeping, Museology, Restoration and conservation, city government, Renaissance, Sixteenth century
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only