In 1130 King David I founded the town by ‘feuing’ (leasing land) for building. The Royal Mile is lined with tenements, separated by closes, and accessed by staircases at the rear. Tenements were enlarged by building outshots - as seen here at The John Knox House (1556). Following fatal fires in the 17th century, the Town Council forbade flammable materials such as straw thatch and timber framing. Consequently, stone fronted tenements such as Moubray House (1630) to the left of the Knox House, have become the enduring convenient urban typology – in which many of us in Edinburgh still live today. 

Text by Margaret Stewart, University of Edinburgh