Canongate Tolbooth

Canongate Tolbooth stands in Edinburgh’s Old Town on the Royal Mile, a stone tower and adjoining block built in the late 16th century as the burgh’s courthouse, jail and council chamber. The Canongate was once a separate town outside Edinburgh’s walls, and the building marked its centre of administration and justice. Sir Lewis Bellenden, Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland, commissioned the work, and the tower still shows his mark. After the burgh was annexed by Edinburgh in 1856, the building lost its municipal role and later became home to The People’s Story Museum. The tolbooth’s history includes harsh imprisonment of Covenanters in the 17th century and a riot in 1692. In 1875 the City Architect Robert Morham restored the exterior and reshaped the interior, removing floors to create a single gallery for the new museum. The tower carries a clock made by James Ritchie & Son in 1884, hung on wrought-iron brackets above the street. Below, a round-arched pend leads into Tolbooth Wynd, while a stone forestair on the east block gives access to the council chamber doorway. Visitors find The People’s Story Museum inside, telling the social history of Edinburgh’s working people. The tower’s bartizans and conical spire rise above the Royal Mile, and the east block’s oriel window and dormers recall 17th-century designs. Outside, the Kirk of the Canongate and its kirkyard lie a short walk down the same street, linking the building to centuries of local life.