The photograph [below] was taken in 1924 by Dr Francis Maxwell Chrystal. It is of a building called Duncan’s Land, Stockbridge, Edinburgh. In the window you can make out two copies of ‘New Library of Grand Stories’:
Duncan’s Land, a late 18th century house, stands on the east side of Gloucester Street, which was formerly Church Street, the old route from the village of Stockbridge to St Cuthbert’s Church, Edinburgh.
Duncan’s Land was built c.1790 by Duncan, an Edinburgh merchant, near to the Water of Leith with stones brought by him from demolished buildings in the Old Town when Bank Street was being constructed at the top of The Mound. Hence it bears the spurious door lintel dated 1605 with the inscription: Fear God Only.
The house was restored in 1974.
1804 map, John Ainslie:
1860 Ordnance Survey map:
18 September 1886, The Scotsman:
1890s Ordnance Survey map:
2 May 1903, South London Press:
4 February 1956, Edinburgh Evening Express:
1972 [Duncan’s land before restoration]:
4 February 1975, The Scotsman:
The Buildings of Scotland: Gifford, McWilliam, and Walker:
