Gladstone's Land, Residential building on Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Scotland
Description
Gladstone's Land is a six-story stone building on the Royal Mile with painted ceilings, curved staircases, and an arched passageway at street level where merchant shops once displayed goods. The interior rooms are furnished to show how residents lived across different centuries.
History
A wealthy merchant named Thomas Gledstanes bought and rebuilt the property in 1617, creating a prestigious home for different income levels under one roof. This transformation reflected Edinburgh's rise as a prosperous trading center during the 1600s.
Culture
The building shows how Edinburgh residents lived stacked vertically, with merchants, nobles, and workers sharing the same house on different floors during the 1600s. Each level reveals how people from different backgrounds passed by each other in hallways and stairwells.
Practical
You can explore three furnished levels showing how people lived, though the narrow staircases are steep and tight so careful steps are needed. A ground floor ice cream café provides a good place to rest between climbing the different levels.
Did you know?
The painted ceilings from the 1620s contain a hidden monkey figure that reflects the merchant's connections to distant trade routes. This small artistic detail is easy to miss but shows how exotic symbols held meaning for people of that era.
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