Qualla: Mary King's Close

Mary King's Close: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Blake Patterson from Alexandria, VA, USA, CC BY 2.0. There is a 17th-century street that runs beneath Edinburgh's City Chambers, buried by the Royal Exchange the city built on top of it in 1753. People used to live down there. One of them was a merchant named Mary King, a burgess in her own right at a time when women rarely held that status, and the close was named for her. Other residents stayed long after the council started walling in the upper storeys. Andrew Chesney, the last person to make his home there, was finally bought out for £400 in 1897 and left in 1902. What people came to call Mary King's Close was not abandoned all at once. It was sealed shut while it was still being used, until one by one the families gave up and left.

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Image: Blake Patterson from Alexandria, VA, USA | CC BY 2.0

Mary King's Close: A Merchant Woman Names a Street

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mario RM from Madrid, Spain, CC BY-SA 2.0. Mary King was a merchant burgess in 17th-century Edinburgh, which is to say she had the legal right to trade in her own name in a city where most women did not. The close where she had her household and her business took her name. Closes in Edinburgh's Old Town were narrow lanes ...

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Image: Mario RM from Madrid, Spain | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mary King's Close: The City Builds On Top

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1753 the city decided to build the Royal Exchange, the grand merchants' hall that became today's City Chambers. They picked the site at the head of Mary King's Close. To build a foundation big enough they had to demolish the upper storeys of the tenements lining the close and ...

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Image: Ad Meskens | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mary King's Close: Plague and the Long Memory

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The Real Mary King's Close at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Edinburgh was hit hard by plague in the 17th century, including a major outbreak in 1645 that killed huge numbers across the city. The closes off the High Street, with their dense, vertical living and shared stairways, suffered terribly. Whole households died within days; in some...

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Image: The Real Mary King's Close at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Mary King's Close: The Last Resident

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0. Andrew Chesney lived in Mary King's Close until 1902. He was the last to go. In 1897 the city issued him a compulsory purchase order for £400 and he eventually left, after which the close was sealed up almost entirely. It sat under the City Chambers, mostly forgotten, until tour ...

Read more: Mary King's Close on Qualla

Image: Ad Meskens | CC BY-SA 3.0