Lady Stair's House, Lady Stair's Close, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh

Lady Stair's House, located on Lady Stair's Close, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, is a three-storey and attic house, now serving as a museum. The original structure dates to 1622 and was extensively restored and rebuilt in 1896-7 by George Shaw Aitken. It presents a unique asymmetrical design incorporating 17th-century Scottish details. A prominent feature is the ball-finialled bell-cast roof of the engaged octagonal corner stair tower on the southeast side. The exterior is constructed of random rubble with ashlar dressings, accented by broad bracketed eaves and long and short quoins.

The south elevation displays two windows on the ground floor and a single window on the first and second floors. A glazed door leads to a bracketed balcony with decorative wrought-iron railings on the third floor. A corbelled section extends to the left, creating a chamfered corner, while a carved panel is positioned below a hooded window on the third floor. The finialed gable incorporates semicircular panels featuring the initials “SR,” thistles, roses, and a coronet.

The southeast corner tower has a studded timber boarded door within a roll-moulded surround, topped by a carved lintel. A small window illuminates the stairwell above. The tower corbels out at the third floor and features a string course and a moulded cornice. A semicircular stone-balustraded balcony, flanked by small windows, is accessed by a door with a chamfered surround. Irregular windows light the stairwell to the northeast.

The east elevation showcases four paired windows with wrought-iron grilles on the ground floor. Vertically arranged tripartite gabled windows, illuminating a double-height hall, are positioned in the left and center bays; one gable's pediment is engaged within the tower. Tall shouldered wallhead stacks are located in the second bay from the left and to the right. A segmental-arched carved panel sits in the second bay from the left, and a two-windowed gable is visible to the right, with a small window set within an ashlar gablet. Three dormers are present in the roof.

The south elevation exhibits a single crowstepped gabled bay. A segmental-arched window is at ground level, a mullioned bipartite window on the first floor, and quadrapartite windows set back behind decorative wrought-iron railings on the third and fourth floors, incorporating a segmental-arched opening on the third and a round-arched opening on the fourth.

The west elevation features a lead-roofed rubble lean-to at ground level, including a door with an ashlar surround, and paired small windows above. A corbelled and finialled gable is present, along with a canted bay providing a link to the northeast block of James Court. The canted bay’s third floor has small-pane glazed timber windows and decorative brattishing on the roof.

The interior includes a turnpike stair with impressed initials, thistles, and roses. A false ceiling conceals a vaulted cellar. A decorative carved timber architrave frames the door on the first floor. The double-height hall has tall windows with timber shutters and a curved timber gallery with a decorative timber balustrade. The timber-compartmented ceiling is adorned with carved initials, thistles, roses, and holly, as well as a wrought-iron chandelier. The original stone chimneypiece, with its restored moulded jambs, columns with swept pedestals and capitals, remains. An 18th-century chimneypiece is found in a room on the first floor to the north.

Most windows are fitted with 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case frames. The roof is covered with graded greenish slates and terracotta ridge tiles. Grey cast-iron downpipes feature initials on their hoppers. Corniced ashlar wallhead stacks have tall circular cans.