Murdoch's Close, 48-50 High Street, Edinburgh is a Grade B listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 13 August 1987. Tenement.

Murdoch's Close, 48-50 High Street, Edinburgh

WRENN ID
twelfth-dormer-mallow
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
City of Edinburgh
Constituency
Edinburgh East and Musselburgh MP: Chris Murray (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
13 August 1987
Type
Tenement
OS grid reference
NT 260 736
Coordinates
55.95029, -3.18581
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Murdoch's Close, located at 48-50 High Street in Edinburgh, is a four-storey, three-bay Scots Baronial tenement designed by David Cousin and John Lessels in 1869. The building is constructed from squared and snecked sandstone ashlar. The first-floor windows feature cornices with strapwork pediments at the center, and there is a stepped string course above them. The fourth floor has a dentiled corbel table, and steep-gabled dormer heads break the eaves, topped with a thistle finial at the center apex.

At the ground floor on the left, there is a gated entrance to Tendricks Wynd, while a later shop front with plate glass is situated to the right. The windows are timber sash and case with 8-pane glazing. The roof is covered with grey Scottish slate, and the building has broad end stacks, clay cans, and cast-iron rainwater goods.

Local climate

Murdoch's Close, 48-50 High Street, Edinburgh sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 53% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • No related consent applications matched
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. 52 And 54 High Street, Edinburgh Grade B 7 m
  2. Todrick's Wynd, 56, 58 And 60 High Street, Edinburgh Grade B 16 m
  3. 9 Blackfriars Street, Edinburgh Grade B 23 m
  4. 11 Blackfriars Street, Edinburgh Grade B 25 m
  5. K6 Telephone Kiosks, Chalmer's Close, High Street, Edinburgh Grade B 25 m
  6. , 36 And 38 High Street, Edinburgh Grade C 28 m
  7. 17, 19, 21 Blackfriars Street, Edinburgh Grade B 37 m
  8. 4 Paisley Close, 101 High Street, Edinburgh Grade B 42 m
  9. Netherbow Wellhead, High Street, Edinburgh Grade A 44 m
  10. 57 And 59 High Street, Edinburgh Grade B 50 m