Moubray House

Moubray House at 51 and 53 High Street, is one of Edinburgh's oldest residential houses. It would be easy to pass by Moubray House, and focus on its better-known neighbour, John Knox House. However, this online exhibition invites you to stop and take a look around inside this unique property.

Moubray House originally formed part of a small group of medieval buildings. The property known today as Moubray House was first built by Robert Moubray in 1477 with some of the masonry construction still visible at the top of the adjacent, Trunk’s Close.

The building was adapted and extended in the 16th and 17th centuries. The present rubble frontage dates from around 1630. As with most properties in the Old Town, the building was divided horizontally into separate flats.

The house has significant interior decoration including an exceptional Scottish Renaissance board-and-beam painted ceiling, a plaster ceiling with exotic fruit and flower mouldings, dated 1650, and a wooden barrel vaulted ceiling in the attic.

Moubray House has been home to some famous faces too. Former inhabitants include, George Jamesone, a celebrated portrait painter, Daniel Defoe, journalist, pamphleteer and author of Robinson Crusoe, and Archibold Constable, a bookseller and publisher who for a decade, was owner of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

In the 1700s the building operated as a tavern and at various times since, has been used as a shop to sell books, antiques and woollens. It has been subdivided several times in its history and during part of the 1800s, became a Temperance Hotel.

In recognition of the building's historical significance and location in Edinburgh's Old Town, following public subscription, it was purchased in 1910 by the Cockburn Association to save it from disrepair. Under the guidance of the Cockburn Conservation Trust it was again restored in the late 1970s to preserve the historic features and convert the spaces for modern living. When works were complete the upper flat was sold, whilst the lower flat, ground floor shop and basement were rented out. In the 2000s, the whole building was bought by Debra Stonecipher, an American who had fallen in love with it while tracing her Scottish roots with her grandmother. In 2012, she gifted Moubray House into the care of Historic Environment Scotland for the people of Scotland.

The Cockburn Association remains connected with Moubray House. Its offices occupy two cellars of the house.

Our photos of the interiors date from 2008 when we were allowed access to record its historic features. There are also views from the roof. These photos are displayed alongside drawings and photographs of the exterior showing its location on the High Street and off Trunk’s Close.

Sources of information:
BBC News, Edinburgh's Moubray House to be gifted to Historic Scotland
Canmore, 51 and 53 High Street, Moubray House
Cockburn Association
Scottish Historic Buildings Trust