The Hidden History of St Mary's Street

Just a few steps from Edinburgh's famous Royal Mile lies St Mary's Street, one of the Old Town's most fascinating and overlooked historic streets.
Before this was St Mary's Street, it was St Mary's Wynd – one of medieval Edinburgh's busiest lanes. Kings marched through it, Mary Queen of Scots' husband fled through it, and the great writer Dr Samuel Johnson walked it. The street was rebuilt in Victorian times, but beneath our feet lies more than 500 years of Edinburgh history.
Just around the corner stood the Netherbow Port, the great city gate that once marked the boundary between Edinburgh and Canongate. To many residents living within the city walls, this was quite literally "the world's end" – the point beyond which lay the unknown.

What many visitors don't realise is that this area was once a thriving artisan quarter, filled with workshops, tailors, shoemakers, merchants and skilled craftspeople. It was a place where things were designed, made, repaired and traded, and where generations of independent makers earned their living.

Our home at 36 St Mary's Street is one of the street's older surviving buildings, dating from the early nineteenth century and standing on ground that has been occupied for centuries.

The Royal Mile may tell the story of kings and castles, but St Mary's Street tells the story of the artisans, merchants and everyday people who gave Edinburgh its character. Today, Lily Luna is proud to continue the street's creative heritage, and we're delighted to be part of that story today.