Day 20
The King’s Wark
Places of Leith explores the firey history of The King’s Wark.
The photo is of the Water of Leith and the Shore in Leith circa 1884 from an unknown photographer. Image with permission from Capital Collections.
The King’s Wark was the name and site of a late medieval royal complex built by King James I around 1434, and it remained in part owned and operated by his descendants and royalty for quite some time thereafter.
Over the next few years, the building complex was extended to ultimately consist of an arsenal, storehouse, tower, cellar, hall, chambers and even a royal tennis court. The buildings were damaged significantly in a fire in 1544 from War of Rough Wooing, and the tower part of the Kings Wark complex was used for a short time as a Toolbooth of Leith by Sir Robert of Restalrig before a new one was built nearby in Toolbooth Wynd by the request of Mary, Queen of Scots.
By 1567, Queen Mary herself granted much of the building complex to her Comptroller, John Chisholm, but her grant papers note that she kept use of the cellar and its wine for her own personal use. James VI and his bride are said to have stayed here when they arrived in Leith from Denmark. By 1606, the buildings and complex were given to Bernard Lindsay, of which Bernard Street is named after, and it was Lindsay who significantly rebuilt and expanded the complex making it a very important and noticeable destination in the port of Leith at the time. By 1647, the burgh of Edinburgh had purchased the Wark buildings, and by 1690, the complex again was destroyed by fire.
Image used with permission from Capital Collections.
Photo by RPP Productions
Over time, it came into the hands of various merchants and suppliers, and for almost a century, Rutherford & Co, a wholesale and retail wine and spirit merchant and pub was located here.
Today, the King’s Wark remains alive in the form of a gastropub in the same location and name of its medieval predecessor. Now, a very well respected, high-end establishment, the King’s Wark Pub has been here for decades and was once quite notorious, nicknamed “the jungle” for its rough-around-the-edges atmosphere and sailor clientele.