St Mary Street Edinburgh
St Mary’s Wynd was widened and became a street. The First House to be built under the Improvement Act of 1867 was No 2 St Mary Street and a wall tablet was placed above the door and unveiled by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh the right honourable William Chambers of Glenormiston a publisher, politician and brother of Robert Chambers Author and publisher both were born in Peebles in the Scottish Borders are were influential in Edinburgh’s History. St Mary’s Wynd was built on an old Roman road and was named after the Cistercian nuns of St Mary and a chapel and hospital dedicated to St Mary both built on the west side of the Wynd. The Mary’s Wynd was first mentioned circa 1360 when men to Edinburgh up Mary’s Wynd after returning from battle. A wynd changed its name to street when widened to allow carts to use it.
Boyd’s Entry is where the first passenger coaches arrived from London. This is where the stables and buildings to house the coaches stood at the foot of Gullan’s Close next to the White Horse Inn (previously Boyd’s Inn), at the head of the Canongate. The Flodden wall once stood on the west side of the Street prior to the present housing. There was a gate at both ends of the Wynd, The Cowgate and the Nether Bow Gate which were the only way into Edinburgh, from the East.
The first building erected under the improvement act of 1867 was No.2 St Mary Street the corner tenement on the east side of the street marked with a stone tablet above the door. The building officially opened by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh at that time,The Right Honourable William Chambers of Clermiston.
