10 Facts About Canongate

Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland.

The burgh of Canongate that developed was controlled by the Abbey until the Scottish Reformation when it came under secular control.

Canongate owes its existence to the establishment of Holyrood Abbey in 1128.

Canongate was told that it was a "civil house, and the best quality lay there that had not houses of their own".

The burgh of Canongate had a sometimes turbulent relationship with its neighbour, Edinburgh.

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Union of the parliaments in 1707 affected the area, as up until then Edinburgh had been the location of the Parliament of Scotland with the Canongate providing a fashionable suburb for the dwellings of the political class.

The North Bridge, finally opened in 1772, provided a new and more convenient route from Edinburgh to the port of Leith effectively bypassing the Canongate which had until then been the main route from Edinburgh to Leith via Easter Road causing even more neglect to the residential area which was gradually taken over by industrial premises including breweries and a large gasworks.

Canongate remained a centre for the manufacture and retail of luxury goods and domestic furnishings.

Canongate was an important district during the Scottish Enlightenment partly because of the presence of the Canongate Theatre, of which one of the proprietors was Lord Monboddo.

Canongate is the location of Moray House, the Education department of the University of Edinburgh.