SINCE the earliest times, the bustling High Street has been the precinct of the legislator, the administrator and the judiciary. Government in all its forms, to say nothing of trade and commerce, was concentrated in this small area. This was the administrative and social nucleus of the ancient burgh. All the levers of power were to be found here, including the influential voice of the Church.

The City Chambers, in which the City Council meets, was built in 1753 as a Royal Exchange to the design of John Adam, the intention being to provide merchants and businessmen with a centre for the conduct of their commercial affairs. In the event, the Royal Exchange was not popular: the businessmen evidently preferred the street, or more congenial premises (such as the taverns). The result was that, in 1811, the Town Council adopted the exchange for its own use.

Castlehill

The City Chambers is an excellent example of the architectural surprises that regularly confront the stranger in Edinburgh. Built on a flank of the Old Town ridge, the City Chambers appears on its High Street frontage as a three-storey building; however, when viewed from the rear in Cockburn Street, it is seen to have no fewer than 12 storeys.

The main entrance in the High Street is approached across a quadrangle, the main feature of which is a statue of Alexander of Macedonia taming his famous horse, Bucephalus. The sculpture, by Sir John Steell, originally stood in St Andrew Square but, because of inconvenience to traffic, was moved to its present location. Beneath the archway of the arcade stands the Stone of Remembrance, commemorating those citizens who sacrificed their lives during war service. Immediately within the main doorway of the City Chambers, on panels in letters of gold, is the long roll of lord provosts and their predecessors, beginning with William de Dederyk in 1296.

Across the High Street is St Giles' Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, with its distinctive open crown steeple supported by eight flying buttresses. A church has stood on this site since at least ad 854. The present building is basically fifteenth century. Over the centuries it has withstood the shock of war, civil strife and ideological dispute.

St Giles', the High Kirk of Edinburgh

The exterior is the unhappy result of an 'improvement' supervised by the architect William Burn in 1829, when the old stonework was refaced. The interior has a more rugged and honest appearance, and includes the beautiful Thistle Chapel (1911) by Sir Robert Lorimer, noted for its ornate wood carving. This is the chapel of the Order of the Thistle, which is one of the oldest orders of chivalry in Europe.

St Giles' also contains memorials to a number of famous Scots, including the Marquess of Montrose (1612-50) who was hanged at the Mercat Cross a few yards away; and his bitter political rival, the 8th Duke of Argyll (1598-1661), beheaded on the same spot. Also commemorated is a more pacific character, the Edinburgh born author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94).

Parliament Square, at the rear of St Giles', was at one time the churchyard. John Knox, the great Scottish reformer, was interred here, but the exact site of his grave is no longer known. The equestrian statue in the middle of the square is of Charles II ('the Merry Monarch'). The statue, incidentally, is made of lead, and is thought to be the oldest equestrian statue in Britain.

Beneath the arcade is the entrance to Parliament House, once the seat of the Scottish Parliament, which was dissolved on the Union of Parliaments in March 1707. The signing of the Treaty of Union was an event accompanied by great public tumult in Edinburgh, and for many Scots the argument continues to simmer to this day.

Parliament House is now the seat of the supreme law courts of Scotland, for Scotland's separate legal system was retained at the Union. Visitors should see Parliament Hall, a handsome place with an interesting hammer-beam roof that contains not a single nail. The large stained-glass window at the south end, which depicts the inauguration of the Court of Session by King James V in 1532, was made in Munich in 1868.

The statues around the walls include one of the novelist Sir Walter Scott, who was a principal clerk of session from 1806 to 1830. Scott, as he sat at the clerk's table below the Bench while wigged counsel droned through some tedious civil case, often must have been turning over in his mind the plot of another historical novel.

Parliament Hall retains a subdued air of activity, thanks to the proximity of the law courts: counsel and solicitors find the great hall a convenient spot in which to confer, obtaining mild exercise at the same time by pacing back and forth at a dignified pace. The Advocates' Library, an indispensable tool of the legal profession, is adjacent.

Also within the building is the Signet Library, whose magnificently decorated Upper Library (1822) by William Stark makes it one of the architectural showpieces of Edinburgh. George IV, on seeing it during his celebrated visit to Edinburgh that year, exclaimed that it was the most beautiful room he had ever seen.

The Heart of Midlothian, a heart-shaped pattern of stones in the roadway a few yards from the main door of St Giles', is a memento of a grim past. For the stones mark the site of the doorway of the Old Tolbooth, the town prison that stood here for some 400 years until it was demolished in 1817. The Old Tolbooth, which was also known as the 'Heart of Midlothian', features in Scott's romantic novel of the same name. The Heart of Midlothian was also the site of public executions at one time.

The Heart of Midlothian

The handsome statue a few yards away is of the 5th Duke of Buccleuch (1806-84), head of a family distinguished in Border and Scottish history.

Immediately to the east of St Giles', opposite the City Chambers, stands the Mercat Cross, which was established about the fourteenth century as a focal point in the official life of the ancient burgh. Important public proclamations were made here, business deals conducted, and public executions carried out. The more modern base, incorporating an elevated platform, was a gift to Edinburgh by the statesman and prime minister, William Ewart Gladstone (1885), and royal proclamations are made here on auspicious occasions, with impressive fanfare, by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, attended by members of the Lyon Court.

This section of the High Street is rich in interesting closes and wynds that provide knowledgeable locals with convenient short-cuts from the ridge down to Cockburn Street or the Cowgate.

The dramatic views can take the passer-by unawares. For example, at the top of Advocate's Close, framed in the close-mouth is a view of the Firth of Forth, often scattered with distant ships. A century ago, Robert Louis Stevenson put it this way: 'You look down an alley, and see ships tacking for the Baltic.' He may well have had Advocate's Close in his mind's eye when he penned that.

Old Town Renewal

Advocate's Close houses the offices of the Edinburgh Old Town Renewal Trust, and the Old Town Charitable Trust. The Renewal Trust, formed in 1991, has an objective to achieve long-term sustainable improvements in the environment and economy of the Old Town, by promoting a productive balance between the interests of residents, businesses and visitors. The Charitable Trust has been concentrating on the provision of services to homeless people and disadvantaged members of the Old Town community.

Anchor Close, though little of visual interest survives, none the less merits a footnote in world history as the place where the printer William Smellie published the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1768) as well as the Edinburgh edition of Robert Burns' poems (1787).

Mary King's Close,whose rather sinister history is a favourite Edinburgh tale, is unique in the city in that it is now completely sealed from the public street and below ground. The population of the original close was all but wiped out by plague in 1645, and an understandable reluctance by others to move in led to its gradual dereliction. Eventually the close was built over and incorporated into the extended City Chambers.

Conducted tours of this underground close are organised from time to time, and those interested should make enquiry at the City Chambers. It is an eerie experience to explore this deserted, subterranean street, with its flights of worn steps and, at intervals on either hand, a succession of echoing chambers, which once were living homes and shops. The close is said by some to be haunted.

On the south side of the High Street, Old Fishmarket Close offers a particularly steep descent to the Cowgate, from which the pedestrian can scale the far slope to Chambers Street.

Old Assembly Close derives its name from the assemblies (dances), which were a fashionable social entertainment: there was an Old Assembly Hall in the close in the eighteenth century.

No. 180 High Street, the offices of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, could be called the hub of the Fringe: it is here that all information about the annual event may be obtained, as well as tickets for the shows.

A few yards further down the High Street, at its junction with South Bridge, is the Tron Kirk. The name is derived from the salt tron, the public weigh-beam against which this basic commercial product was tested, and which was situated nearby. The Tron Kirk was opened for worship in 1647. During the following three centuries, mainly because of the prominence of its site, the building suffered various vicissitudes (including the destruction of its spire in the Great Edinburgh Fire of 1824), before it was closed for worship in 1952. The fabric of the empty building, however, was well looked after, and is open in summer as an Old Town Information Centre. Archaeologists have uncovered within the building the cobbled roadway and other interesting vestiges of Marlin's Wynd, which ran from the High Street down to the Cowgate.

Having carefully negotiated the busy junction of the High Street and the bridges, proceed down the High Street on its north side, keeping an eye open for Paisley Close. It was near here in 1861 that one of the tenements collapsed, a number of the residents being buried in the ruins. As rescuers toiled amid the debris, they were encouraged by a cry, 'Heave awa', chaps, I'm no' deid yet!' The entrance to the close now bears a sculpted likeness of this spirited young man who survived the calamity.

On the same side of the street, Chalmers Close gives access to the Scottish Stone and Brass Rubbing Centre, housed in Trinity College Church Apse. Admission is free. The centre has a fascinating collection of replicas moulded from rare medieval brasses, ancient Pictish stones and other Scottish historical artefacts. Visitors can buy kits with which to make their own rubbings. No previous experience is required, and staff are on hand to assist.

On the other side of the street is the Museum of Childhood, one of the most popular of the city museums. It was the first of its kind in the world when founded in 1955. The museum was the inspiration of the late Patrick Murray, a town councillor and avid collector, whose personal collection of childhood toys and other memorabilia was soon augmented by a flood of such gifts as the news spread around the world. To this day, donations continue to be offered to the museum by adults who have no house room but who cannot bear to throw out these souvenirs of their childhood. On five floors there are moving toys, historical slot machines, train sets, musical toys, soldiers, the largest display of dolls anywhere, games - and much more. Incidentally, Patrick Murray, who was a bachelor, always saw his Museum of Childhood as a source of social study, and often claimed that he did not like children!

John Knox's House

Across the street again to John Knox's House, which must be the best known of the early town houses in the Old Town. The building, which is known to have been built before 1490, survived into modern times only because of its strong associations with Knox (1505-72), the father of the Scottish Reformation.

The design is typical of houses owned by wealthy citizens at that time: one of the owners was James Mossman, goldsmith to Mary, Queen of Scots. There were many houses like it in the Old Town, but most of them perished, either as a result of fire, deterioration or inevitable changes in living standards. The width of the street at John Knox's House, incidentally, gives a fair indication of the width of the Royal Mile 400 years ago.

Knox, who was minister of St Giles' for about nine years from 1560, is known to have lived in three different manses during his ministry in Edinburgh. Two were fairly near St Giles' and have not survived; this was probably the third. The house is open to the public from Monday to Saturday.

Adjacent is Moubray House, which is thought to be the oldest dwelling in Edinburgh. At the kerb is one of the street wells which provided the Old Town with its first piped supply of water (there are several still to be seen). Men who could be hired to carry pails of water up to the tenement flats were called caddies. The name for these porters survives today on the world's golf courses.

Immediately downhill from John Knox's House is the Netherbow, an arts centre (including a small theatre) run by the Church of Scotland.

Across the street, in Tweeddale Court, the Scottish Poetry Library houses a collection of work by poets in books, cassettes and magazines. A unique facility is its com- puterised catalogue of 13,000 items, which allows subject searching. Anyone is welcome to visit and use the library. The collection contains works from all periods, from Barbour's 'Brus' to the most recent publications. Gaelic, Scots and English poetry is distributed on loan, and the library periodically has overseas poets in residence who give talks in schools, colleges and elsewhere.

We are now approaching the boundary of old Edinburgh, because the Canongate was a separate burgh. The Edinburgh town wall ran here at right angles to the High Street, and at the road junction can be seen brass markers to show the location of the Netherbow Port. This was one of the gates into old Edinburgh, and there is a representation of the gateway inscribed in the wall of the tenement on the north side of the street. Note that the name of the last close on the south side of the street is World's End Close. It must have been named either by an Edinburgh chauvinist or a man with a dry sense of humour. At the other end of St Mary's Street, in the Pleasance, can be seen a surviving section of the Flodden Wall.