Gladstone’s Land reopens for a taste of the past

One of the oldest buildings on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile Gladstone’s Land reopens after a 1.5 million restoration.

https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/gladstones-land-reopens-for-a-taste-of-the-past

Find all the up to date information on the exciting developments here and for travel trade, some great new opportunities:

New immersive visitor experiences, telling the tale of real life stories of individual residents and their trading history and drama through the ages, bringing Gladstone’s Land to life in a totally new way, to include .

Specialist tours as well as self guided and general tours.

New Ice cream and coffee parlour on the ground floor,  with some distinctive Scottish bespoke flavours such as Cranachan, and selections reflecting 400 years of history!

App based walking tours between Gladstone’s Land in the old town and the Georgian House in the New town.

TOURS  and EXPERIENCES- For more information and planning – traveltrade@nts.org.uk

General Tour (45mins-1hr)

This will cover four centuries of Gladstone’s Land occupation from 17^th century mercantile heyday to severely overcrowded slum. It will focus on the stories of a range of inhabitants and use these to tell Edinburgh’s wider history of wealth and poverty, trade and commerce.

Sex (1hr)

This tour will use the 17^th and 18^th century businesses and tenants of the property as a springboard to discuss people’s most intimate interactions. Covering areas including sex work, pregnancy and childbirth, the tour will one of the first of its kind in the UK and will focus on women’s lived experiences.

 

Food (45min-1hr)

Looking at the domestic and social history of food, this tour will examine the diets of both the rich and poor from the 17^th to the 19^th century. It will look at changing tastes and fashions in food and the increasing availability of commodities such as sugar and exotic spices as well as the way in which food was purchased, prepared and consumed. This is also a chance to bring women’s experiences to the fore and the subject matter obviously presents opportunities to incorporate taste and smell into the experience. The tour can integrate with the existing Georgian tea ceremony.

Death and Disease (45mins-1hr)

Using the story of George Langlands, the 18^th century surgeon who was a significant figure in Edinburgh’s medical history and who bought and extended Gladstone’s Land in the early 1700s, this tour will look at the impact of disease on the city. It will also bring the discussion into the domestic sphere, examining the history of cures and home remedies and the changing social and scientific beliefs that influenced them.

 

EXPERIENCES

An Evening with the Residents

It’s 1911 and the residents of Mary Wilson’s Boarding House invite you for a bite to eat and a story or two. Join Tommy Moran, Mary and her daughter (also Mary) as they go about their chores, giving an insight into their daily lives, loves and struggles. Set in the atmospheric third floor of Gladstone’s Land, under one of our unique 17^th century painted ceilings, this is a not-to-be-missed dining experience which brings the history of the house to life through its residents.