( Autumn 1997 )

ONE of the oldest buildings in Leith, The Vaults is first referred to in 1439 when a grant was made by Patrick, Abbot of Holyroodhouse to Sir Kobert Logan, Lord of Restalrig and his heirs. Within that document the boundaries of the lands of St Leonards are defined and one boundary is given as 'the great volut of Villiam Logane. ' The William Logan referred to as owner of The Vaults was given the lands of Coatfield by his grandfather but there is no indication to say how old they were at that time. The Logans stored their grain there in an area above ground and no more suitable place could a wine store have been as it was above the highest water mark and subject to moist air and an even temperature naturally obtained.

Who built The Vaults and when is likely to remain a mystery but tradition has it that at one time they were owned hy the monks of Holyrood and were connected by underground passage to the Abbey. From a practical point of view this does seem highly unlikely but there is evidence to suggest that at one time a passage did connect The Vaults to Coatfield House in the Kirkgate where the owners had lived for some years.

For a century and a half, the building was occupied by JC Thomson & Co., wholesale wine and spirit merchants but there is evidence to suggest that the Thomson family carried out business there as early as 1709. The upper storeys of the building were once used as grain lofts but from 1885 the entire building was used by the Company. On the front wall of The Vaults an inscribed stone reads:James Gibson Thomson and Alexander Somerville completed this building in 1785. Somerville was in partnership with Thomson around that time and it would appear that they carried out their business in an office over the vaults.

Since JG Thomson & Co., retired from business in Leith, the premises have been further upgraded to provide fiats, the home of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society and The Vintners Restaurant at ground floor level. One of the interesting features of the present building is the former Sherry Room, now part of the restaurant where a fine example of seventeenth century plaster work can still he seen.

The detailing of this work is repeated within some of the state rooms of Holyrood Palace and there seems no reason to doubt that two Englishmen, John Halbert and George Dunserfield who undertook the work at Holyrood in the 1670's also carried out the work at The Vaults when it was under construction.

At one time, nearly all the wines imported into Scotland came into Leith and the Sherry Room was used as an auction room and one of the walls housed the Vintner's Stand. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, ships carrying wine docked at the Fish Quay at the foot of the Tolbooth Wynd and as soon as the news of a cargo of wine was received, the vintners of the town gathered in the Sherry Room where the President of the Vintners Guild took up his position on the Vintner's Stand.

Samples of the various wines were carried to The Vaults where they were tasted and then auctioned. A reconstruction of the tablet of The Association of porters, dated 1678 can be seen bedded into the external stone wall of The Vaults and the original was at one time located in the Square Tower, Tolbooth Wynd, over the entrance to the Old Sugar House Close.