Lamb's House, Waters Close, Leith, Edinburgh

In 1610, when Lamb’s House was built, Leith was an independent burgh, fortified and thriving as Scotland’s most important port. Over four centuries later, this extraordinary Category A-listed residence remains the most significant surviving building of its era in Leith, meticulously restored and sensitively extended to provide both a refined family home and a prestigious architectural studio.

Set at the heart of Leith’s historic centre and only metres from the original harbour, Lamb’s House lies in one of Edinburgh’s most vibrant and culturally rich neighbourhoods, home to award-winning restaurants, artisan markets, and creative industries. The Water of Leith Walkway begins nearby, winding 13 miles through the city to the Pentland Hills. With the newly extended tramline placing both the city centre and Edinburgh Airport within easy reach, the location offers a rare balance of historic setting and modern connectivity.

Lamb’s House sits at the centre of Leith’s historic and cultural renaissance. Once a maritime gateway, the district is now a centre for design, film, and the arts, home to some of Scotland’s finest restaurants, most talented creatives, and most welcoming communities. Yet despite its energy and innovation, Leith retains a deep sense of identity and continuity; one that Lamb’s House embodies more completely than any other address. With the city centre just minutes away, the airport accessible by tram, and the sea still visible at the end of the street, this is a home that connects time, place, and possibility.

Lamb’s House is a house of National historical significance. Named for Andro Lamb - a descendant of the merchant who welcomed Mary, Queen of Scots to Leith in 1561 - Lamb’s House was originally designed to accommodate both trade and residence. In its early days, the house included six ground-floor shops and apartments above, most likely rented to wealthy Edinburgh merchants with exclusive rights to trade in the port. The structure is strikingly tall for its period, rising four storeys with an attic, and is rich in original features: crow-stepped gables, leaded windows, massive Baltic pine beams, and expansive fireplaces up to 2.7 metres wide.

By the 20th century, the building had fallen into decline. It was rescued in 1938 by the Marquess of Bute and architect Robert Hurd, later donated to the National Trust for Scotland, and served as a day centre from 1962. But it wasn’t until 2010, when architects Nicholas Groves-Raines and Kristín Hannesdóttir acquired the building, that Lamb’s House was fully revived as a home, a studio, and a complete architectural ensemble.

Over five years, the building underwent a painstaking restoration - modern additions removed, original elements revealed, and sensitive interventions introduced. A sympathetic extension and Pavilion were constructed, and Waters Close was reopened to reconnect the house with the harbour. But perhaps the most dramatic transformation occurred not inside the house, but just outside - where a new Renaissance-style garden was imagined and brought to life.

The Walled Garden
Originally, Lamb’s House had no garden. By the time Nick and Kristín arrived in 2010, a stark, semi-public concrete yard from the 1960s occupied the space in front of the house. They envisioned something completely different: a private, enclosed space - rooted in the traditions of 17th-century Scottish architecture, yet full of life and colour. Inspired by the formal parterres of early Renaissance gardens, they created a garden of remarkable harmony and quiet sophistication. The resulting design centres on two symmetrical parterres laid out in a complex quatrefoil pattern, echoing the forms of antique chimney pots which had been salvaged years earlier. These quatrefoils are repeated in the detailing of the windows in the adjacent summerhouse.

The garden is enclosed by a high stone wall, forming a peaceful courtyard between the house, the extension, and the Pavilion. A semi-circular claire-voie in the front wall allows passers-by a glimpse into the oasis within - a gentle connection between private space and public curiosity.
A broad cobbled ’pend’, or lane, reinstates the original medieval streetscape, with reclaimed stone slabs forming elegant paths between the parterres. Twelve tall hornbeams, carefully trained into block forms, rise in parallel lines to offer vertical structure and privacy from neighbouring buildings. Their sculptural trunks are echoed by standard roses, bay trees, and even a pair of playful olive trees.

The planting is refined but generous. Soft pastel roses - including Rosa Olivia Rose Austin, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Munstead Wood, and Desdemona - fill the beds with scent and colour from late spring into summer. The gentle pinks and whites are complemented by silvery foliage plants such as Santolina, dusty miller, and Helichrysum, while deeper blues come from delphiniums, salvia, iris, campanulas, and agapanthus. In autumn, nerines and Japanese anemones extend the display. The result is an outdoor space that feels both timeless and alive - a garden that mirrors the house itself in its mix of discipline and delight.

The Pavilion, newly built in 2010 and standing at the south-west corner of the site, completes the composition. With its curved ogee roof and Enlightenment-inspired detailing, it offers a contemporary retreat nestled within a classical setting, successfully let on a short-term basis producing a generous income. Together with the historic house and the new extension, the three buildings are unified by the geometry, materiality, and atmosphere of the garden.

Lamb’s House offers not just a beautiful home, but an opportunity to become the next steward of one of Scotland’s most treasured residences. For those who seek a property of substance, story, and soul, Lamb’s House is a chance to inhabit history - with beauty, comfort, and quiet delight at every turn.