Overview of Tailor's Hall

Located in Cowgate of Edinburgh, between South and George IV Bridges, Tailor's Hall was built for the Incorporation of Tailors in 1621. It was here the National Covenant was drafted by 300 church ministers in 1638. This document deprecated the interference of King Charles I in the affairs of the Scottish church.

Following Charles' execution (1649), the building was used by Oliver Cromwell's regime to administer the forfeited estates of Scottish Royalists. In the mid-18th Century Tailor's Hall became a theatre and it later became a granary for the old Argyle Brewery, which lay adjacent, during which time it was much altered. A tenement, which was said to present a fine frontage to the street, was demolished in the 1930s. Latterly, Tailor's Hall was used for storage by the University of Edinburgh, until it was sold by them in 1983. However, several original features remain, including the door lintels.

Recently it has been converted to a hotel and public house and its courtyard restored. The enormous Three Sisters public house forms the ground floor of the old Hall, and features a modern entrance area leading into a Gothic-ecclesiastical interior beyond.