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Bruntsfield House, Whitehouse Loan

16thC house of the Lauder family who were granted the estate by Robert II in a charter of 1381. The extension on the right was built by a subsequent owner, John Fairlie of Braid. In 1695, the house became the possession of George Warrender, merchant, Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1713 and M.P. for the city during the reign of George I. In the 1880s, the surrounding area was feued and covered with Victorian tenements, though the House continued as a Warrender residence until 1901. When it was threatened with demolition in the 1930s, the family signed it over to the Edinburgh Corporation on condition that it be used only for a public or municipal purpose. In the 1960s, it was carefully restored to become the administrative offices of the new James Gillespie's School.