No fish now

This sign in the Royal Mile hangs over the entrance to a close that was once described as "a steep, narrow stinking ravine" when it was used as a poultry and fishmarket. It has also been called "Hangman's Close" because the Edinburgh city hangman lived there. The eminent goldsmith, George Heriot, founder of the Hospital and School which bear his name, lived here in 1586. Daniel Defoe, the author of W 'Robinson Crusoe', worked there while acting as a secret agent to the English Government at the Treaty of Union in 1707, according to rumours.