Carrubber’s Close

65 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SR 

In 1872, Dwight L. Moody, a self-educated shoe salesman from Massachusetts turned global preacher, visited during a revival campaign and was so struck by the Carrubbers Close Mission, which did not have a permanent home, that he declared: “You can’t run a mission on air!” He raised £10,000 (around £1 million today), laid the foundation stone himself in 1883, and preached the building’s first sermon.

Moody’s Edinburgh campaigns of the 1870s and 1880s helped shape Scottish religious and social life by raising church attendance, inspiring welfare work among the poor, and influencing a generation of ministers.  Ira Sankey, who shared a close association with Moody, is believed to have introduced gospel music to Scotland.