Established in at least the 15th century, its central section has been both modernised and pedestrianised, while its two ends are mainly Victorian in terms of their composite buildings.

In a 1980 photograph by W. H. Findlay, a view of 80–94 High Street (part of a Category B listed row)[6] shows the Wallaces department store.

"[8] The church was built near the Chapel and Hospital of St Paul, founded in 1434, which hints at an earlier existence of the high street.

[2] Established in 1897, Alexander Thomson & Sons Grocers and Wine Merchants was a popular vendor on the street.

Almost thirty medieval wooden structures were found, including a collapsed wattle fence that had been a property line between burgage plots.