When Archbishop James Beaton built his palace a short distance west of the church in 1509, he also purchased much of this waste land.

Later Mary Queen of Scots’ Italian servant Francisco de Busso owned part of it.

The north part of the church sites was owned, in the late 16th to early 17th centuries, by Dr John Naysmith, surgeon to James VI.

[6] In 1856, the church was bought by the Apostolic Vicar of the Eastern District, Bishop James Gillis.

[9] In September 2023, the church became home to a group of priests discerning community life in the Oratorian tradition.

It was found that flash floods swept through this part of Cowgate up until the development of the medieval town of Edinburgh in the 11th-12th centuries.

In the 14th century, a substantial ditch, believed to be the medieval town boundary, was cut across the site.

The ditch was a stinking rubbish dump full of human and animal waste.