I would guess for safety reasons as the gates could be closed at night? Many of these "closes" give access to tenement style buildings built around an inner courtyard and lanes need only be as wide as to accomodate a horse and cart. Since many of the residents were wealthy and they chose to live in close quarters (that's bad!) I expect that the origin was caused by their desire to live inside the town wall for safety, lesser mortals would live ouside the walls. Later on the word continued in use tenement buildings which were built as cheaply as possible, - my 2p's worth, moira gordon crooks wrote: >Can anyone explain the reason for building "Close's" in the first place, shortage of flat land or what? > > Gordon > > > > >