in the 19th century. Prior to this, from 1845 to 1929, the General Assembly had met in the Victoria Hall (the Highland Tolbooth Kirk) at the top of the Royal Mile, a purpose-built meeting hall and church whose spire towers above the present Assembly Hall. When the Church of Scotland merged with the United Free Church of Scotland in 1929, the Mound premises were chosen as the Assembly Hall for the reunited Church of Scotland. Today the former Victoria Hall building is in secular use as The Hub.