Constitution Street
Encyclopedia
Constitution Street runs from the foot of Leith Walk
north to Leith docks in Leith
, Edinburgh
, Scotland
. Constitution Street will form part of the future Edinburgh Trams network, although the section of the line running from Leith Walk to the Ocean Terminal
shopping centre has been delayed until at least 2013.
The street takes its name from Constitution Hill, which stood on the site of the current Assembly Rooms. The road was only completed in 1800, at that time being built as a bypass from Bernard Street to Leith Walk
, avoiding the crowded and twisting medieval streets of old Leith
. The street at that time was causeway
ed, rising around 2m above natural ground level. Buildings which predate this now have their original fine ground floor rooms buried at basement level.
The street runs from Leith Docks to Great Junction Street
/Leith Walk
.
The street has an unusual claim to fame. On 9th January 1823 the last two men executed for piracy in Scotland were hanged at the north end of the street (near what is now Tower Street). The two men were Peter Heaman, from Sweden and Francois Gautiez from France. They were found guilty in the summer of 1822 of capturing the brig "Jane", en-route from Gibraltar
to Brazil
, killing its master and stealing 38,000 Spanish dollars. The crowd witnessing this event was given as a huge 40 to 50,000 persons. One account says their bodies were afterwards awarded to Dr Robert Knox
for dissection. A second account says they were buried where executed. Two bodies were discovered during an archaeological dig at the north end of the street in approximately the correct area in the the summer of 2000, possibly validating the latter claim.
The existing Dalton Scrapyard is enclosed by 17th century walls, including a lintel inscribed with three anchors. The former Corn Exchange has a very fine frieze depicting "putti" gathering corn, getting drunk, and loading the corn onto ships. This building is now a design studio.
The site opposite, now modern flats over shops, held the main salt warehouse, serving most of eastern Scotland into the 19th century.
The street widens out at Bernard Street, where there is a fine statue of Robert Burns
.
South of Bernard Street, the most notable building is the classical Assembly Rooms, the former Leith Exchange building. The northern part of this building is simply a tenement tacked on and designed as per the main halls to make them look bigger and more impressive. The little two storey building next door, with Doric key design, was built as a Post Office c.1810, but is now residential. The office building adjacent dates from 1805 but the two northern bays were only added in 1930. This too is now converted to flats (2009).
Opposite these stand mainly tenemental properties. The very tall one on the corner has very intact Georgian shopfronts, and is entitled the Waterloo
buildings, as it was built in 1815, the year of the famous victory. The next tenement dates from 1760, and is one with a buried ground floor (see above). Confusingly it bears two dates: 1886 and 1986, marking restoration dates rather than construction. Townscape breaks down a little but is cheered up by the interjection of the Port O'Leith Bar infamously portrayed as the "Sunshine Bar" in the gritty novel Trainspotting
.
Mitchell Street to the east has been transformed. Up until the 1980s it was a bustling commercial street, with many listed buildings including one with a cast-iron frontage. It was described as "the best industrial street in Scotland"
The first building beyond Mitchell Street was a Post Office, built to replace that to the north in 1875. The next building, black with age, belies its former importance. This was the offices to Leith Leadworks, which lay behind, and up until 1920 provided 90% of all Scotland's lead (including sheet, pipe, and pellet shot). The upper level (now concreted over) had an ornamental carved frieze, and the building had several stone urns (those copied on the adjacent building survive, the originals do not). The next building was clearly built as a church. It started life as a Georgian box chapel in 1770, just outside the town wall. Its original entrance is still visible on the south wall as are the silhouettes of the original windows. The current front, tower and two flanking lodges (only one of which survives) were built in 1843 by David Rhind. The "lodges" were church-run schools: one for infants and one for juveniles.
Then comes a very imposing building: Leith Police Station, built as Leith Town Hall in 1827. This still contains the Victorian debating chamber of 1864, unchanged since that date. Attaching the north side, facing onto Constitution Street, is the jail. This still has its original interior. The windows on the outside belie this use. Only on inspection does one perceive that the windows are tapered in, and therefore could not operate. This is correct; They are dummy windows, even to the extent of having dummy venetion blinds created inside (in concrete). The three windows cover 4 cells, which clearly would not be allowed windows. Around the corner an early bit of facade retention: the Police station took over a terrace of Georgian houses in 1864 and incorporated them into the complex. The interior and entrance door date from 1868, everything else dates from c.1810.
Opposite on Constitution Street a fine villa of 1760 has been somewhat cannibalised. Its ground floor was previously far taller in relation to the road, but the raising of the road has truncated its form. The existing ground floor dates from c.1860 and was presumably created to iron out the problems of floor levels.
The fine (but black) tenement on the south side of that street dates from 1805. Stylistically it is very similar to Baxter's Place at the head of Leith Walk
and is therefore presumed to be by the same architect/builder, John Baxter.
Opposite, the pub now called "The Compass" was previously "The Copper Bowl", a pun referring to its use by the policemen.
Back to the east side, was a low Victorian building, with another pun: the "Leith Lynx" bar/restaurant being a play on "Leith Links
". The hinterland of this building housed one of Leith's brothels, which were relatively common until the gentrification of the area in the 1980s.
Opposite some good warehouses, converted to flats, then a pair of churches. To the west, St. Mary's Star of the Sea, Leith's principal Roman Catholic church. This evolved on the garden ground of Lord Balmerino
, whose house survived on the Kirkgate until swept away in the 1950s, unnoticed by the planners. A convent and school were also built (hiding to the rear). The school, visible from Queen Charlotte Street is now flatted. It is hard to now discern the previous rooftop playground, forced on the property due to lack of space. The church is of many different dates but disguises this well. The original is by E.W.Pugin
and J.A.Hansom, and dates from 1852.
Roughly opposite, and showing that Leith used only the best architects of the period, St.James was by Giles Gilbert Scott
, built in 1862. Its church function decanted to the far smaller hall to its east in the 1970s. The building has been somewhat underused ever since. Its huge stone spire (truncated in 1977) is visible over a very wide area.
Immediately opposite St.James, the offices of Port of Leith Housing Association, a prime mover in the revitalisation of the area. This is an interesting modern building, designed in 2000 by the Lee Boyd Partnership. One of Edinburgh'smost distinctive modern buildings it includes a stone tower (holding the fire escape), a graded series of timber boards over the whole frontage, giving a venetian blind effect, and rooftop Japanese water gardens. It also has an underground car park.
The white building two to the south (132)is one of the earliest on the street, dating from 1740. It was rebuilt when the road was causewayed, adding an extra storey (still visible) to replace the lost storey now at basement level. Although looking plain, it has several magnificent rooms within, largely from its remodelling in 1800.
Nos.134-138 now converted to flats were built as a small townhouse c.1780, and largely operated as offices. In its last guise before conversion it operated as the hugely unpopular Sherrif Officers quarters, operating the retrieval of owed monies for the Community Charge
usually called the "Poll Tax
". This inevitably led to several attacks on the building, thankfully none serious. The north wing is cleverly balanced on the south by what appears to be a south wing, but which in reality are a series of burial vault
s belonging to the adjacent churchyard.
The churchyard belongs to South Leith Parish Church
and building of great antiquity, and covered by a separate article. The churchyard was only used for burial from the mid 17th century, earlier interments being inside the church, beneath the parishioners usual seating position (or threaded in the rafters if you had a balcony position). The churchyard is split into trades: maltmen (brewers); porters; mariners etc. reflecting the layout of alters within in pre-Reformation
days. In 2009 an excavation linked to the creation of the Edinburgh tram unearthed several bodies just outside the churchyard wall A planning application to demolish the wall in its entirity was received in November 2011. This was necessitated by the proposed tram works, which was considered to threaten the stability of the wall. Demolition is required in order to provide a good new foundation to the wall (which is to be then rebuilt). However, this work will also clearly require the exhumation of hundreds of bodies within the churchyard, and is a complex matter in terms of Scottish burial law.
On the east side of the street a good row of tenements and warehouses. The only new building is the alien brick Old Persons Care Home, which replaced a wool warehouse, burnt down in 1978. The remnants of a Georgian chapel and a warehouse wrapping over it are still visible at the south end of this building.
At the end of the street, a former cinema is now a Wetherspoons
. The building opposite was Woolworths
and is now a British Heart Foundation
charity furniture shop. The space between these is proposed as a tram stop for the forthcoming Edinburgh Tram.
Leith Walk
Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stretches from The Foot Of Leith Walk at the junction of Great Junction Street and Constitution Street to the junction with London Road, it then links to the east end of Princes Street via Leith Street...
north to Leith docks in Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Constitution Street will form part of the future Edinburgh Trams network, although the section of the line running from Leith Walk to the Ocean Terminal
Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh
Ocean Terminal in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland is a shopping centre, designed by Sir Terence Conran.It is built on former industrial docklands on the north side of the city at the edge of the boundary between formerly separate ports of Newhaven and Leith. The land was formerly occupied by the Henry...
shopping centre has been delayed until at least 2013.
The street takes its name from Constitution Hill, which stood on the site of the current Assembly Rooms. The road was only completed in 1800, at that time being built as a bypass from Bernard Street to Leith Walk
Leith Walk
Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stretches from The Foot Of Leith Walk at the junction of Great Junction Street and Constitution Street to the junction with London Road, it then links to the east end of Princes Street via Leith Street...
, avoiding the crowded and twisting medieval streets of old Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
. The street at that time was causeway
Causeway
In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...
ed, rising around 2m above natural ground level. Buildings which predate this now have their original fine ground floor rooms buried at basement level.
The street runs from Leith Docks to Great Junction Street
Great Junction Street
Great Junction Street is a street in Leith, on the northern outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland. It runs south east to north west following approximately the southwestmost line of the old city walls around Leith. While some sections existed c.1800, it was not planned as a continuous road, reaching all...
/Leith Walk
Leith Walk
Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stretches from The Foot Of Leith Walk at the junction of Great Junction Street and Constitution Street to the junction with London Road, it then links to the east end of Princes Street via Leith Street...
.
The street has an unusual claim to fame. On 9th January 1823 the last two men executed for piracy in Scotland were hanged at the north end of the street (near what is now Tower Street). The two men were Peter Heaman, from Sweden and Francois Gautiez from France. They were found guilty in the summer of 1822 of capturing the brig "Jane", en-route from Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
to Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, killing its master and stealing 38,000 Spanish dollars. The crowd witnessing this event was given as a huge 40 to 50,000 persons. One account says their bodies were afterwards awarded to Dr Robert Knox
Robert Knox
Robert Knox was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist and zoologist. He was the most popular lecturer in anatomy in Edinburgh before his involvement in the Burke and Hare body-snatching case. This ruined his career, and a later move to London did not improve matters...
for dissection. A second account says they were buried where executed. Two bodies were discovered during an archaeological dig at the north end of the street in approximately the correct area in the the summer of 2000, possibly validating the latter claim.
Notable buildings and landmarks
Starting at the north end and working southwards:The existing Dalton Scrapyard is enclosed by 17th century walls, including a lintel inscribed with three anchors. The former Corn Exchange has a very fine frieze depicting "putti" gathering corn, getting drunk, and loading the corn onto ships. This building is now a design studio.
The site opposite, now modern flats over shops, held the main salt warehouse, serving most of eastern Scotland into the 19th century.
The street widens out at Bernard Street, where there is a fine statue of Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
.
South of Bernard Street, the most notable building is the classical Assembly Rooms, the former Leith Exchange building. The northern part of this building is simply a tenement tacked on and designed as per the main halls to make them look bigger and more impressive. The little two storey building next door, with Doric key design, was built as a Post Office c.1810, but is now residential. The office building adjacent dates from 1805 but the two northern bays were only added in 1930. This too is now converted to flats (2009).
Opposite these stand mainly tenemental properties. The very tall one on the corner has very intact Georgian shopfronts, and is entitled the Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
buildings, as it was built in 1815, the year of the famous victory. The next tenement dates from 1760, and is one with a buried ground floor (see above). Confusingly it bears two dates: 1886 and 1986, marking restoration dates rather than construction. Townscape breaks down a little but is cheered up by the interjection of the Port O'Leith Bar infamously portrayed as the "Sunshine Bar" in the gritty novel Trainspotting
Trainspotting (novel)
Trainspotting is the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. It is written in the form of short chapters narrated in the first person by various residents of Leith, Edinburgh, who either use heroin, are friends of the core group of heroin users, or engage in destructive activities that are...
.
Mitchell Street to the east has been transformed. Up until the 1980s it was a bustling commercial street, with many listed buildings including one with a cast-iron frontage. It was described as "the best industrial street in Scotland"
The first building beyond Mitchell Street was a Post Office, built to replace that to the north in 1875. The next building, black with age, belies its former importance. This was the offices to Leith Leadworks, which lay behind, and up until 1920 provided 90% of all Scotland's lead (including sheet, pipe, and pellet shot). The upper level (now concreted over) had an ornamental carved frieze, and the building had several stone urns (those copied on the adjacent building survive, the originals do not). The next building was clearly built as a church. It started life as a Georgian box chapel in 1770, just outside the town wall. Its original entrance is still visible on the south wall as are the silhouettes of the original windows. The current front, tower and two flanking lodges (only one of which survives) were built in 1843 by David Rhind. The "lodges" were church-run schools: one for infants and one for juveniles.
Then comes a very imposing building: Leith Police Station, built as Leith Town Hall in 1827. This still contains the Victorian debating chamber of 1864, unchanged since that date. Attaching the north side, facing onto Constitution Street, is the jail. This still has its original interior. The windows on the outside belie this use. Only on inspection does one perceive that the windows are tapered in, and therefore could not operate. This is correct; They are dummy windows, even to the extent of having dummy venetion blinds created inside (in concrete). The three windows cover 4 cells, which clearly would not be allowed windows. Around the corner an early bit of facade retention: the Police station took over a terrace of Georgian houses in 1864 and incorporated them into the complex. The interior and entrance door date from 1868, everything else dates from c.1810.
Opposite on Constitution Street a fine villa of 1760 has been somewhat cannibalised. Its ground floor was previously far taller in relation to the road, but the raising of the road has truncated its form. The existing ground floor dates from c.1860 and was presumably created to iron out the problems of floor levels.
Queen Charlotte Street to the Foot of the Walk
Queen Charlotte Street is only indirectly connected to Queen Charlotte, consort to King George III, that is to say one of Leith's foremost ships of the period was "Queen Charlotte". Arguably the street is named after the ship rather than the queen.The fine (but black) tenement on the south side of that street dates from 1805. Stylistically it is very similar to Baxter's Place at the head of Leith Walk
Leith Walk
Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stretches from The Foot Of Leith Walk at the junction of Great Junction Street and Constitution Street to the junction with London Road, it then links to the east end of Princes Street via Leith Street...
and is therefore presumed to be by the same architect/builder, John Baxter.
Opposite, the pub now called "The Compass" was previously "The Copper Bowl", a pun referring to its use by the policemen.
Back to the east side, was a low Victorian building, with another pun: the "Leith Lynx" bar/restaurant being a play on "Leith Links
Leith Links
Leith Links is the principal open space within Leith, the harbour district of Edinburgh, Scotland. This public park extends to . In its current form it is largely flat and bordered by mature trees. Historically it was an undulating area of former sand-dunes utilised as a golf links.-Current...
". The hinterland of this building housed one of Leith's brothels, which were relatively common until the gentrification of the area in the 1980s.
Opposite some good warehouses, converted to flats, then a pair of churches. To the west, St. Mary's Star of the Sea, Leith's principal Roman Catholic church. This evolved on the garden ground of Lord Balmerino
Lord Balmerino
The title of Lord Balmerino was a title in the Peerage of Scotland; it was created in 1606 and forfeited in 1746 on the attainder and execution of the 6th Lord Balmerino in the Tower of London....
, whose house survived on the Kirkgate until swept away in the 1950s, unnoticed by the planners. A convent and school were also built (hiding to the rear). The school, visible from Queen Charlotte Street is now flatted. It is hard to now discern the previous rooftop playground, forced on the property due to lack of space. The church is of many different dates but disguises this well. The original is by E.W.Pugin
Pugin
Pugin most commonly refers to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin , English architect and designer.Other members of his family include:...
and J.A.Hansom, and dates from 1852.
Roughly opposite, and showing that Leith used only the best architects of the period, St.James was by Giles Gilbert Scott
Giles Gilbert Scott
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, OM, FRIBA was an English architect known for his work on such buildings as Liverpool Cathedral and Battersea Power Station and designing the iconic red telephone box....
, built in 1862. Its church function decanted to the far smaller hall to its east in the 1970s. The building has been somewhat underused ever since. Its huge stone spire (truncated in 1977) is visible over a very wide area.
Immediately opposite St.James, the offices of Port of Leith Housing Association, a prime mover in the revitalisation of the area. This is an interesting modern building, designed in 2000 by the Lee Boyd Partnership. One of Edinburgh'smost distinctive modern buildings it includes a stone tower (holding the fire escape), a graded series of timber boards over the whole frontage, giving a venetian blind effect, and rooftop Japanese water gardens. It also has an underground car park.
The white building two to the south (132)is one of the earliest on the street, dating from 1740. It was rebuilt when the road was causewayed, adding an extra storey (still visible) to replace the lost storey now at basement level. Although looking plain, it has several magnificent rooms within, largely from its remodelling in 1800.
Nos.134-138 now converted to flats were built as a small townhouse c.1780, and largely operated as offices. In its last guise before conversion it operated as the hugely unpopular Sherrif Officers quarters, operating the retrieval of owed monies for the Community Charge
Community Charge
The Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...
usually called the "Poll Tax
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
". This inevitably led to several attacks on the building, thankfully none serious. The north wing is cleverly balanced on the south by what appears to be a south wing, but which in reality are a series of burial vault
Burial vault
Burial vault may refer to:*Burial vault , protective coffin enclosure*Burial vault , underground tomb...
s belonging to the adjacent churchyard.
The churchyard belongs to South Leith Parish Church
South Leith Parish Church
South Leith Parish Church or Kirk is a congregation of the Church of Scotland. It is the principal church and congregation in Leith, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Its kirkyard is the burial place for John Home, author of Douglas, and John Pew, the man from whom the author Robert Louis Stevenson reputedly...
and building of great antiquity, and covered by a separate article. The churchyard was only used for burial from the mid 17th century, earlier interments being inside the church, beneath the parishioners usual seating position (or threaded in the rafters if you had a balcony position). The churchyard is split into trades: maltmen (brewers); porters; mariners etc. reflecting the layout of alters within in pre-Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
days. In 2009 an excavation linked to the creation of the Edinburgh tram unearthed several bodies just outside the churchyard wall A planning application to demolish the wall in its entirity was received in November 2011. This was necessitated by the proposed tram works, which was considered to threaten the stability of the wall. Demolition is required in order to provide a good new foundation to the wall (which is to be then rebuilt). However, this work will also clearly require the exhumation of hundreds of bodies within the churchyard, and is a complex matter in terms of Scottish burial law.
On the east side of the street a good row of tenements and warehouses. The only new building is the alien brick Old Persons Care Home, which replaced a wool warehouse, burnt down in 1978. The remnants of a Georgian chapel and a warehouse wrapping over it are still visible at the south end of this building.
At the end of the street, a former cinema is now a Wetherspoons
Wetherspoons
J D Wetherspoon plc is a British pub chain based in Watford. Founded as a single pub in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company now owns 815 outlets. The chain champions cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No...
. The building opposite was Woolworths
Woolworths Group
Woolworths Group plc was a listed British company that owned the high-street retail chain, Woolworths, as well as other brands such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK and book and resource distributor Bertram Books...
and is now a British Heart Foundation
British Heart Foundation
The British Heart Foundation is a charity organisation in Britain that funds research, education, care and awareness campaigns aimed to prevent heart diseases in humans.-Foundation:...
charity furniture shop. The space between these is proposed as a tram stop for the forthcoming Edinburgh Tram.