Newhaven, Edinburgh
Encyclopedia
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...
, between Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
and Granton
Granton, Edinburgh
Granton is a district in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland. Granton forms part of Edinburgh's waterfront along the Firth of Forth and is, historically, an industrial area having a large harbour. Granton is part of Edinburgh's large scale waterfront regeneration programme.-Name:Granton first appears...
. Formerly a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
and harbour on the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
, it currently has approximately 5,000 inhabitants.
Newhaven is a conservation area
Conservation area
A conservation areas is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features, cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded...
, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the city centre. Newhaven is one of 40 Conservation Area
Conservation area
A conservation areas is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features, cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded...
s in 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...
. The Newhaven Conservation Area was designated in 1977.
It has a very distinctive building form, typical of many Scottish fishing villages, with a 'forestair' leading to accommodation at first floor level. The lower ground floor was used for storing nets.
Victoria Primary School, established in the 1850s, is a historic building in Newhaven Main Street, and is the oldest local authority Primary School still in use within in the City of Edinburgh. It has a school roll of around 145 children.
The new Western Harbour
Western Harbour, Edinburgh
Western Harbour is a mainly residential development in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland.Reaching north into the Firth of Forth away from Newhaven Harbour, the site extends the breakwater on the west side of the Port of Leith with land reclaimed from the waters of the harbour through landfill...
development extends north into the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
from Newhaven. It is also the home of Next Generation Sports Centre (now named David Lloyd Newhaven Harbour), where the tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
player Andy Murray
Andrew Murray (tennis player)
Andrew "Andy" Murray is a Scottish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked No.4 in the world, and was ranked No. 2 from 17 to 31 August 2009. Murray achieved a top-10 ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals for the first time on 16 April 2007...
regularly played as a youngster.
History
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Raised beach
A raised beach, marine terrace, or perched coastline is an emergent coastal landform. Raised beaches and marine terraces are beaches or wave-cut platforms raised above the shore line by a relative fall in the sea level ....
.
It was part of the North Leith Parish being North of the river. It was once a thriving fishing village and a centre for shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
. King James IV
James IV of Scotland
James IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from not only Scotland, but also from all...
had wanted to build a Scottish navy, but the existing port of Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
had proved unsuitable for large warships. In 1504 he created Newhaven (literally meaning new harbour) as a custom-built port, specifically to build the warship Michael
Michael (ship)
Michael was a carrack or great ship of the Royal Scottish Navy. She was too large to be built at any existing Scottish dockyard, so was built at the new dock at Newhaven, constructed in 1504 by order of King James IV of Scotland...
(popularly called the "Great Michael"). The ship was built between 1507 and 1511. The site of the original harbour is the current open space at Fishmarket Square.
Many of the founding families came from across the North Sea bringing their shipbuilding and rope making skills and customs and dress with them. As a result the town was well documented in photographs with many of the earliest photos being taken of the people in the area.
The Society of Free Fishermen of Newhaven dates from at least 1572 and was one of the oldest friendly societies in Scotland. It survived until 1989. Many of the Forth shipping pilot boats were based here.
The village was once connected by the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway
Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway
The Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway, which later became the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway, was a railway in Edinburgh. It carried passengers and freight between the city centre and the northern ports. It was Edinburgh's second railway, after the Duke of Buccleuch's Edinburgh and...
to 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...
and Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
, but it was shut down in 1956.
Between 1572 and 1890, Newhaven was a major oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
port. It also played a role in the whaling industry, marked by the name "Whale Brae" at the northmost end of Newhaven Road. A lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
was built on the harbour wall in 1869. Newhaven's harbour is now dwarfed by the enlarged Leith Harbour. The once thriving Victorian Fishmarket is now converted into a smaller fishmarket (still in use), and a Loch Fyne restaurant. The Newhaven Heritage Museum
Newhaven Heritage Museum
The Newhaven Heritage Museum was a museum located in the village of Newhaven, within the City of Edinburgh, Scotland. The museum detailed the history of the village, from its inception as a naval shipyard in the early 16th Century through the economic booms of the oyster and herring trades...
which used to occupy a small section of the old fishmarket closed in 2007. It is to be converted to a retail fishmonger, linked to the adjacent fishmarket.
The village also played its part in the birth of photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
. David Octavius Hill
David Octavius Hill
The Scottish painter and arts activist David Octavius Hill collaborated with the engineer and photographer Robert Adamson between 1843 and 1847 to pioneer many aspects of photography in Scotland.-Early life:...
and Robert Adamson
Robert Adamson (photographer)
Robert Adamson, was a Scottish pioneer photographer.Adamson was born in St. Andrews, he was hired in 1843 by David Octavius Hill , a painter of romantic Scottish landscapes. He was commissioned to make a group portrait of the 470 clergymen who founded the Free Church of Scotland. Hill required...
did many studies of the fishwives of Newhaven.
Newhaven was redeveloped by Edinburgh's planners in the 1950s and 1960s under the control of both the city architect (for the demolition elements) and Ian Lindsay and Partners (for the reconstruction). The Main Street was almost wholly obliterated but rebuilt in replica on its north side. The south side was rebuilt as three storey flats in a typically bland 1960s style. Other redevelopment in the area, at Great Michael Rise and on Laverockbank Crescent, was by eminent Scottish modern architect Sir Basil Spence
Basil Spence
Sir Basil Urwin Spence, OM, OBE, RA was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Modernist/Brutalist style.-Training:Spence was born in Bombay, India, the son of Urwin...
.
A 16th century armorial panel on the south side of the main street appears to come from Trinity Mains Farm, a farm estate linked to Trinity House 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....
, bearing the same crest as that building. The farm gave its name to the adjacent suburb of Trinity
Trinity, Edinburgh
Trinity is a leafy district of northern Edinburgh, Scotland, once a part of Greater Leith it is one of the more desirable neighbourhoods in Edinburgh...
. The panel is copied in part on a plaque on the local primary school.
The upper section of the village contained larger villas, looking down over the more crowded village of fishing cottages. Park Road holds the original whalemasters house (no.13) looking down onto the harbour below.
Notable inhabitants
Jimmy Campbell also played for the Scottish football team in the late 19th centuryTennis player Andy Murray trained here.
Glasgow musician Tony Donaldson has a house in Newhaven.
Transport
Newhaven is served by several buses: 7 and 11 going direct to the city centre, 16 linking to Leith and from there again to the city centre.Newhaven was part of the early 20th century tram route until 1956.
A new tramstop for the area, Newhaven tram stop
Newhaven tram stop
Newhaven tram stop was to be one of several Edinburgh Trams Phase 1a tram stops beyond St Andrews Square. It was cancelled due to cost overruns in June 2011. The stop would have been in the Newhaven area of Edinburgh, located on Lindsay Road...
, was proposed to serve the area as part of Edinburgh Trams. This section is no longer on the primary route for completion in the first phase.