Edinburgh’s port town of Leith was an independent burgh until it was amalgamated with Scotland’s capital city in November 1920. Nicola Lisle explores the town’s history, from its industrial heyday to 20th century decline and regeneration, and looks back at that controversial merger

Nestling on the shores of the Firth of Forth, Leith has played an important role in Scottish history, developing from a tiny medieval fishing town into one of the country’s leading industrial ports of the 19th century. The Shore, now lined with fashionable residences, restaurants and bars, was Leith’s original waterfront before the development of the docks, and despite its modernisation it retains many of its historical features.

In 1885, Francis H. Groome wrote in the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland that The Shore was ‘by far the most picturesque of the streets of Leith’ that ‘might well be mistaken for the quay-side street of some old French town’.

Leith suffered major industrial decline during the 20th century, but the regeneration of the old docklands from the 1980s has transformed the town into a modern, vibrant shopping and tourist hotspot.

The merger with Edinburgh in 1920 was bitterly resented by ‘Leithers’, but a century on, the town has retained its distinct character and identity.

Early Leith
There has been a settlement around the tidal mouth of the Water of Leith, where the river enters the Firth of Forth, since at least the 12th century, and the town became Edinburgh’s official port in 1329. Its importance as a port was strengthened when James I landed in Leith in 1423, the first of many royal visitors to its shores. Mary, Queen of Scots, sailed from Leith to France in 1548, returning in 1561 and staying briefly at Andro Lamb’s House on The Shore before proceeding to Holyrood Palace.

Medieval Leith was the scene of several conflicts, including the Siege of Leith in 1560, which ended a 12-year encampment of French troops in the town, and the five-year civil war (1568-73) that raged between Edinburgh and Leith after the abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567, with Leith becoming the base for supporters of James VI.

In 1650, a defensive earthwork was erected between Edinburgh and Leith in an attempt to repel Cromwell’s advancing army. The earthwork was later developed into Leith Walk, now the main pedestrian route linking Edinburgh and Leith.

After the Scots’ defeat at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650, Leith was chosen as one of Cromwell’s garrison towns, and in 1656 a large fort and barracks were built at Dock Street in North Leith under the supervision of General Monck. By the 18th century most of the fort had been demolished, and all that remains now is part of the gateway.

In 1698, Leith was at the heart of Scottish attempts to establish overseas trading colonies – attempts that sadly were to end in disaster. On 4 July, five ships left Leith Harbour for Darien in Central America, but the would-be settlers quickly realised that they were poorly prepared, with insufficient equipment and supplies, and the land was found to be unsuitable for development. Disease was rife, and they suffered repeated attacks from rival Spanish colonisers. Investors in the expedition lost their money, and the financial fallout was a contributory factor in the 1707 Act of Union with England.

Development and expansion
By the mid-18th century Leith had become a fashionable seaside resort, known for its golf and horse racing. Golf had been played in Leith at least as far back as the 15th century, and in 1744 the town sealed its reputation as the home of golf when the first official rules were drawn up by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, laying the foundation for the modern game. The current Leith Links was laid out in 1880, replacing much of the old golf course.

The annual Leith Races, established on Leith Sands in 1620, remained popular throughout the 18th century but was lost to Musselburgh in 1816.

Meanwhile, Leith’s fishing, shipbuilding and other related industries began to develop during the 18th century, but the town’s growth was hindered by the limitations of its tiny harbour. The shallow waters meant that ships could only move at high tide, resulting in loss of business to other ports. This led to the development of Leith’s docklands during the 19th century, and this, together with the arrival of the railway in 1842, helped to transform the town into one of Scotland’s leading industrial ports.

East Pier opened on 14 August 1821, and regular steamship sailings to London began under the auspices of the London & Edinburgh Steam Packet Company. The Leith & Hull Steam Packet Co began sailings in 1841, and the Gibson Line began steam sailings to Antwerp and Rotterdam in 1850.

By this time, a new West Pier had been built, and over the next 50 years several docks were built in Leith, including Victoria (1851), Prince of Wales (1858), Albert (1860), Edinburgh (1881), Alexandra (1896) and Imperial (1898).

The new docks brought increased prosperity to Leith. Warehouses, mills and tanneries sprang up around the dock areas, with soap manufacture, glass production, lead manufacture, sugar refining, iron founding, distilling and the production of lime juice all becoming established industries.

Ships sailed regularly from Leith carrying cargoes of fish, coal and grain to Europe, the Mediterranean and Canada, returning with wine, fruit, spices and cloth.

The building of a Custom House on the Shore at Leith in 1812, to collect duty on imported goods, was an important indicator of the town’s growing trade and confidence.

Shipbuilding continued to develop, with several local shipping lines being established, including Ben Line (1825) and Christian Salvesen (1872), as well as shipbuilders such as Henry Robb Ltd (1918). All were major local employers.

Ben Line, founded by brothers William and Alexander Thomson, was chiefly involved in the export of coal to Canada and the import of timber to Leith. Christian Salvesen, the son of a Norwegian merchant ship owner, was at the forefront of the whaling industry, which flourished in Scotland and northern England for much of the 19th century. His whaling fleet was one of the largest in the world, and Leith became Scotland’s chief whaling port, although it later lost its dominance to Peterhead and Dundee. Salvesen’s headquarters were in Bernard Street, Leith, and he is buried in Rosebank Cemetery on Pilrig Street in Leith.

Amalgamation with Edinburgh
By the late 19th century Leith’s fortunes were beginning to wane, and the trend continued into the new century. A dockers’ strike in 1913 brought civil unrest and violence to Leith’s streets, ending after months of acrimony with the dockers having failed in their bid for an increase in pay.

Tragedy hit the town on 22 May 1915 when members of the 1/7th Leith Battalion of the Royal Scots were killed in one of the UK’s worst ever rail disasters. The troops were setting off for Gallipoli but never made it out of Scotland as their train collided with a stationary train at Quintinshill, near Gretna Green. Moments later, a northbound Euston-Glasgow train ploughed into the wreckage, which was soon engulfed in flames.

It was estimated that more than 200 soldiers died, along with nine passengers and three railway employees, the figures never fully verified as some bodies were never recovered. The soldiers were buried in a mass grave at Rosebank Cemetery, Edinburgh.

Less than a year later, in April 1916, the town suffered extensive loss of life and damage to properties in a Zeppelin attack. In the immediate post-war years, there was widespread poverty in the town.

It was shortly after this, in July 1919, that Edinburgh Town Council brought forward a controversial proposal to extend the city boundary, incorporating not only Leith but also Musselburgh and the Midlothian parishes of Cramond, Corstorphine, Colinton, Inveresk and Liberton. The idea was to improve housing, transport and utilities for the area, but the merger was fiercely opposed by Leith townspeople and Leith Town Council. The town had enjoyed its status as an independent burgh since 1833, and few were willing to lose this independence less than a century later.

In the Leith Observer in May 1919, Provost John A. Lindsay referred to the past ‘stirrings and fightings not only with the tyrant in the City of Edinburgh but also with the French and the English’, which he felt were ‘an inspiration and strength to fight to maintain the liberty and freedom which has been won after such stirrings’.

The Leith Observer ran a plebiscite on the question on 24 January 1920, in which Leith voted overwhelmingly against the proposal – 29,891 against and 5,357 in favour.

By this time, a draft bill had already been agreed by Edinburgh Town Council and submitted to Parliament on 14 January.

Musselburgh and Inveresk were eventually dropped from the bill, and Midlothian County Council signalled their acceptance after an agreement with Edinburgh Town Council. Only Leith remained opposed to the idea.

Despite this, the Boundaries Extension and Tramways Act 1920 was passed in July and gained Royal Assent in August. As a result, the city of Edinburgh expanded from 17 square miles to 53 square miles, with the population increasing from 320,000 to 426,000.

Local elections were held on 15 October 1920 for the new amalgamated council, which met for the first time on 5 November 1920.

Decline and recovery
The Second World War and its aftermath brought further economic misery to Leith. Several local shipping lines closed down, and pit closures in Lanarkshire and Lothian hastened the decline of the coal industry. The docks gradually became neglected wastelands, forlorn remnants of Leith’s glory days.

Major regeneration began in the 1960s, with many of the old shops and tenements being swept away for redevelopment. The Forth Ports Authority was created in 1968, and work began to improve the docklands area. Today, this former industrial heartland has been transformed, with some of the docks being filled in and new accommodation, office buildings and shops being built in their place.

The biggest development was Ocean Terminal, a vast complex of shops, restaurants, cafes and bars, designed by Sir Terence Conran and built on the site of the Henry Robb shipyard, which closed in 1983 after more than 60 years. Ocean Terminal opened in 2001 and is served by a large multi-storey car park as well as regular bus services to Leith and Edinburgh. Its biggest attraction is the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was berthed alongside Ocean Terminal shortly after being decommissioned in 1997.

Leith’s original waterfront, The Shore, is now a calm backwater featuring numerous relics of its maritime past. A sailors’ home built in 1885 by Lord Roseberry is now a Malmaison Hotel, a 17th century signal tower that used to warn ships of the dangers of shallow waters still stands proudly on the corner of The Shore and Tower Street, and one of Salvesen’s harpoon guns by the water’s edge recalls the port’s whaling industry.

More recent additions are a Merchant Navy Memorial, erected in 2010, and a full-size bronze statue of Leith wine merchant Sandy Irvine Robertson, who founded the Scottish Business Achievements Awards Trust in 1982.

Leith may have reluctantly lost its independent status in 1920, but you wouldn’t think so as you wander around the place today. A hundred years on from that controversial merger, Leith is still determinedly independent in spirit – and shows little sign of surrendering that spirit any time soon.