#leith — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2026-05-25 · 05:30 UTC

Problèmes à Gogo: the thread about the Bonnington Bridge Bar

If you take yourself along the Water of Leith Walkway then, where you meet Newhaven Road, you will come to the burnt out shell of a building. It’s been this way for the best part of a decade: doors and windows boarded up, now covered in graffiti; a roof open to the elements, now sprouting saplings. Look below the parapet of the adjacent bridge and you might notice a mysterious plaque for Uranus Art Garden. Perhaps this is a gentle joke at the expense of Jupiter Art Land? Who knows, but if you look down through the overgrowth you will see a tiered patio down to the river. Is, or was, this that art garden? If so, how did it come to be here? And just what is the story with this ruinous structure?

The burnt-out shell of 74-76 Newhaven Road. Photo © SelfPlaque for “Uranus Art Garden”. Photo © SelfThe tiered riverside patio terrace. Photo © Self

What you have been pondering was once the public house known as The Bonnington Bridge; a small, neat building – barely a single room – at 74-76 Newhaven Road. It was built around 1868 when an application for a licence to sell excisable liquors was made to the Burgh of Leith by the appropriately named Theresa Beveridge. The premises at this time were also known as The Bonnington Bridge. This appellation obviously refers to the adjacent bridge of that name, allegedly first built in 1812 but clearly marked in 1804 maps and referred to in newspapers of that time. They stand on a plot of land that had hitherto been the garden of a house called Bridge Place and were let from Mr Miller of Bonnington Old House.

Bonnington Bridge in the snow, 1895, looking north with the bar of the same name beyond it to the right. Between the bar and the tenement is Bridge Place. Photograph by John McKean, in the Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries

Bonnington had long been a centre of milling and was progressively industrialised throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Its population was swelled by workers who provided a ready clientèle for an enterprising publican. In 1880 the licence transferred to Thomas Henderson then in 1890 to William Blyth. In the latter case it was granted on the proviso he “undertook to keep eatables such as sandwiches and bread and cheese and such like for the supply of customers“. In 1894 the vast Chancelot Mill opened nearby and the pub became a favoured haunt for its thirsty workers. Come the new century there license changed hands again; in 1902 to H. S. McKay and in 1904 to J. M. Clark.

OS 1876 town plan of Edinburgh highlighting P.H. (Public House). Note Bonnington Brae house and lodge on the left and Bonnington Old House to the right (east). Tenement housing has started to be built in this area, creeping north of the Water of Leith into an area that had been largely the preserve of villas until this time. Note also the station of the North British Railway to the north where the tracks pass beneath Newhaven Road. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

Between 1902 and 1903 the adjacent bridge was rebuilt and widened at the joint expense of the Corporations of Edinburgh and Leith. The boundary between these municipalities ran down its centre (see the dotted line in the above map) and therefore each was liable for a half share of the costs.

Plaque installed on Bonnington Bridge in 1902-03 when it was rebuilt and widened. Photo © Self

The pub’s licence was taken over in 1909 by David Bennet, who would keep it for fifteen years. By this time it had become a tied house of George Mackay & Co., who brewed on the Southside at St Leonard’s Street. Post Office Directories list it at this time as trading under the name of the Bonnington Bridge Tavern. Bennet suffered an elaborate burglary in June 1913 when slates were removed from the pub’s roof and a hole 15 inches square was cut in the sarking boards below to allow entry into the bar. The thieves failed to gain entry to the safe but made off with 18 Shillings from the till.

The next licensee was Mrs Jane Macintyre Whyte who was granted it in October 1925. It then transferred in 1938 to William R. W. Whitson, who would extend the premises to the rear. By the time Durward Moncur took over in 1963 the brewery was New Mackay Taverns. This latter change was the result of Mackay’s being taken over by the English brewer Watney Mann two years previously. The new owners put their Scottish tied houses into this subsidiary and used them to introduce the novelty of keg beer into the country; Watney’s Red Barrel.

Pint of Red Barrel please, Sid. Watney Red Barrel much in evidence in the 1972 film Carry on Abroad.

In March 1965 a loyal customer of fifty plus years, seventy three year old John Black, sued bar manager John Ward for £500 for loss of earnings. Black claimed he had been ejected from the premises – after cracking a joke about being overcharged – with such force that he required hospitalisation and seven weeks off work. The newspapers did not report if his claim was successful. Ownership changed again in 1969 when it was moved to Waverley Taverns (Scotland) Ltd, another Wattney Mann holding company. This was the result of a further takeover, merging the former Mackay’s premises with those of Drybrough’s of Craigmillar.

The decline of heavy industry in the district in the 1960s and 70s saw the pub’s demographic drift away from being a humble howff for the working man. By the early 1980s it had forged itself a new reputation as offering the latest opening times in Leith – 2AM every weekday – and always being good for a “lock in“. To keep the punters entertained there was live Jazz on Thursdays, country night on Fridays and a Golden Oldies disco on Saturday. And Go-Go dancers. Go-Go dancers every lunch time, late on weeknights and all day Friday and Saturday. Sunday was the Lord’s Day and therefore there would be no dancers and no drinking: the doors remained firmly closed.

Scotsman, 26th November 1982. The opening hours were varied to 1AM every day Monday to Saturday in 1993.

When the author of 1987’s Leith Pub Guide‘s – the appropriately named Derry Beer – visited he recorded it being known locally as either The Bonny or The Bridge. In his opinion the place “really comes to life at night” and was a favourite spot for stag nights and rowdy bowling club celebrations. The landlord at this time was John Murray, who also ran a print shop over the road.

The Bonnington Bridge in 1987, picture from the Leith Pub Guide by Derry Beer.

The 1990s saw a series of landlords come and go. In 1992 it passed to John Moriarty, who also ran the Alhambra Bar on Leith Walk (one wonders if he was a relation of the famous Mary Moriarty who ran the Port O’ Leith). In 1995 it was taken over by Michele Marr and in 1998 transferred to Gary Reid and James Gourlay. These latter owners changed the name to the Newhaven Inn, a somewhat odd choice given the fact it lies a kilometre south of that particular village. The name stuck despite the geographic anomaly and was retained when it was taken over in 2003 by Ian and Moira Brown. By this time the trading hours had moved with the times, the doors opening on Sundays but with the late nights pared back; midnight on Thursdays and 1AM on Friday and Saturdays.

In 2006 a further change came to the little pub when it found itself in the vast portfolio of national operator Punch Taverns. This was the result of an extended and convoluted series of takeovers in the pub trade. Wattney Mann was taken over by Grand Metropolitan in 1972, who sold their tied houses to Courage in 1991. The latter was bought by Scottish & Newcastle in 1995 who sold their tied houses to Punch in 2003. The new owners were granted planning permission to build a small extension for a new kitchen and add a raised outdoor seating deck overlooking the river. This was possibly a response to the ban of smoking in enclosed public spaces in Scotland year (has it really been 20 years?) At this time the name was also sensibly changed back to its original Bonnington Bridge.

The “Bonny” in 2008 when the Google Streetview car passed. This shows the work done as granted by the 2006 planning permission, adding the small kitchen extension and outside seating deck.

The Bonny hit the news in May 2009 for the wrong reasons when a cannabis farm was discovered in its basement. Police officers searching for stolen property there found more than 350 plants, valued between £50-150,000, behind a series of locked doors in the cellar. They were being tended by an undocumented immigrant, 40 year old Ming Lee, who told them he had been paid £100 a week to tend them. Lee claimed to have been locked downstairs for two weeks and had only been allowed out once to buy food. At this time the owner was still Punch, who denied any and all knowledge of what had been going on.

Punch shuttered the pub and would never re-open it. Obviously deciding it was time to call last orders they put it up for sale later in the year. Planning permission was granted at that time to turn it into a fireplace showroom and that might have been that for our story had it not been for a company called Nocturnal Aviators Limited. Formed as Malsen Limited in 2001, the company was dormant until it bought the pub for £120,000 in April 2010. It planned to return it to its original use, having been granted planning permission to thoroughly expand and modernise it. Its goal was to take advantage of the position overlooking the Water if Leith and pivot the business from traditional boozer to a family-friendly, food-centric bistro. The man behind this was the company’s sole shareholder and director; former Scotland Rugby international turned publican and businessman, Norrie Rowan. After making a name for himself on the Murrayfield turf in the 1980s, he remade it in the 1990s by excavating The Vaults and The Caves out of the cellars and arches beneath South Bridge. In doing so he forged a reputation for doing things his way, digging first and asking questions later, repeatedly coming into conflict with city planners and engineers along the way.

Still from a promotional video issued by Norrie Rowan on YouTube for his 2022 council election campaign

Like his previous schemes, Rowan once again intended to expand downwards. In the basement he would create a restaurant and second bar, from where a new patio terrace on the river bank would be accessed through folding glass doors. Work began, but repeatedly appears to have stalled and never reached a conclusion. Once again one of Norrie Rowan’s schemes brought him into conflict with the Council and there are a series of enforcement actions and appeals detailed in official records (summarised in the table at the foot of this post). And yet again he also managed to upset the city’s Roads Engineers, who charged he had been digging into cellars beneath the bridge without permission. Rowan contended these were within the curtilage of his property and that they had not proved otherwise.

If one looks back using Google Streetview then – from the outside at least – it work appears to have been nearing completion in 2012. At that time however a full new planning application was taken that further altered and extended the place. The defining feature of this updated scheme was a large steel-framed, south-facing, glass dormer that sought to bring more daylight down into the building. It was somewhat at odds with the traditional masonry façade and wood-clad alterations at the side and was was initially rejected at planning. Rowan decided to build it anyway and managed to have it approved retrospectively on appeal.

Google Streetview, April 2016, showing the state of works at The Bonnington Bridge. From the outside at least things appear to be finally getting close to finishing.

Further complaints against him during this time were that we was flytipping on the riverbank – he claimed instead he was cleaning up the mess of others – and that his property was unkempt. Another claim was made that walls were being built on the riverbank without permission and there were two that he was undertaking unauthorised works beneath the bridge structure. No action was ever taken against any of these complaints. It should be noted however that the various walls that were built on the riverbank bare no relation to anything shown on any planning drawings. They do however denote this area as containing raised beds for “planting and sculpture“. Is this the Uranus Art Garden? One wonders if this was something of a wry joke on Rowan’s part after having so many unfounded complaints raised against his scheme.

Drawing from 2012 planning application showing the new basement restuarant area, access through to a lower terrace and the tiered walls and staircase down to a riverside “pathway”, which is actually just a further tier of patio area and not related to the Water of Leith Walkway which runs on a steel structure overhead. City of Edinburgh Council, Ref. No: 12/02512/FUL

By 2016 the pub had been closed for seven years and finally appeared – from the outside at least – to be approaching a state of completion (again). Disaster struck however on August 15th when the building was gutted by a fire, which was sufficiently intense to have been photographed by visitors to Edinburgh Castle. The Broughton Spurtle – self-described stirrer of local news – reported “when we spoke to Police Scotland on 18 August, the cause of the fire had not been established, and enquiries were ‘ongoing.’” They ended with “Let’s hope the owner was insured.” Planning documents submitted to the Council on his behalf in 2019 noted “a lengthy insurance case was being contested“.

Photograph submitted with planning application for a temporary extension to the pub (18/09350/FUL)

It’s not clear if a cause for the fire was ever established. Rowan wrote a letter of reply to the Spurtle in which he detailed his version of the difficulties encountered by the project. He concluded “these delays have led to the situation we now find ourselves in. What could have been an attractive and vibrant access point to the walkway looks likely to remain an eyesore for several more years“.

Google Streetview image in November 2019, a few months after the catastrophic fire.

A less determined individual might have just given up after so much time and the disastrous fire, but in 2018 another of Rowan’s company – Termshield Ltd – sought a 5-year consent with a view to rising from the ashes. This rising was quite literal and involved extending upwards by two-storeys using six shipping containers, welded together. This proposal was refused and an appeal was rejected in 2019. The premises’ licence expired that year and given the site appear to all intents and purposes to have been abandoned since then, they have never been renewed. At this time Norrie Rowan decided to turn his hand to local politics, with limited success.

Architect’s drawing of the proposed shipping container extension, from planning appeal to 18/09350/FUL

Seven years on from this last activity, if you manage to look through a gap in the rotting boards across the doors or windows you will see a sad site within; bare walls, burnt roof timbers and a filling of flytipped tyres and building waste being slowly overtaken by the Buddleia. Accounts for Nocturnal Aviators Ltd filed with Companies House indicate this ruin remains the company’s sole tangible asset. In its filings for 2025 they are recorded as a “potential development site owned by the company“. One imagines that after a catastrophic fire and a decade open to the elements, demolition and redevelopment might one day at last make a return on this troublesome investment.

The burnt out interior of the Bonnington Bridge Bar in May 2026, open to the elements and being encroached upon by nature, vandalism and flytipping. Photo taken through a hole in the boarded up door. Photo © SelfReference & DateDescriptionOutcome09/03274/FUL – January 2010…form new sliding folding doors to ground and lower floors, form new patio to lower floor, extension to lower floor to form beer cellarGranted10/00327/EAMEN – June 2010Enforcement. Alleged untidy landNo further action09/03274/VARY – March 2011Non material variation…Alterations to external windows and doors and external stairsConsent varied11/00365/ELBB – June 2011Enforcement. Unauthorised works to listed bridge.No further action.
11/00509/ELBB – August 2011Enforcement. Construction of stone walls on riverbank.No further action.12/02512/FUL – July 2012External alterations and formation of stair and dormer window.Mixed, granted on appeal12/00497/ELBB – August 2012Enforcement. Unauthorised works to listed bridge.No further action.12/00104/REVREF – September 2012Appeal for 12/02512/FULGranted13/00195/EOPDEV – April 2013Enforcement. Erection of side dormer without planning permission.No further action. Permission had been granted on appeal.15/00609/EAMEN – November 2015Enforcement. Alleged untidy landNo further action.16/00010/EAMEN – January 2016Enforcement. Alleged untidy landTreated as duplicate of 15/00609/EAMAN. No further action18/09350/FUL – October 2018Alter fire damaged public house by removal of existing attic floor and form two temporary extensions using shipping containers.Refused, refused on appeal19/00043/REVREF – April 2019Appeal for 18/09350/FULRefusedDate of validation used for Planning, date received for EnforcementSummary of planning applications and enforcement actions relating to 74 Newhaven Road, 2009 – 2019

If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.

Explore Threadinburgh by map:

Travelers' Map is loading...
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.

NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret

#bonnington #bridge #edinburgh #fires #leith #pub

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-24 · 22:03 UTC

Walking the Walk

https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55290117956/in/photostream/lightbox/

Leith Walk in sunlight and shadow

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #LeithWalk #Leith #batiment #immeuble

#immeuble #batiment #leith #leithwalk #architecture #photographie

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-24 · 22:03 UTC

Walking the Walk

https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55290117956/in/photostream/lightbox/

Leith Walk in sunlight and shadow

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #LeithWalk #Leith #batiment #immeuble

#immeuble #batiment #leith #leithwalk #architecture #photographie

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-24 · 22:03 UTC

Walking the Walk

https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55290117956/in/photostream/lightbox/

Leith Walk in sunlight and shadow

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #LeithWalk #Leith #batiment #immeuble

#immeuble #batiment #leith #leithwalk #architecture #photographie

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-24 · 22:03 UTC

Walking the Walk

https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55290117956/in/photostream/lightbox/

Leith Walk in sunlight and shadow

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #LeithWalk #Leith #batiment #immeuble

#edinburgh #edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #leithwalk

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-24 · 22:03 UTC

Walking the Walk

https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55290117956/in/photostream/lightbox/

Leith Walk in sunlight and shadow

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #LeithWalk #Leith #batiment #immeuble

#immeuble #batiment #leith #leithwalk #architecture #photographie

GLOBAL Visibility aéPiot - by aePiot.ro @[email protected] · 2026-05-10 · 13:12 UTC

#COOKU #WITH #COMALI #SEASON 7 advanced-search.headlines-world.com/advanced-sea... #JAMES #LEITH #MOODY multi-search-tag-explorer.allgraph.ro/advanced-sea... www.paypal.com/donate?busin... aePiot: Sparking the Web 4.0 fire. Build nodes and rule SEO.

MultiSearch Tag Explorer

#cooku #with #comali #season #james #leith

GLOBAL Visibility aéPiot - by aePiot.ro @[email protected] · 2026-05-10 · 13:12 UTC

#COOKU #WITH #COMALI #SEASON 7 advanced-search.headlines-world.com/advanced-sea... #JAMES #LEITH #MOODY multi-search-tag-explorer.allgraph.ro/advanced-sea... www.paypal.com/donate?busin... aePiot: Sparking the Web 4.0 fire. Build nodes and rule SEO.

MultiSearch Tag Explorer

#cooku #with #comali #season #james #leith

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-09 · 21:47 UTC

And here's a closer zoom - you can see these enormous wind farm structures sitting on a huge ship, ready to be taken offshore
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55259592330/in/photostream/lightbox/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #GreenEnergy #WindFarm #Leith #LeithDocks #Ship #Beateau #Engineering

#engineering #beateau #ship #leithdocks #leith #windfarm

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-09 · 21:47 UTC

And here's a closer zoom - you can see these enormous wind farm structures sitting on a huge ship, ready to be taken offshore
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55259592330/in/photostream/lightbox/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #GreenEnergy #WindFarm #Leith #LeithDocks #Ship #Beateau #Engineering

#engineering #beateau #ship #leithdocks #leith #windfarm

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-09 · 21:47 UTC

And here's a closer zoom - you can see these enormous wind farm structures sitting on a huge ship, ready to be taken offshore
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55259592330/in/photostream/lightbox/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #GreenEnergy #WindFarm #Leith #LeithDocks #Ship #Beateau #Engineering

#engineering #beateau #ship #leithdocks #leith #windfarm

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-09 · 21:47 UTC

And here's a closer zoom - you can see these enormous wind farm structures sitting on a huge ship, ready to be taken offshore
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55259592330/in/photostream/lightbox/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #GreenEnergy #WindFarm #Leith #LeithDocks #Ship #Beateau #Engineering

#edinburgh #edimbourg #photography #photographie #greenenergy #windfarm

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-09 · 21:47 UTC

And here's a closer zoom - you can see these enormous wind farm structures sitting on a huge ship, ready to be taken offshore
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55259592330/in/photostream/lightbox/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #GreenEnergy #WindFarm #Leith #LeithDocks #Ship #Beateau #Engineering

#engineering #beateau #ship #leithdocks #leith #windfarm

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-09 · 21:36 UTC

Looking towards Leith and the Forth, from Calton Hill
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55259331743/in/photostream/lightbox/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #Leith #CItyscape #CaltonHill #BlackAndWhitePhotography

#blackandwhitephotography #caltonhill #cityscape #leith #architecture #photographie

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-09 · 21:36 UTC

Looking towards Leith and the Forth, from Calton Hill
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55259331743/in/photostream/lightbox/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #Leith #CItyscape #CaltonHill #BlackAndWhitePhotography

#blackandwhitephotography #caltonhill #cityscape #leith #architecture #photographie

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-09 · 21:36 UTC

Looking towards Leith and the Forth, from Calton Hill
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55259331743/in/photostream/lightbox/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #Leith #CItyscape #CaltonHill #BlackAndWhitePhotography

#blackandwhitephotography #caltonhill #cityscape #leith #architecture #photographie

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-09 · 21:36 UTC

Looking towards Leith and the Forth, from Calton Hill
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55259331743/in/photostream/lightbox/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #Leith #CItyscape #CaltonHill #BlackAndWhitePhotography

#edinburgh #edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #leith

LordWoolamaloo @[email protected] · 2026-05-09 · 21:36 UTC

Looking towards Leith and the Forth, from Calton Hill
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/55259331743/in/photostream/lightbox/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #architecture #Leith #CItyscape #CaltonHill #BlackAndWhitePhotography

#blackandwhitephotography #caltonhill #cityscape #leith #architecture #photographie

United Kingdom @[email protected] · 2026-05-06 · 13:42 UTC

https://www.europesays.com/britain/30039/ Masked Edinburgh youth waited in bushes before murdering young man with ‘Rambo knife’ #Leith #PoliceScotland #UK #UnitedKingdom

#unitedkingdom #uk #policescotland #leith

The Edinburgh Minute @[email protected] · 2026-04-29 · 06:29 UTC

🌤️ Good morning Edinburgh. Wednesday’s headlines: £15.5m to tackle homelessness, victory for campaign against Shore holiday flats, Tollcross clock to return, Water of Leith camera warning + local mum wins lunch with George Clooney

⏰ Read today’s newsletter: https://www.edinburghminute.com/the-edinburgh-minute-wednesday-29-april-2026/

Photo by: @TomDuffinPhotos

#edinburgh #leith #scotland

#scotland #leith #edinburgh

The Edinburgh Minute @[email protected] · 2026-04-29 · 06:29 UTC

🌤️ Good morning Edinburgh. Wednesday’s headlines: £15.5m to tackle homelessness, victory for campaign against Shore holiday flats, Tollcross clock to return, Water of Leith camera warning + local mum wins lunch with George Clooney

⏰ Read today’s newsletter: https://www.edinburghminute.com/the-edinburgh-minute-wednesday-29-april-2026/

Photo by: @TomDuffinPhotos

#edinburgh #leith #scotland

#scotland #leith #edinburgh

The Edinburgh Minute @[email protected] · 2026-04-29 · 06:29 UTC

🌤️ Good morning Edinburgh. Wednesday’s headlines: £15.5m to tackle homelessness, victory for campaign against Shore holiday flats, Tollcross clock to return, Water of Leith camera warning + local mum wins lunch with George Clooney

⏰ Read today’s newsletter: https://www.edinburghminute.com/the-edinburgh-minute-wednesday-29-april-2026/

Photo by: @TomDuffinPhotos

#edinburgh #leith #scotland

#scotland #leith #edinburgh

The Edinburgh Minute @[email protected] · 2026-04-29 · 06:29 UTC

🌤️ Good morning Edinburgh. Wednesday’s headlines: £15.5m to tackle homelessness, victory for campaign against Shore holiday flats, Tollcross clock to return, Water of Leith camera warning + local mum wins lunch with George Clooney

⏰ Read today’s newsletter: https://www.edinburghminute.com/the-edinburgh-minute-wednesday-29-april-2026/

Photo by: @TomDuffinPhotos

#edinburgh #leith #scotland

Edinburgh @[email protected] · 2026-04-26 · 23:45 UTC

Edinburgh’s Easter Road left in ‘chaos’ after Hibs’ derby defeat

Locals took to social media to voice their concerns. Easter Road and surrounding streets were covered with litter.(Image:…
#Edinburgh #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #Scotland #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #Britain #EasterRoadStadium #GreatBritain #HeartofMidlothianFC #HibernianFC #Leith
https://www.europesays.com/uk/920621/

#leith #hibernianfc #heartofmidlothianfc #greatbritain #easterroadstadium #britain

UK @[email protected] · 2026-04-26 · 22:57 UTC

https://www.europesays.com/uk/920621/ Edinburgh’s Easter Road left in ‘chaos’ after Hibs’ derby defeat #Britain #EasterRoadStadium #Edinburgh #GreatBritain #HeartOfMidlothianFC #HibernianFC #Leith #Scotland #UK #UnitedKingdom

#unitedkingdom #uk #scotland #leith #hibernianfc #heartofmidlothianfc

jan @[email protected] · 2026-04-24 · 21:10 UTC

Brown’s of Leith / Timber Bush.

#leith #edinburgh #scotland #photography #FensterFreitag

#fensterfreitag #photography #scotland #edinburgh #leith

jan @[email protected] · 2026-04-24 · 21:10 UTC

Brown’s of Leith / Timber Bush.

#leith #edinburgh #scotland #photography #FensterFreitag

#fensterfreitag #photography #scotland #edinburgh #leith

jan @[email protected] · 2026-04-24 · 21:10 UTC

Brown’s of Leith / Timber Bush.

#leith #edinburgh #scotland #photography #FensterFreitag

#fensterfreitag #photography #scotland #edinburgh #leith

jan @[email protected] · 2026-04-24 · 21:10 UTC

Brown’s of Leith / Timber Bush.

#leith #edinburgh #scotland #photography #FensterFreitag

#leith #edinburgh #scotland #photography #fensterfreitag

jan @[email protected] · 2026-04-24 · 21:10 UTC

Brown’s of Leith / Timber Bush.

#leith #edinburgh #scotland #photography #FensterFreitag

#fensterfreitag #photography #scotland #edinburgh #leith

Edinburgh @[email protected] · 2026-04-23 · 21:00 UTC

Leith Festival hit with backlash about use of AI marketing

Darren Smith first came under fire this week, after it emerged that he had used generative AI tools to help…
#Edinburgh #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #Scotland #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #AI #Art #Britain #EdinburghFestivals #Festivals #graphicdesign #GreatBritain #Leith #LeithFestival
https://www.europesays.com/uk/913938/

#leithfestival #leith #greatbritain #graphicdesign #festivals #edinburghfestivals

UK @[email protected] · 2026-04-23 · 20:49 UTC

https://www.europesays.com/uk/913938/ Leith Festival hit with backlash about use of AI marketing #AI #Art #Britain #Edinburgh #EdinburghFestivals #Festivals #GraphicDesign #GreatBritain #Leith #LeithFestival #Scotland #UK #UnitedKingdom

#unitedkingdom #uk #scotland #leithfestival #leith #greatbritain

Edinburgh @[email protected] · 2026-04-21 · 21:30 UTC

Edinburgh woman left shaken after gang of youths ‘launch mayonnaise in her face’

‘I cried afterwards. It has left me feeling very emotional’ The youths responsible for the alleged attack. An…
#Edinburgh #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #Scotland #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #Britain #Crime #GreatBritain #Leith #PoliceScotland
https://www.europesays.com/uk/909632/

#policescotland #leith #greatbritain #crime #britain #eu

UK @[email protected] · 2026-04-21 · 21:05 UTC

https://www.europesays.com/uk/909632/ Edinburgh woman left shaken after gang of youths ‘launch mayonnaise in her face’ #Britain #Crime #Edinburgh #GreatBritain #Leith #PoliceScotland #Scotland #UK #UnitedKingdom

#unitedkingdom #uk #scotland #policescotland #leith #greatbritain

Edinburgh @[email protected] · 2026-04-21 · 10:00 UTC

Edinburgh locals wake to police tent outside flats as investigation launched

‘It was just really unexpected’ 09:05, 21 Apr 2026Updated 09:06, 21 Apr 2026 A forensic tent has been…
#Edinburgh #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #Scotland #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #Britain #GreatBritain #Leith #PoliceScotland
https://www.europesays.com/uk/908624/

#policescotland #leith #greatbritain #britain #eu #europe

UK @[email protected] · 2026-04-21 · 09:15 UTC

https://www.europesays.com/uk/908624/ Edinburgh locals wake to police tent outside flats as investigation launched #Britain #Edinburgh #GreatBritain #Leith #PoliceScotland #Scotland #UK #UnitedKingdom

#unitedkingdom #uk #scotland #policescotland #leith #greatbritain

Edinburgh @[email protected] · 2026-04-19 · 22:30 UTC

Review: Ernest & Bob, a hamburger restaurant on Leith Walk

Ernest & Bob has become a cornerstone of the Leith Walk food scene and one of those locations…
#Edinburgh #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #Scotland #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #Britain #Burgers #ernest&bob #GreatBritain #Leith #LeithWalk
https://www.europesays.com/uk/905538/

#leithwalk #leith #greatbritain #ernest #burgers #britain

UK @[email protected] · 2026-04-19 · 22:26 UTC

https://www.europesays.com/uk/905538/ Review: Ernest & Bob, a hamburger restaurant on Leith Walk #Britain #Burgers #Edinburgh #Ernest&Bob #GreatBritain #Leith #LeithWalk #Scotland #UK #UnitedKingdom

#unitedkingdom #uk #scotland #leithwalk #leith #greatbritain

Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2026-04-15 · 05:00 UTC

Educating Newhaven: the thread about the Victoria and other Schools

Since at least he late 16th century, education in the village of Newhaven has been conducted under the auspices of the Society of Free Fishermen. This was the local fraternal society, one which jealously guarded the privilege of maintaining their own poor and providing for the community. Their first known schoolroom in School Close (now called Lamb’s Court) off of the Main Street, the building and teacher paid for by the Society. Its pupils – all boys at the time – paid a fee, which could be waived at the discretion of the Boxmaster; the elected official in charge of the Free Fishermen’s poor box.

Newhaven as depicted on Robinson & Fergus’ 1759 survey of Edinburgh. Main Street is easily discernible, with Whale Brae ending at the The Whale inn and the recognisable placename of “Peacocks” at the edge of the village by the Links. The Free Fishermen’s first school was in the range of buildings highlighted blue, to the west of St Andrew’s Square (now Fishmarket Square). Credit Edinburgh City Archives, own photo.

By the early 19th century the old schoolroom was dilapidated and so in 1817, under the spiritual guidance of the Rev Dr Ireland of North Leith Parish Church (where Newhaven then worshipped), the foundation stone for a new schoolhouse was laid at the west of Main Street: where the Free Fishermen’s meeting hall would later be built. The Society raised £140 towards the cost, the City of Edinburgh (the notional civic authority) contributed £10, £5 each came from the Duke of Buccleuch and Lord Melville, and twenty cartloads of “best rubble” were donated by the proprietors of Craigleith Quarry. The teacher who was employed was not up to his task however and the Rev Ireland took an ever increasing role in oversight to ensure the children’s literacy was sufficient for them to read their catechism and the bible, thus progress in their religious and moral education. In 1822 the minister instituted the Newhaven Education Society, which the following year took over complete control of the school. By 1825 girls and infants (aged three to seven) were being admitted, the latter being unusual at the time and of great value in a community where the menfolk were away at sea much of the time and the women and older girls daily worked far from the village.

“Newhaven Minstrels” by Keeley Halswelle, 1866. Black and white facsimile from a sale at Sotheby’s of the original oil painting depicting children of Newhaven singing. Halswelle painted a number of evocative, romantic scenes of Newhaven folk around this time. Credit Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

In 1828 the charge of North Leith Parish was taken up by Rev Dr James Buchanan at which time the school had one hundred and sixty pupils. The new minister began to conduct mid-week services at the schoolhouse for the benefit of the elderly and infirm, which grew in popularity to such an extent to make the case of building a church in the village itself (its previous – Catholic – chapel had fallen out of use after the Reformation in 1560). In October 1836 a new Chapel of Ease was opened on the New Cut (the northern extension of Craighall Road) as a mission of North Leith under Buchanan. Newspaper reports note that the undercroft was to house a school, but whether this was a day school or a Sabbath school is not clear. In 1838 the church was raised to the status of a Quoad Sacra Parish (that is one in only an ecclesiastical sense, without the civic functions of a civil parish) under its own minister, the Rev James Fairbairn.

The Rev Dr James Fairbairn (seated) preaches to Bessy Crombie, Mary Combe, Margaret Lyell and two other Newhaven Fishwives, while James Gall of the Carrubbers Close Mission listens on. The scene is staged for the camera outside the Rock Villa studio of David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson on Calton Hill. Collection of the National Galleries of Scotland

The Rev Buchanan left North Leith for the High Kirk of Edinburgh in 1840 but had likely instituted a committee before his departure to try and acquire a feu of land to build a new village school. These plans came at a turbulent time in the religious life of Newhaven (and Scotland in general): at The Disruption of 1843 the majority of the parishioners followed their minister and walked out of the Established Church of Scotland (the Kirk) and into the new Free Kirk. In this case the walk-out was figurative as well as literal – the Free Kirk congregation refused to give up the use of the parish church until they were removed by legal action in 1849 (allegedly the communion silverware mysteriously “disappeared” at this time). In the midst of this upheaval the site for a new school was secured at the east of the village on Newhaven Links from the City of Edinburgh. This spot was at that time home to a dilapidated boat shed called the Life House, which housed a lifeboat eschewed by the fishermen who preferred and trusted their own boats for mercy missions and never used it. The map below shows that this school’s boundary wall was on the high spring tide mark.

1852 Ordnance Survey Town Plan of Edinburgh showing the Victoria School at the west of the Links. A single room, single storey affair with tiered seating at one end and other bench seats around the walls and in the centre of the floor. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

The foundation stone was laid in 1844 and it is likely that the Free Kirk was involved in the establishment as they maintained privileges of using the premises as a Sunday School and it served as a temporary home while their new church was erected on Pier Place. It was however not a denominational school: the Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1853 records it was superintended by ministers of both village kirks. The building was a simple affair; a single storey, single room, Gothic-style affair by the architect John Lessels. The Building Stones of Edinburgh lists its stone as coming from Grange Quarry in Burntisland, which corresponds with anecdotal evidence that the steeple of the Free Kirk had its stones brought across the Forth from Fife in the fishermen’s boats. The Caledonian Mercury in February 1846 refers to it as the New Schoolhouse however it would soon acquire the name of Victoria School in honour of the monarch, confirmed in the aforementioned Name Book:

A neat and substantially built schoolhouse in the Village of Newhaven, it was erected in 1835 and is under the superintendence of the Ministers of Established & Free Churches, the attendance is about 80 scholars and the schoolmaster’s salary consisting of school fees and other amendments amounts to about £50
Ordnance Survey Name Book for Midlothian, entry for Victoria School. Vol. 76 (North Leith Parish) page 81, 1852. OS1/11/76

The date of erection given above – 1835 – cannot be correct, however it may suggest that the school had its origins in an earlier establishment before it removed to the 1844 building; perhaps it is that mentioned as being held in the undercroft of the parish church? Naming the new school after the reigning monarch would not have been an unusual thing to do, however Newhaven had a special place in its heart for her on account of a diary entry she made on the occasion of her visit to Edinburgh:

…the fishwomen are the most striking-looking people, and are generally young and pretty women – very clean and very Dutch-looking, with their white caps and bright-coloured petticoats.
Queen Victoria’s diary entry regarding Newhaven Fishwives, 3rd September 1842

1852 Town Plan of Edinburgh, centred on Newhaven, showing the Quoad Sacra parish church on the left (green), the Free Kirk on Pier Place in blue and three red buildings, from left to right these are; the 1817 school of the Newhaven Education Society, the original Free Fishermen’s school on School Close and the 1843 Victoria School. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

The Victoria School operated alongside the old Free Fishermen’s school for a time, however by the dawn of the 1860s the latter was no longer up to its task and so in June 1861 factional differences were put to one side and both village ministers jointly presided over the laying of the foundation stone of another new school. £1,100 had been raised towards this locally and it was to be located on ground behind the parish church on the New Cut, although was to be non-denominational. Unfortunately work was brought to a stop by the untimely death of a key promoter – Dr Robertson, Professor of Church History at the University of Edinburgh – that caused that the organising committee to overlook applying for the necessary government grant, leaving half the required funds wanting. The building was therefore only partially completed when it opened in 1862 for its first 200 scholars and a great fund-raising effort took place across Edinburgh to help finish it, which took place in 1863 with the aid of funds from the trust of the late Dr Andrew Bell (see also Dr Bell’s School). For this latter reason it became known as the Madras School as it adopted Bell’s Madras System of monitorial education, i.e. where a single, large, multi-age class was presided over by a teacher whose instruction was relayed to the pupils by monitors; older children more advanced in their studies. The 1861 census recorded 605 children of school age in Newhaven at that time, 300 of which could be taught in this new school.

The Madras School behind the former Newhaven-on-Forth Parish Church, outlined amber. The two-storey addition to the left was a house for the schoolmaster. After its school use it became the church hall, and latterly the church building was converted to housing and the congregation now worships in the hall.

Alterations were also made to Victoria by Lessels in 1861 and its school role increased to a point where infant classes had to be moved back to the old Free Fishermen’s School; probably what is referred to as St John’s Infant School in some newspaper mentions. Newhaven continued to provide for the education of its own children in this manner for the next decade or so, until everything changed with the passing of the Education (Scotland) Act 1872, which both made education compulsory for children between the ages of five and thirteen and also formed School Boards (largely along parish or burgh boundaries) to organise it. Newhaven was placed within the new Leith School Board, who surveyed the state of affairs in the village and found there were 291 children in the Madras School, 110 at Victoria, 141 in the infant school and 53 in the Free Kirk’s school; a total of 595. There were also children attending a school to the west on Lower Granton Road but this had been allocated to Cramond School Board who could not come to terms with the Leith Board and so they were unceremoniously barred from the former. At this time the Board found 22% of all children of school age in their district were not in education so their immediate priority was to find capacity for accommodating this absent fifth of scholars.

Former Granton School, hard to spot in the terrace of cottages on Lower Granton Road, look for the small ventilator cowl on the roof and the changed spacing of the doors.

Looking at Newhaven’s schools, the Board found it could not acquire the Madras School as it was built on land vested in perpetuity to the Church, so they left it to continue to be run under its existing management and instead took over the Victoria School in 1874. At this time they extended the building and to this end 705 square metres of Newhaven Links were acquired from the Leith Dock Commissioners on very favourable terms. The Board’s architect George Craig added a new wing to the rear bringing capacity up to about 300, with associated entrance vestibules and toilets to bring the place up to the required standards of the Scotch Education Department (grants towards funding were dependent on the Boards meeting the standards for buildings set out in the Department’s Scotch Code). At this time the playground was also expanded and divided into separate spaces for boys and girls.

1876 Town Plan of Edinburgh, showing the footprint of the Victoria School after its 1874 extension by the Board, with the original outline and boundary of the 1844 schoolhouse shown in red. The plot size was almost doubled by this time, new entrance vestibules added and a new wing built to the rear but it remained single storey. Playgrounds for girls and boys were now separated. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

By 1879 the roll at Victoria was 294 with an average attendance of 257: at 12% the absence rate was the lowest across the Leith district, which averaged 18%. With the school reaching capacity in 1884 the Board spent £2,854 to expand it again, increasing accommodation to 503 pupils. No additional land was available for the expansion so architect George Craig had to build up, adding an additional storey. This required three external stair towers to access the upper floor, segregated for boys and girls, as the original building lacked an internal stairwell. Infants and juniors would remain on the ground floor, the senior children going upstairs. Particular attention was paid to ventilation – an obsession to Victorian school designers – with inlet vents added at floor levels, patent fanlights at the tops of all classroom windows and a large fleche-style ventilation cupola on the roof crossing, in which a gas burner created a through draught to extract classroom air through vents in all the classroom ceilings. At this time a small belfry was added above the west stair tower for the school bell and a hot water heating system was installed, the boiler located in a basement at the rear.

1893 Town Plan of Edinburgh, showing the footprint of Victoria School after its 1885 extension by the Board highlighted orange, the original 1844 building in red and the 1874 additions in blue. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

To raise the height of the building the original decorative buttresses on the south elevation had to be expanded to take on a practical function and support the facade of the upper storey. Craig kept the additions in the Collegiate Gothic style that was then in vogue for school architecture and added carved date panels which read: 1843 VICTORIA 1885, LEITH SCHOOL BOARD. At the formal re-opening on Monday March 2nd 1885 the Chairman of the School Board, Dr Mitchell, delivered a rather patronising address to parents along the lines of the new school being bigger than the village deserved and they should therefore “second the efforts of the Board by seeing that their children attended.“

Tablets added on the rebuilt south façade of the school during the 1884-85 extension commemorating the laying of the foundation stone in 1843 and Leith School Board’s extension. “G. Craig, Archt.” can just be made out in small letters below the right hand panel. Photo © Self

In his assertion the Chairman would very soon be proven wrong: within a year the managing committee of the Madras School wrote to the Board informing them of their intention to close down for want of funds. The Government inspector had condemned their building as below standard and with the founding endowment almost exhausted there was no money to bring it up to code, which would result in the loss of state grants. If the Madras school were to close its two to three hundred students would suddenly become the Board’s responsibility to house and educate, but they were reluctant to simply take over its running as they too would have to expend money bringing it up to standard while trying to find a long term solution. Ultimately, the Board dithered during which time the roll at Victoria grew: to 623 in 1887. This was well in excess of the nominal capacity and was kept manageable only by a high absence rate of 35%, meaning average attendance was only 406. This was result of a severe outbreak of measles in the village, one which would take over two years to bring under control.

Victoria after the 1885 extension, south façade. Credit: Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries

Frustrated at the Board’s lack of action – and possibly pushed by the parish church wanting to get their hands on the building – Madras’ management brought matters to a head and announced that with only £100 remaining the school would shut at the end of summer term 1888. A consequence of this would be £50 of the remaining funds would have to be returned to Dr Bell’s Trust as it was originally granted as a loan for which time the school remained opened. The Board now had no option but to temporarily take on the lease of the school and make what improvements they could, representations were made to the Education Department who agreed to maintain the grant temporarily on condition that a plan was submitted in writing. Things didn’t start well for the Board’s when their appointed headmistress, Miss Menzies, turned the job down! The school was therefore temporarily supervised by the headmaster at Bonnington Road Public School for the start of the 1888-89 term, at which time its roll stood at 248 (but with the high absence rate, average attendance was only 151).

Photograph of primary 4-aged class (seven to eight years old) at Victoria School in 1907, the girl in the back row second from the right named as Maggie Crawford and the teacher as Miss Don. Collection of City of Edinburgh Museums & Galleries, NH.2010.7

Leith School Board had bought itself time to plan for the future and its preferred solution was a grand new public school on Craighall Road with a capacity of 1,600 pupils, which would be more than sufficient to absorb the excess from Newhaven and other local schools But before these plans could be advanced an even greater crisis landed in the Board’s in-tray: the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, which was preparing for state-provided education being made free (under the 1872 most children were still charged a nominal fee, unless in receipt of poor relief) and in doing so altered the arrangements for state-aid for endowed schools (those supported financially by a founding bequest).

A notice issued by Leith School Board regarding the relief of school fees per the Code issued by the Scotch Education Department, exhibited in the Heritage Museum at the former Victoria School.

Such schools included those of Dr Bell’s Trust, of which there were two examples in Leith; on Great Junction Street and South Fort Street. At a stroke the changes meant these schools ceased to be financially viable and the trustees sought to wind them up – making them too the problem of the School Board. The Board closed South Fort Street, its pupils transferred to a very crowded North Fort Street Public School. Reluctantly Great Junction Street was adopted by the Board, which they would enlarged into Junction Place Public School, universally remembered locally as just Dr Bell’s. This issue, while while not directly impacting Newhaven, distracted the attention and stretched the finances of the Board for a good while.

Statue and memorial tablets for the Rev Dr Andrew Bell on the gable of former Dr Bell’s School on Junction Place, marking its establishment by his endowment and according to his “Madras System” educational principles in 1839. Picture copyright HES, via Trove.Scot SC2648345

The foundation stone of the new Craighall Road Public School was as a result not laid until July 1891 and it would not open for business until 4th September 1893, by which time there was a capacity crisis in Newhaven such that 100 children were not able to get a school place. Despite the Board’s hopes, the new school provided no answer as many parents shunned it: it was felt to be too far from the village and more importantly it charged fees (Boards were allowed to charge fees in a small number of their schools after 1890). With North Fort Street full and the Madras School closing imminently the state of affairs in Newhaven was only going to get more acute. Once more, the Board felt it had no option but to once again ask George Craig to draw up plans to expand the Victoria School.

Craighall Road Public School in 1893, the year it opened. This building is now part of Trinity Academy. Notice the lamplighter (Leerie) up his ladder on the left. Photograph by Alexander Adam Inglis, Edinburgh and Scottish Collection. Edinburgh City Libraries

By good fortune in 1892 the Leith Dock Commissioners had obtained parliamentary authority to make improvements to Newhaven harbour that included land reclamation around the Links. The Board therefore negotiated with the Commissioners for a feu on some of this reclaimed land around the school, allowing the size to be almost tripled to 2,670 square metres. In 1896 work commenced at a cost of £5,064 to add 288 more places to the school, bringing the roll up to 800. On the enlarged plot a new three-storey extension was added to the east, with the rear of the 1885 extension being increased in height to three storeys too. Further extensions were added to the rear and the enlarged playgrounds had playsheds to give children some shelter from inclement weather; the despite the land reclamation the school still backed onto the Forth coast.

1893 Town Plan of Edinburgh, showing the footprint of the Victoria School on Newhaven Links after the 1897 extension which is shown in teal: the outline and boundary of the 1844 schoolhouse is red, the 1874 extensions are blue and 1885 is orange. By this time further extensions had been added to the rear. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

While the Board’s preferred solution for Newhaven would have been a new build school to the west of the Village, for economic reasons this was never possible and Craig’s repeated expansions to the school over three decades made the best economic use of a small site. Because the same architect underook all this work it was possible to maintain a coherence to the building which can make it difficult for modern eyes to unpick the multiple layers and additions: one might easily assume that the various tiers, cupolas, stair towers and projections were done intentionally, rather than just as a practicality.

The three principal phases of expanding the Victoria School, with the original and 1874 school in red, the 1885 enlargement in orange and the 1897 expansion in teal. George Craig cleverly used the existing stair tower on the south facade to access the third storey by extending its height and changing its orientation half way up – this explains the notch cut out of the building, which means the original windows still provide (some) light into the stairwell.

The school is very efficiently conducted, and discipline and general tone are excellent. In the junior section the results of examination were on the whole highly creditable, the only notable weakness being in the written work of the lower division of the third class. In the senior section, both oral and written work of the fourth and fifth classes were very good, with the exception of the the fifth class, which was not more than very fair. The class work of the sixth class leaves room for improvement: reading and recitation were too hurried, and history and nature knowledge were not strong.
Leith School Board’s annual appraisal of Victoria School, reported in the Leith Burghs Pilot, Saturday October 6th 1900

Leith School Board ceased to exist as a result of the Education (Scotland) Act 1918, which abolished these bodies and merged them into a smaller number of Education Authorities; for Leith this was the Edinburgh Education Authority. The rest of the municipal functions of Leith, and by extension Newhaven, soon followed and were amalgamated (seized against their will, generations of Leithers will tell you) into Edinburgh in 1920. In 1925 the girls of the school won the accolade of “Overhead Ball Champions of Leith“. This was a relatively new game that was very popular with girls. The basic premise was akin to a form of Rounders played with a football and with the participants arranged into a “batting” and a “fielding” team. The batting team stood in a line and its leader would hit the ball by hand in a random direction at which point the leader began to run rings around their line. It was the job of the fielders to get the ball, arrange themselves in a line behind whomever had the ball and quickly pass it back, hand over head, to the back of the line at which point the umpire blew their whistle. The fielders scored a run for each circuit of the line that their leader had run.

Victoria School’s champion Overhead Ball Game team of 1925. Edinburgh Evening News, July 17th 1925

The Education Authorities were a transitional body, and as a result of further local government re-organisation in 1927 it became the Education Committee of the Corporation of the City of Edinburgh. George Craig’s additions served Victoria School well, until 1930 by which point updated accommodation was needed – the convenor of the Corporation’s Property and Works Committee labelled it as the “worst” in Edinburgh “in regard to size, light and intercommunication“: it was “very difficult to get into… and more difficult to get out“. And so yet again an expansion was planned on land reclaimed from the sea, which would take the plot size up to 2,650 square metres; some seven and a half times that of the original 1844 school. In 1932 a new infant department for 200 children was opened at a cost of £14,471 in the east of the enlarged playground. This new structure was a break with the Victorian “Barracks” of the School Board era and instead what emerged was a low, wide, single-storey L-plan structure that sought to make the best use of natural light and ventilation.

1975 photograph of the Infant Department extension, added 1932, demolished 1980s. HES, via Trove.Scot SC1646779

This addition coincided with a tipping point for the village’s fortunes: after a very good 1924 season the inshore fisheries were set on an irreversible path of decline due to overfishing. The larger, more modern and mechanised trawlers that were needed to fish ever further out to sea passed Newhaven by and headed instead for Granton which displaced it as the principal fishing port in the locality. The village’s prosperity had always followed that of the herring and the sprats, and the oysters before them, and after four centuries began to dwindle. In July 1935 Dr Sym of the Corporation’s Education Committee provoked outrage when he proposed its school needed special classes for “backward children” on account of seventy percent of its pupils being “normally slow“. His colleague Councillor Allan said this was due to “inter-marrying” by which he implied inbreeding. Newhaven folk had largely always wed other Newhaven folk but this was a practicality; Marriages were as much a business union as one of love and the inherited skills of fisherman and fishwife were mutually complementing but only acquired by growing up into them. Public protest meetings were convened in the Free Fishermen’s Hall, on the site of the 1817 school, to demand an apology to which representatives of the Committee were invited. Councillor Allan attended and apologised, Dr Sym declined to do so.

The school remained open during World War II, although some children were evacuated in 1939 to Fort William. In 1944 its centenary was marked with the unveiling of a wooden copy of the “Armada Stone” presented by Leith shipyard proprietor Henry Robb, unveiled by Lord Provost William Y. Darling. The original stone can be found in the wall of the flats nearby at Auchinleck Court and a metal copy is on the school’s south gable as a war memorial.

The wooden copy of the Armada or Newhaven Stone presented to the school by shipyward proprietor Henry Robb to celebrate its centenry in 1944. It is located in the small museum on the ground floor of the old school, a metal copy is on the outside wall on the south gable as a war memorial tablet. Own photo.

A pageant was held in the Usher Hall retelling the history of the village since its foundation by King James IV in the 16th century; the children dressed in period costumes and many of the girls wore their Fishwives’ Braws, the boys their knitted fishing Ganseys. The children raised £2,000 through their own efforts for Leith Hospital, sufficient to endow three cots in the Children’s Ward.

Centenary pageant in 1944, CC-by-NC-SA, Thelma via Edinburgh Collected, donor 0301-071

As Newhaven’s fortunes continued to decline post war, the City Corporation hastened its demise by designating the village a Comprehensive Development Area (CDA) in 1959, giving itself powers of compulsory purchase over most of the village in order to demolish most of the old houses (which it had deemed “unfit” and constituting slums) and rebuild them. Like many such schemes done with good intention from a far off desk in City Chambers, ultimately it lost sight of the fact that a community is much more than just its buildings and by dispersing its people to new housing elsewhere it irreversibly altered the character of the place. Families with children were given priority for re-housing and this meant those left behind were frequently the elderly: as a result the population of school age children in the village went into a steep, and what seemed like terminal, decline.

1949 class portrait at Victoria School, CC-by-NC-SA, Thelma via Edinburgh Collected, donor 0407-001

The work of the CDA in “improving” Newhaven continued into the 1970s with a new bypass road built to the north of the village in an attempt to reduce traffic along Main Street. Originally this was called Newhaven Place but is now an extension of Lindsay Road and required the school boundary to be moved a few metres south. To compensate for this loss, a portion of land to the east of the school was incorporated into the playground. Unfortunately the heavy traffic – much of it lorries from Granton or Leith Docks – now passed close behind the school buildings and damaged the foundations of the 1930 Infant Department to such an extent that it had to be demolished in the late 1970s or early 1980s. By this time the school’s declining roll no longer required the space, but it did mean its most modern facilities were lost.

An existential threat to the school came in February 1983 when closure was mooted by the Conservative-led administration of Lothian Regional Council, its pupils would have been split between Wardie and Trinity primary schools. This proposal was voted down by the joint Labour and Liberal Alliance opposition but did nothing to reverse the decline in the school’s fortunes, which declined with the spirit of the village of Newhaven. As the old ways began to fade into memory, an awareness of heritage began to flourish locally and concerted efforts were made to reverse the decline. The traditional galas were revived in 1985, with pupils playing an important part performing songs and dances, the girls in their traditional Braws costumes. A small museum was put together in the school by pupils in 1986 to showcase various exhibits of local historic interest to the public which had accumulated in the building over the years.

Exhibits in the school’s museum include an old cast school bell (which I am informed is *not* the Victoria bell, but is local).

The school celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1994, but its future was still anything but assured. By 1997 the roll was just 131 children and ten years later it dipped below 100. This might have been the end, but salvation came from the sea – or rather by the reclamation of it. Mass house building had been taking place behind the sea wall of Western Harbour since 2003 and as families moved in and children became of school age after 2007 the roll at Victoria began to increase for the first time in decades. It has never looked back; back above 100 in 2008, in 2012 it passed 150 meaning a return to “full stream” – having seven individual classes, one for each age group. The increase was helped by the closure of nearby Fort Primary School in 2010 – a rather short-sighted cost-cutting move, which very quickly precipitated accommodation crises at both Victoria and Trinity Primary Schools!

School roll figures for Victoria Primary, published by the City of Edinburgh Council in a consultation document.

As a short term solution four new classrooms were added in a modern building in the playground in 2014 and in 2016 the Council decided to build an entirely new and much larger replacement school. As had always been the case, they looked to reclaimed land for space. The speculative residential development of Western Harbour had largely stalled after the 2008 financial crisis and there was plenty land available and so the new building, on Windrush Drive, is sited on a very generous 14,750 square metre plot – five and a half times that of the old school and over forty times that of the 1844 school! It has a capacity to grow to “three streams” (three primary classes in each of the seven age groups) and is forecast to reach its capacity of 500 within a decade. When the old building closed in 2022 it was by far and away the oldest still in educational use by the city (the next oldest were all 1875 School Board builds).

Artist’s impression of the new Victoria Primary School in Western Harbour.

Often the future of the old school buildings in Edinburgh is uncertain and they are either left to the vandals or turned over to housing developers. However the old Victoria had a very different prospect when it closed and was taken over by Community Asset Transfer by the Heart of Newhaven Community CIC, funded by the Scottish Land Fund. This preserved the Victorian building and converted it into a mixed-use community centre and base for artists and small businesses. Heritage is one of the Heart of Newhaven’s key founding aims and to this end it maintains the old school museum and houses the History of Education Centre and its Victorian School Room.

The Victorian Classroom in Victoria School, presided over by the eponymous monarch. Via https://www.histedcentre.org.uk who are now based in the building.

If you are interested in seeing inside this very interesting old building and its numerous heritage exhibits, there are tours each week that I can highly recommend.

The Heart of Newhaven Community Centre in 2026 on a Saturday open day.

Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.

If you have found this site useful, informative or amusing then you can help contribute towards its running costs by supporting me on ko-fi. This includes my commitment to keeping it 100% advert and AI free for all time coming, and in helping to find further unusual stories to bring you by acquiring books and paying for research.
Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends and like-minded people, sites like this thrive on being shared.

Explore Threadinburgh by map:

Travelers' Map is loading...
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.

NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret

#edinburgh #education #freechurch #leith #leithschoolboard #newhaven