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Recollections
Leith Place Names
and
Leith Street Names
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Leith Place Names
Colloquial Names |
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Thank you to Frank Ferri,
Newhaven, Edinburgh, who wrote:
"In days of old, we had quaint ways of naming
and identifying local geography."
Here are some of the names that I remember: |
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The Alabam
OR
Bam |
"This was the Alhambra
Cinema, on the corner of Springfield, now gone." |
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Andy Dam |
"This was the
'bridge crossing' section of Water of Leith at Anderson Place,
a kids' fishing territory. |
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The Broad
Pavement
© |
"This was Parliament
Square, Henderson St opposite The Vaults."
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Update:
Mary McLeod added:
"This photograph
of 'The Broadie' (The Broad Pavement) shows Parliament Place which
consisted of only two stairs, No.9 and No.11 ... "
Please scroll down this page to
read more of Mary's comments in 'Recollections 1' below. |
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The Cappy |
"This was the Capitol
Cinema, now a bingo hall
at Gordon/Manderson
Streets.
It was
famous in the
1950s for its Cappy Concerts
and talent contests on a Sunday night, and Kiddies'
Film Club on Saturday mornings." |
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The Coalie |
"Down
Coburg Street, 100 yards on the right, formerly a
coal yard used by a coal merchant. It's
now part of Water of Leith Walkway.
Locals
still use the term." |
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Commando Buildings |
“These
buildings were in East
Cromwell Street, off Coburg
Street, which was blocked off at both ends by a
high brick wall.
The
the old disbanded tenements there were used during the war for war games
by the Home Guard." |
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The
Coppy
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“This
referred to the Corporation housing
at the foot of Mill Lane/ Sheriff Brae.
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The Eldo |
"These were the Eldorado Dance and Wrestling
Halls at Mill Lane, now gone." |
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The Laurie Street |
"This was the old cinema behind Woolworths
at Leith. It had several names, one being the Salamander.
Up until the mid-1940s, you could get entry
for a jam jar. It was a bit of a flee pit. |
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Fire Brigade Street |
"This was
Junction Place at Dr
Bell’s school, Great Junction Street. The old Fire Station was
there. The building is still there." |
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The Hole in he Wall |
"This was a pedestrian
tunnel under Leith Central Railway Station, making a short cut from
Leith Walk via the tunnel entrance at
Crown Place to Glover Street, Ferrier St and Manderston
Street and
Gordon Street." |
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The
Piggery
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"This,
probably so named because at one time pigs were kept here, was a large
piece of waste ground at the foot of Ballantyne Road." |
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Puddiky |
"This was on the Water
of Leith at Warriston Road. It was kids' fishing for tiddlers
territory. It was where the bridge crossed a section of the Water of
Leith, just past Warriston cemetery."
Frank Ferri, Newhaven, Leith:
Sep 17 + Oct 2 + 4, 2008 |
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The Rooms |
"These were the Assembly Rooms Dance Hall at the
foot of Constitution Street, now housing." |
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Steamie |
"This
was the Council Public Wash House at Bonnington Road, behind
Victoria Swimming Baths, where your mum piled
her washing, clothes, sheets, blankets etc into a big bath and carted it
in an old pram in the very early hours of the morning. You
could wash dry and iron there." |
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Frank Ferri, Newhaven, Leith:
September 17 + October 2 + October 4, 2008 |
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Update
I've
recently received many more messages from Frank and others, giving the
colloquial name of streets in Edinburgh and Leith. So I've now added
them all to this page on the web site:
Edinburgh Place Names
Frank Ferri, Newhaven, Leith:
September 17 + October 2 + October 4, 2008 |
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More Colloquial
Names? |
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Question
Do you know of any more colloquial names of places
in Edinburgh or Leith. If so, please
email me.
Thank you. - Peter Stubbs:
September 22, 2008. |
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Leith Street Names |
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Thank you to Frank Ferri, Newhaven, Edinburgh
for the details below. Frank wrote:
"These
streets were so named because of the port's association with foreign
ports."
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Baltic
Street |
off
Salamander
Street
- Countries
in Baltic Sea area. |
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Cadiz
Street |
- from Spain |
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Coburg
Street |
off
Junction
Street
- from Germany |
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Elbe
Street |
off
Assembly Street
- from Germany |
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Hamburgh
Place |
at
Lindsay
Road / Portland
Street
- from
Germany. |
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Madeira St
|
off Ferry Road
-
a Portuguese Island. |
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Recollections
1.
Mary McLeod (nee
Wilkie)
Barnton, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Mary McLeod
who wrote: |
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The Broadie
"The
photograph of 'The Broadie'
actually shows Parliament Place, which consisted
of only two stairs, No. 9 and No. 11.
©
It was located opposite No.
42 Giles Street (the stair next to Nelly Wells' shop) and went down
towards Parliament Street and the Lodging House." |
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No 9
"No. 9
Parliament Place is to the left, just out of the picture. It was above
two shops. The one on the corner had
been Katie Conboy's grocery shop and latterly became 'The
Cosy Corner Cafe'.
The other had windows which were
always whitewashed-over and was a scrap metal
shop of sorts, at one stage." |
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No 11
"The
block shown in full is No. 11, which had balcony landings at the back.
The pub on the corner is Myles Dolan's.
There was a tiny roadway between
the pub and the building opposite the Lodging House, but I can't recall
what that building actually was." |
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Bonfire
"I was
born in 1946 in the top flat (back) of No. 9, looking over a large area of
waste ground to the Corporation Buildings. We used to hold our bonfire
on that ground.
Wingy Robertson once gave us huge
wooden cable reels to burn. We had the best bonfire in Leith that night!"
This waste ground may have been
the original Parliament Square, but the only Parliament Square I actually
knew of was in Edinburgh." |
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Family Homes
"My
granny lived in the first flat (front) of 9 Parliament Place,
overlooking the Broad Pavement and J.G. Thomson's; the Band of Hope to the
left at the corner of St. Andrew's Street and Flannigan's pub (my Dad's
local) to the right at the corner of Giles Street leading up, past the Saw
Doctors, to St. Mary's Primary school.
My father was born in the first
flat and, when my granny died, he asked the Landlords (Marshall and
Mossman in Constitution Street), if he could rent it. It had been
well maintained and was the first in the block to have electricity
installed.
They wanted to sell and very few
people could afford to buy at that time. My father had to threaten to
strip out the electricity and all the nice fittings before
the landlords eventually agreed to let him rent." |
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Move from Leith
St. Mary's School, Giles Street
(which my Dad had also attended) was my primary. My secondary was Holy
Cross Academy.
I started at Holy Cross Academy
at the age of 11. The following February, after years on the
waiting list, we finally moved into a Council house in Lochend Quadrant.
It was heaven
- living room, two bedrooms, views to Arthur's
Seat and even a piece of garden ground. We
had our first kitchenette, first inside toilet, first bath." |
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Memories of Leith
"However
my fondest memories are of Leith - 'The
Broadie' and the terrific neighbourhood spirit.
If
anyone has other photographs of Parliament Place and the Broadie, I'd love
to see them. |
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Mary McLeod, Barnton,
Edinburgh, (nee
Wilkie), August 26, 2011 |
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