Giles Street, Leith

Category

Library Item

Item no

4682

Title

Giles Street, Leith

Description

Lots of children play outside at Giles Street, Leith. Many of them are gathered around a table outside Magourty's furniture store, which is displaying brass goods in the windows. The cobbled road is lined with other children who stand on the pavement and sit on the railings. Other shops occupy the adjacent building behind which can be seen a tall factory tower.

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1927

Size

20.1 x 15.6 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

This is part of a photographic survey made to accompany the Edinburgh (Leith) Improvement Scheme of 1924.

The Edinburgh (Leith) Improvement Scheme, 1924, was a plan for the regeneration of an area of Leith surrounding Constitution Street and to the north of Great Junction Street. The Town Council Minutes of 3rd April 1924 propose the demolition or reconstruction of "certain houses, courts, and alleys&unfit for human habitation". The concerns of William Robertson, Medical Officer of Health for the City and Royal Burgh of Edinburgh, were that the "narrowness, closeness, and bad arrangement, or the bad condition of the streets and houses&or the want of light, air, ventilation or proper conveniences or other sanitary defects&are dangerous or injurious to the health of the inhabitants of the buildings in the said Areas, or of the neighbouring buildings&". The scheme involved large-scale demolition in this area of Leith, and the re-housing of most displaced residents outwith the areas covered by the scheme.

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Related images

Related subjects

Architecture > Architectural features > Chimneys

Business > Service industry > Shops

Places > Edinburgh areas > Leith

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Transport > Infrastructure > Streets

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