Poster for the London & Edinburgh Shipping Company

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

52370

Title

Poster for the London & Edinburgh Shipping Company, c. 1920

Description

One poster of the London & Edinburgh Shipping Company promoting the London to Leith service. Large painted paper with a brightly painted image of the ship Fiona in the Forth with the Edinburgh skyline in the back and Forth Rail Bridge on the horizon. The text reads "London & Edinburgh Shipping Co. to Modern Athens by Magnificent Steamers - A Delightful Holiday by Land and Sea". At the bottom are two vignettes with views of Edinbrugh Castle from Calton Hill entitled "Queen of the North" and the National Monument on Calton Hill. The firm's London and Leith addresses are given as are brief details on sailings. Poster is in two sheets.

Type

Document; Paper; Promotional material

Accession number

SH.2018.133

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries

The London and Edinburgh Shipping Company was established in 1809 to capitalise on the passenger and goods trade between London and the Port of Leith. One of their first ships, the ‘Isabella’, brought tea to Edinburgh for the first time. The company evolved from a merger between the Union Company and the Old Edinburgh and Leith Shipping Company. The Union Company was established in the middle of the eighteenth century to capitalise on trade between Berwick and London, the Old Edinburgh and Leith Shipping Company was established in 1802.

The company initially operated with ten ‘smacks’, a wooden vessel with cloth sails. Smacks made travel between the two cities profitable, journeys could be completed in five days and cost around six pounds for a ticket, the typical cost of a coach in 1824 was thirteen pounds in comparison. Historically smacks were used to transport salmon in ice to London from Berwick.

The company provided three sailings a week in each direction from Victoria Quay (now the site of the Scottish Executive building) to Wapping in London.

On the other hand, travel was by no means reliable. Sometimes smacks could spend several days wind bound in the North Sea, in 1825 a ship sailing to London was driven towards Norway for four days until it eventually made headway. On other occasions ships could be stuck relatively close to Leith for days before they had to return for supplies. Allegedly passengers were called upon to resist French privateers, although reference to this is scant. The London and Edinburgh Shipping Company boasted that it had never lost a passenger.

In 1828 the company had seven vessels; the Royal Sovereign, Earl of Hopetoun, Robert Bruce, Favourite, Superb, Trusty and Pilot. The companies’ ships had red sides, as opposed to green sides of other companies, and so in port were known as ‘red siders’. The company operated out of Miller’s Wharf in the London borough of Wapping which they adopted the lease for in 1811.

The smacks were replaced by Aberdeen schooners, much larger ships and journeys could be completed faster and more reliably. These were in turn superseded by steam vessels such as the ‘Fingal’, a single funnelled ship. The company dissolved in 1968.

The company adopted colourful posters to promote its sailing. In this poster, reference is made to Edinburgh's nickname "Athens of the North". This name was given to the city thanks to the large number of Classical and Greek style buildings, especially the National Monument and other buildings on Calton, reminiscent of Athens' Acropolis.

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