Halfway House, Leith Walk/ Pilrig - looking north

Category

Library Item

Item no

36252

Title

Page from Leith Miscellany, volume I, Halfway House, Leith Walk/ Pilrig - looking north

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1898

Type

Engraving; Postcard; Reproduction

Halfway House was halfway down Leith Walk at Pilrig. This was the boundary between Leith and Edinburgh when they were separate burghs. The building was a coaching inn built in the 17th century, serving as a rest stop on the regular coach service from Leith to Edinburgh, which survived in truncated form as a pub until 1981. At the time of its demolition in 1983 the central horseshoe bar was salvaged and reused in the Shrub Bar/ Horseshoe Bar to the north.

Pilrig was the approximate boundary of Leith and Edinburgh before they joined in 1920. They had separate tram systems and anyone who wanted to travel past Pilrig had to change trams here. The two systems merged about five years later when Edinburgh switched from the cable-driven trams they had used since 1899. Leith trams had been electric since 1905. This photograph shows an Edinburgh cable tram reaching the boundary, and there are no overhead wires for the Leith electric system, so it must have been taken between 1899 and early 1905.

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