Crewe Toll on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Crewe Toll is an area in 
The area takes its name from the
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, the Scottish capital.
The area takes its name from the Toll house
A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road, canal, or toll bridge.
History
Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and ...
which once stood at the junction of Ferry Road and Crewe Road North and South. The name Crewe, or a variation thereof (Creue, Crew or Crou), can be identified on maps as early as those from John Adair's 17th century survey, indicating that a farm stood southeast of the present Crewe Toll. "Toll" is shown on Gellatly's "New Map of the country 12 miles round Edinburgh" published in 1834. The 1853 and 1913 OS maps show a 'smithy' at the junction. All buildings on the junction disappeared when it was enlarged at some point in the 1920s to take the additional traffic from the newly-constructed Telford Road.
The Western General Hospital
The Western General Hospital (often abbreviated to simply ‘The Western General’) is a health facility at Craigleith, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian.
History
The hospital was designed by Peddie and Kinnear and opened as ...
is in the vicinity. Another hospital, the Northern General, was also in the area but this is now the site of a Morrisons
Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqua ...
supermarket. Edinburgh's Telford College
Edinburgh College is a further and higher education institution with campuses in Edinburgh and Midlothian, Scotland. It serves the Edinburgh Region, Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian, and is the largest college in Scotland. It was form ...
(tertiary) was at Crewe Toll, but has moved to a site at Granton. Fettes College
Fettes College () is a co-educational independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in 1983. In ...
(private, secondary) is close by. A major aerospace facility is situated in the area, the Leonardo S.p.A. facility that dates to a 1943 Ferranti
Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
The firm was known ...
factory originally set up to produce gyro gunsight
A gyro gunsight (G.G.S.) is a modification of the non-magnifying reflector sight in which target lead (the amount of aim-off in front of a moving target) and bullet drop are calculated automatically. The first examples were developed in Britain ...
s for the Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...
that later became a major radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
development site. The site changed hands repeatedly, from Ferranti to GEC-Ferranti, then GEC-Marconi, then BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...
, then SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems
Selex ES was a subsidiary of Finmeccanica S.p.A., active in the electronics and information technology business, based in Italy and the UK, and formed in January 2013, following Finmeccanica's decision to combine its existing SELEX Elsag and S ...
, then SELEX Galileo and finally Leonardo.
The location was the site of a junction on the Caledonian Railway. This junction was spelled 'Crew' up until closure in the 1960s, long after the spelling 'Crewe' was settled as the area built up.
Some nearby Edinburgh districts include Craigleith
Craigleith ( gd, Creag Lìte) is a small island in the Firth of Forth off North Berwick in East Lothian, Scotland. Its name comes from the Scottish Gaelic ''Creag Lìte'' meaning "rock of Leith". It is at its highest point.
Geography and geolo ...
, Pilton, Inverleith
Inverleith (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Lìte'') is an inner suburb in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the fringes of the central region of the city. Its neighbours include Trinity to the north and the New Town to the south, with Canonmills a ...
, and Silverknowes
Silverknowes is a district of Edinburgh, Scotland. Silverknowes lies to the northwest of the city. The district contains over 2000 homes, ranging in size from bungalow to semi-detached housing, much of it built during the mid-twentieth centur ...
.
References
{{Reflist Areas of Edinburgh