Easter Road, Edinburgh
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Easter Road is an arterial road in north
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, the capital of Scotland. The road is so called as it was known as the "Easter (eastern) road to
Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...
". As maps of Edinburgh in the late 18th century show, it had a counterpart in "Wester Road" (now Broughton Road and Bonnington Road). Until the creation of
Leith Walk Leith Walk is one of the longest streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the main road connecting the east end of the city centre to Leith. Forming most of the A900 road, it slopes downwards from Picardy Place at the south-western end of the str ...
in the middle of the 17th century these were the two main routes from Leith to Edinburgh. Historic personages who have ridden up Easter Road have included
Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...
(1561) and Oliver Cromwell (from
Leith Links Leith Links is the principal open space within Leith, the docks district of Edinburgh, Scotland. This public park is divided by a road into two main areas, a western section and an eastern section, both being largely flat expanses of grass bor ...
in 1650).


History

According to Robert Chambers, writing in 1824, Leith Walk, as its name suggests, was a gravel-surfaced footway, only opened to wheeled traffic after the completion of North Bridge in 1772. Before that Easter Road had been the route taken by coaches running between Edinburgh and Leith. The Edinburgh article in the Statistical Account of Scotland (1791–99) contains evidence from the publisher
William Creech William Creech FRSE (12 May 1745 – 14 January 1815) was a Scottish publisher, printer, bookseller and politician. For 40 years Creech was the chief publisher in Edinburgh. He published the first Edinburgh edition of Robert Burns' poems, and ...
that coach traffic between Edinburgh and Leith increased from hourly to half-hourly between 1763 and 1783.Most of the area comprises
tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, E ...
housing built for the
artisan An artisan (from , ) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, sculpture, clothing, food ite ...
and working classes in the second half of the 19th century on mainly nursery ground feued on the south-eastern side by Baron Norton's Estate, (formerly belonging to the Logans of
Restalrig Restalrig ( ) is a small residential suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland (historically, an estate and independent parish). It is located east of the city centre, west of Craigentinny and to the east of Lochend, Edinburgh, Lochend, both of which it ...
), on the south-western side by the George Heriot's Trust and further north, on both sides of the road, Trinity Hospital. These tenements remain almost wholly intact, except at the northern, Leith end of the road where streets between Thorntree Street and Leith Central railway station were subject to
slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...
in the 1970s and replaced with new housing. The station has since been demolished and replaced by a supermarket and a leisure centre. New housing has also appeared since the 1970s in several locations on and just off Easter Road, for example opposite Thorntree Street, in Albion Road and in Brunswick Road. About a third of the road at the southern, London Road, end is the older retail area, comprising residential tenements with, at ground-floor level, small shops typical of a high street. There are a few corner shops and public houses on the northern two-thirds of the road particularly at the junction with Lorne Street. The southward view along the road focuses upon
Salisbury Crags Holyrood Park (also called the King's Park or Queen's Park depending on the reigning monarch's gender) is a royal park in central Edinburgh, Scotland about to the east of Edinburgh Castle. It is open to the public. It has an array of hills, lo ...
. Easter Road was the last major road in Scotland to be paved with granite setts replacing tarmac in 1955. After a fatality on the road in the late 1990s the road was re-tarmacked, saving the costly expense of maintaining the setts.


Modern day

The area between Easter Road and Leith Walk to the west has long been Edinburgh's most densely populated area. The comparatively lower cost of housing in this part of the city makes the area relatively attractive for buying a house or renting accommodation. It has a high proportion of immigrants, including young Asians and Spanish people.


Buildings of Interest

*The Drambuie Factory and offices stood at the foot of Easter Road from 1955 to 1985. It was demolished and replaced by housing. *Bothwell House (on the corner of Bothwell Street) dates from 1893 and is a very early example of a building made from artificial stone.Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh by Gifford, McWilliam and Walker


See also

* The Singing Street


External links


Bartholomew's ''Chronological map of Edinburgh'' (1919)


References

{{Coord, 55.9623, -3.17099, region:GB-SCT, format=dms, display=title Streets in Edinburgh Leith no:Easter Road