Misplaced Pages

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Easter Road" street – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Easter Road is an arterial road in north Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The road is so called as it was known as the "Easter (eastern) road to Leith". 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 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 (1561) and Oliver Cromwell (from Leith Links 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 that coach traffic between Edinburgh and Leith increased from hourly to half-hourly between 1763 and 1783.

Most of the area comprises tenement housing built for the artisan 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), 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 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. 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.

See also

• The Singing Street

External links

• Bartholomew's Chronological map of Edinburgh (1919)

References

1. 1777 map of Leith etc
2. R Chambers, Traditions of Edinburgh, Edinburgh 1980, p.361
3. letter by Creech to Sir John Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-99
4. "1804 - John AINSLIE - Old and New Town of Edinburgh and Leith with the proposed docks". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
5. D Keir, The Third Statistical Account of Scotland: The city of Edinburgh, vol. 15, Collins 1966
6. Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh by Gifford, McWilliam and Walker

v t e Streets and squares in Edinburgh
Old Town	Advocates Close Chambers Street Cockburn Street Cowgate George IV Bridge Grassmarket Mary King's Close The Mound Ramsay Garden Royal Mile (List of closes on the Royal Mile) South Bridge West Port White Horse Close
New Town	Charlotte Square Carlton Terrace George Street Heriot Row Multrees Walk North Bridge Princes Street Queen Street Regent Terrace Rose Street Royal Terrace St Andrew Square Waverley Bridge York Place
Leith	Bernard Street Constitution Street Great Junction Street Henderson Street Kirkgate
North	Easter Road Ferry Road Leith Walk Raeburn Place
South	Bristo Square Drummond Street George Square The Pleasance
List of former Edinburgh street names

v t e Transport in Edinburgh
Bus Present Lothian Buses McGill's Scotland East Past Edinburgh Corporation Transport Lothian Regional Transport Eastern Scottish First Scotland East Scottish Motor Traction Scottish Omnibuses
Rail Present Stations Brunstane Curriehill Dalmeny Edinburgh Gateway Edinburgh Park Edinburgh Waverley Haymarket Kingsknowe Newcraighall Slateford South Gyle Wester Hailes Lines Borders Railway Edinburgh–Aberdeen Edinburgh–Dunblane Fife Circle Forth Bridge North Berwick North Clyde Shotts Operations Caledonian Sleeper Craigentinny TMD Haymarket TMD ScotRail Past Stations Abbeyhill Balerno Balgreen Halt Blackford Hill Corstorphine Craiglockhart Duddingston & Craigmillar Easter Road Easter Road Park Halt Edinburgh Princes Street Gorgie East Hailes Halt Joppa Leith Central Leith Citadel Leith Walk Meadowbank Stadium Merchiston Morningside Road Newington Piershill Pinkhill Portobello railway station (E&DR) Portobello railway station (NBR) Ravelrig Junction Platform Scotland Street South Leith St Leonards Lines Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway Edinburgh Suburban and Southside Junction Railway Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway Operations Caledonian Railway Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway North British Railway LNER Scottish Region of British Railways ScotRail
Tram Present Edinburgh Trams Past Edinburgh Corporation Tramways
Roads Motorways M8 M9 A roads A1 European route E15 A68 A7 A772 A71 A700 A701 A702 A8 A89 B800/A8000 A90 Edinburgh City Bypass Streets Chambers Street Constitution Street Cowgate Drummond Street Easter Road Ferry Road George IV Bridge George Street Great Junction Street Leith Walk The Mound The Pleasance Princes Street Regent Terrace Rose Street Royal Mile South Bridge West Port Bridges Dean Bridge Forth Road Bridge Leamington Lift Bridge North Bridge Queensferry Crossing Regent Bridge Victoria Swing Bridge Waverley Bridge
Other Air Edinburgh Airport Water Firth of Forth hovercraft (proposed) Almond Aqueduct Bonnington Aqueduct Scott Russell Aqueduct Slateford Aqueduct Union Canal Cycling National Cycle Route 1 National Cycle Route 75 National Cycle Route 76
Transport for Edinburgh Transport in Scotland

55°57′44″N 3°10′16″W / 55.9623°N 3.17099°W / 55.9623; -3.17099

• Streets in Edinburgh
• Leith