Scotland > 1882-1915 - Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland > 1903, Part 2 - Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland ... (Royal National Directory of Scotland.) With ... map, etc

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LEITH.
[slater's
tonnage 11,730,226, and 731 sailing ships, 94,833 tonnage,
were cleared. There were on the register for same year, 206
vessels (sail and steam), tonnage 194,3931 "nd 357 fishing
boats, tonnage 4,761 ; these latter employing 1,616 hands.
The principal trade of Leith is with Germany, Holland,
Belgium, France, Denmark, Russia and Norway and
Sweden, and with Spain and tiie United States and Canada.
TRADE OF LEITH, 1902-3.
Value of total imports, foreign and colonial merchan-
dise, ;£i2,648,iio; value of foreign and colonial merchan-
dise exported, ;^86,68s ; of produce and manufactures of
the United Kingdom exported, ;^4,4i8,42i.
Principal Imports. — Grain, 6,974, ' 20 cwts. ; cotton, raw,
11,720 cwts.; fruit, 190,200 cwts. ; glass, 128,220 cnls. ;
yarns, 282,160 cwts.; margarine, 75,540 cwts.; oil seed
cake, 18,139 tons; paper, 18,558 tons; petroleum, 1,973
tuns ; rice, 5,976 tons ; spirits, 7,809 casks and 1,670 cases ;
sugar, 88,027 tons ; tobacco, 1,168 tons ; wheat meal or flour,
57,486 tons ; wool, 2,384 tons ; woollens, 536 tons.
Principal Exports. — Cotton, raw, 1,245 tons : j^'^' 5..I97
tons ; spirits, 8,396 casks and 3,290 eases; tallow and stearine,
5,614 tons ; tea, 184 tons ; tobacco, 156 tons.
There are two companies in the town engaged in the
London and Leith trade, and others in trade between Leith
and Hull, Liverpool, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inver-
ness, Wick, Kirkwall, Lerwick, Stirling, Southampton and
Belfast. There are also regular lines of steamers to Ham-
burg, Copenhagen, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Dunkirk, and to
New York, Montreal, Baltimore and in the season to
Petersburg, Reval and Riga. The principal commerce of
Leith lies chiefly in its shipping, foreign and colonial trade.
The manufactures of Leith are considerable ; they comprise
color and paint works, artificial manure works and bone
mills, roperies, canvas, sail and soap making, sugar refining,
brewing, distilling and tanning, fish curing and coopering.
Shipbuilding is also carried on to some extent ; there are
extensive saw mills and some large flour mills, also works
lor preserving provisions, railway engine works &c.
There are eleven branches of banks in the town, viz. : —
the Bank of Scotland (two), the British Linen Company
(two), the Clydesdale Bank, the Commarcial Bank of
Scotland, the National Bank of Scotland (two), the Royal
Bank of Scotland (two) and the Union Bank of Scotland.
The Custom House, a building in the Classic style, with
a pediment and portico, is in North Leith, at the end of the
lower drawbridge ; it was erected in 1812, and cost ^12,617 ;
contiguous to it are extensive dock warehouses. The busi-
ness of the excise office is likewise transacted within it.
The total amount of Customs revenue collected in 1902 was
;t8s8,277.
The church of North Leith stands to the westward of the
town, and was erected in 1814, in place of one built in 1499 :
it has a lofty tower of three Classic orders, surmounted by
a spire, the height to the summit of the cross being 158
feet : the portico is modelled from that of an Ionic temple near
Athens : the church will hold a congregation of 2,000. The
inhabitants have the right of nominating their minister.
South Leith church, originally founded at the end of the
15th century, is situated between Kirkgate and Constitution
street ; in Constitution street also stands the Roman Catholic
Church of Mary, Star of the Sea, and near by the Episcopal
Churcli of St. James.
St. Thomas's church, Shirra brae, founded and endowed
by Sir John Gladstone hart, a native of Leith, in 1840, is a
handsome building, with turret and spire.
St. John's Free church is in Charlotte street.
The Mariners' Free church is near the docks, in North
Leith.
Restalrig church, rebuilt under the Church Extension
Scheme, in 1837, is now in connection with St. Mary's,
South Leith.
The United Free church, in Junction street, was purchased
in 1895, and seats 800 persons.
There is also a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists.
The public educational establishments include a boys'
charity school, and an industrial school for girls.
The Court House is a handsome structure, situated at the
corner of Charlotte street.
Leith was the birthplace of George Wishart, the Scotch
reformer, who, for his zealous advocacy of the Protestant
cause, was burnt at the stake at St. Andrews, March,
1545-6 ; also of Hugo Arnot, author of a history of Edin-
burgh, born r749, died 1786.
The Fort, which forms one side of North Fort street, is
now the head quarters for the Royal Artillery in Scotland.
The Trinity House, on the west side of Kirkgate, was
originally founded in 1555, and rebuilt in 1817, in the
Grecian style, at an expense of ;^2,soo.
The Sailors' Home, the foundation stone of which was
laid on the 20th September, 1883, by the Earl of Mar and
Kellie, is an edifice in the Scottish Baronial style, situated at
the corner of Tower place and Tower street. The principal
elevation faces the harbour at Tower place, and is 90 feet in
length, with four storeys and attics ; the centre tower is 75
feet high and contains a clock with four illuminated dials,
7 feet in diameter ; there is a storeroom for seamen's
effects, recreation room, reading room, and dining room.
Accommodation is provided for 56 seamen and 9 officers.
The building cost about £10,200.
There are also Industrial Schools, a Philharmonic Society,
and benefit associations, together with Bible and missionary
societies, a public institute and library, and other libraries,
baths &c. The Town Hall, in Charlotte and Constitution
streets, was erected in 1827, at a cost of about ^^3,000 ;
various additions have since been made, and the total cost
may now (1903) be estimated at £25,000.
The Poorhouse, in Great Junction street, was erected in
1850, at a cost of £4,500.
There are numerous charitable institutions, amongst
which may be mentioned the Gladstone Asylum for Incur-
ables and John Watt's Hospital, erected in 1862.
Leith Hospital. — Various charities, mostlyof a dispensary
character, were united in 1846, under the name of "The Leith
Hospital," and at the same time buildings were erected for
the reception of fever cases and a few casualties, towards the
cost of which £1,000 was given by Mr. James Stewart, of
Laverockbank, and £2,000 by Mr. Alexander Cowan. An
addition to the building was made in 1866, and in i87i,Mr.
WilUamson Ramsay having bequeathed to the hospital a sum
of about £25,000, a surgical and medical wing was built and
the older part of the hospital was thereafter devoted to the
care of fever cases. Various additions have since been made,
and the hospital is now a general one, containing 100 beds
devoted to medical, surgical, gynaecological and eye cases,
and is perfectly equipped. In the dispensary department,
in 1902, 11,000 patients were attended for consultations and
vaccinations, 17,500 dressings were applied and there were
8,300 extractions of teeth. Nearly 9,000 visits were paid to
patients at their own homes or were attended by the district
nurse. Medical and surgical dressings were supplied to a
great majority of these cases. The hospital has been built
and is maintained by donations, legacies and subscriptions.
Four beds have been endowed by donations of £1,600 for
each. President, The Very Rev. James Mitchell d.d. The
Manse, South Leith ; treasurer, Mr. George J. Scott, 28
Bernard street, Leith ; secretary, Mr. George V. Mann, 33
Bernard street, Leith.
Leith Nautical College, in Commercial street,
by Lord Balfour of Burleigh k.t. Secretary for Scotland, 4th
February, 1903, is a plain but handsome structure in the
Renaissance style, the entrance being adorned by coupled
Ionic columns on either side : it is three storeys in height,
the lower floor containing hbrary and laboratories &c. the
other floors the class rooms, and the roof the astronomical
observatory. The object of the college is to provide nautical
education in all its departments, suited to the best types of
modern ships, including a complete acquaintance with the
appliances for attaining high speeds and for labour saving,
as well as instruction in wireless telegraphy and other forms
of signalling ; ship building and the designing of marine
motors are also parts of the curriculum. The head master
is Mr. J. Bolam, and the staff includes instructors in navi-
gation and seamanship, ship builduig, marine engineering,
electro-technics, and ship surgery and medicine.
The market places of Leith are situated a short way east
from the Tolbooth, and were erected in 1819. The areas
of the different markets are surrounded with stalls. The
parliamentary burgh of Leith in 1881 contained a population
of 58,196, and in 1891, 67,700, and the town contained a
population of 68,707.
Ghanton, a seaport, situated on the Firth of F'orth, is
also a quoad sacra parish formed out of the parishes of
Cramond and St. Cuthbert's; it is about 2 J miles north-
north-west of Edinburgh, and the same distance west of
Leith. This port is the exclusive property of the Duke of
Buccleuch. In 1837 an Act of Parhament was obtained for
the construction of a pier here— the port of Leith being
then ill-adapted for the reception of vessels at low water.
The pier, which extends 1,700 feet into the Forth, is built
of stone obtained in the immediate neighbourhood, and