Henderson Street is a street in Leith, a district of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. It forms a curving artery between Great Junction Street and an area known as the Shore, where the Water of Leith runs into the Port of Leith/Leith Docks. Henderson Street lies within the boundaries of the Leith Conservation Area and includes several listed buildings.
The street is named after Dr John Henderson, M.D. (1819–1901), a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and twice Provost of Leith: from 1875–81 and again in 1887. Dr. Henderson worked to secure the implementation of the Leith Improvement Scheme (see below) which ultimately led to the street being built.
Background
In 1877 the Provost of Leith, Dr John Henderson, proposed to the Town Council that measures should be taken to address the high mortality rate, and especially the infant mortality rate, in the area of Leith between Giles Street and Coalhill. They conceived a plan to sweep away the dense medieval buildings initially seeking to use powers under the Police Act. This proved inadequate and they then sought to use the Artisans Dwelling House Act, which was not really designed for this purpose. The ultimate plan sought to link Great Junction Street to the Shore, greatly improving access to the harbour. The final scheme removed 18 ancient closes and many hundreds of buildings ranging in date from the 15th to 18th century. Ironically, although one of the issues levelled at the pre-existing area was that of "over-density" the 3,600 people displaced was replaced by a population of 7,000. As was standard in all such schemes, both then and now, the logistics of rehousing meant that the 3,600 removed were largely not in the group of the 7,000 rehoused. This inevitable stirring of the population introduced a huge ratio of persons who were not indigenous to Leith, an exercise repeated in Leith in the 1960s. The cost of the project was estimated at £100,000 in 1881 but the Home Secretary (who controlled public spending) limited this to £70,000 which meant a more puritanical approach to much of the construction.Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh; vol. 6, ch. 26
Construction and history
Henderson Street was built as part of the Leith Improvement Scheme, introduced in an act of Parliament known as the Leith Improvement Scheme Confirmation Act 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. clxxv). The construction of the street required that 18 pre-existing closes be demolished in order to make way for the new buildings and layout. At that time, housing conditions in this part of Leith were very poor. Housing was overcrowded, poverty and ill health were rife and infant mortality was particularly high. Consequently, it was hoped that the creation of Henderson Street would improve living conditions for the local residents.
The street was set out to be 50 ft wide and made up predominantly of residential houses (these to be in the Scottish vernacular, Victorian tenement style) and frequently including commercial/retail spaces at ground level. The foundation stone of the first property (right) was laid by Provost James Pringle.
Henderson Street took many years to complete, with records (available from Edinburgh City Archives) showing petitions to build new dwelling houses spanning many years - from the latter 1880s through into the 1890s.
Development
Henderson Street first appeared in the Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directories in the year 1886/87. Only entries for numbers 1 and 2 are displayed and list residents, suggesting that the rest of the street was still under construction. Over the following ten years, more and more entries and house numbers appear. Though a listing in the P.O. directories was not automatic (and did require payment of a charge), the listings available give some indication of the kind of early residents and businesses on the street. These include, from the period 1887–1901: joiners, contractors, carters, midwives, ladies' nurses, invalid attendants, seamen, master mariners, apprentice engineers, wire-weavers, spirit merchants, fruiterers, master bakers, elementary teachers and scholars.
Businesses on the street included drapers, hosiers and glovers, dairies, an Inland Revenue office and, from 1891–1900, a William Hope and S Hope ran the Leith Herald Office publishing the Leith Herald newspaper from 12 Henderson Street. No. 12 is still home to a printers (Skyline Printers) as of 2012.
The street did, therefore, provide dwellings for artisans and labourers. Accommodation would have been rented out to these occupants. The Census of 1891 and 1901Census Records can be viewed at Census Records Edinburgh Room, Central Library, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. show that many of the flats housed, by contemporary standards, large families (sometimes six to eight people, occasionally with the addition of a live-in lodger or maid). These large families lived in what, by modern standards, would be considered a comfortably sized two bedroom flat.
Today, the tenement flats of Henderson Street are in private ownership; owner-occupied or privately rented out. The street might loosely be described as a mixture of old Leith families with long ties to the area; blow-ins (who moved in during the property boom of the late 1990s and early Noughties) and transient local and migrant workers who rent in the area.
Victorian architecture
Henderson Street is home to some fine examples of Victorian urban architecture and there are several listed buildings on the street and in the immediate vicinity. Turning onto Henderson Street from Great Junction Street, Number 2, Henderson Street has been B Listed since 1995. Above the corner entrance is a detailed carving of the head of the Sea God, Neptune – perhaps chosen to reflect the close proximity and importance of the sea to the Port of Leith. This building also has a carved stone plaque commemorating it as the first project of the Leith Improvement Scheme. It was built in 1885 and possibly designed by the architect Archibald Thomson.
James Simpson Scottish architect, James Simpson,(1832–94) held the positions of Town Architect of Leith and, for a period, was architect to the Leith School Board around the time when Henderson Street was under development. He worked on many notable buildings in Leith including Leith Town Hall on Queen Charlotte Street (now Leith Police Station) and also Leith Hospital at King Street and Mill Lane (now converted for residential use).
Simpson was responsible for the design of the building on Henderson Street now known as 'Academia' — recently converted to residential use — formerly St Mary's workshops, and originally designed by him as Yardheads School. Although the front entrance is on nearby Giles Street, the rear of the building faces onto (and forms) a significant section of the Henderson Street layout. This school was purpose built in 1875 at a cost of £3,807. Around that time, it had four hundred children on the roll and nine teachers, with one classroom being able to accommodate 126 children. The building has been C listed since 1995. At the Shore end of Henderson Street, (odd numbers 73—91A) there is a noteworthy example of a sandstone residential and commercial building with intricate, detailed carvings and masonry work. This was also designed by James Simpson, was built in 1891, and has been C Listed since 1977. Simpson's signature and the date are still clearly visible on the stonework.
Just off Henderson Street, on Parliament Street, is another example of Simpson's work: a Model Lodging House, which was built in 1893 with the aim of providing cheap, clean, overnight accommodation to transient workers in the area. It is still used to provide temporary accommodation by Canmore Housing Association (ii). A plaque above the door of this substantial building commemorates its purpose and those involved in its erection. The Model Lodging House has been C Listed since 1995. Numbers 59—61 Henderson Street are also attributed to Simpson.
George Craig Simpson's successor, as architect to the Leith School Board, was his former apprentice George Craig (1852–1928). In 1888, Craig, a Freemason, designed the Trafalgar Masonic Hall on St Anthony Lane, just off Henderson Street. According to a report in The Scotsman, a time capsule was buried in the building during the ceremony that took place for the laying of the Foundation Stone. This sandstone building, which is still in use as a Masonic Lodge, has been C Listed since 1995 and has many masonic symbols and decorative motifs carved into the stonework on the front elevation. The basement still contains fragments from St. Anthony's Priory (which gives its name to the side street).
Masonic symbols on Henderson St
Masonic symbols are also visible on Numbers 2 and 4 Henderson Street near the decorative carving of the Head of Neptune; additional symbols on this building are currently covered over by shop hoardings. There are also masonic symbols visible on the stonework of Number 14 (on the front fascia at third-floor level). The quantity of masonic motifs appears to reflect the elevated status of both stonemasonry, as a craft, and freemasonry, as a guild, within the area in the late nineteenth century.
Lost Victorian buildings In 1885, architects James M. Thomson and Robert Thornton Shiells won a competition to produce a design for the Kirkgate United Presbyterian Church (also known as St Anthony's Church). The church was located at the Great Junction Street end of Henderson Street (on the corner of Henderson and St Anthony Street). It opened in 1886 on the site where South Leith Parish Church now has its church halls (iii). This large, ornate, Italianate structure was to last less than a hundred years. It was demolished in 1975; despite some protest and an attempt to get it listed in order to prevent its destruction.Church's historic listing angers minister (9 January 1975). Edinburgh Evening News. Can be viewed at Edinburgh Room, Central Library, Edinburgh. The current church hall building was opened on 2 July 1982 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.Royal Opening at City Church Halls (6 April 1982). Edinburgh Evening News. Can be viewed at Edinburgh Room, Central Library, Edinburgh. A small stone relief from the earlier church can still be seen inset into the fascia of the current church halls, near the entrance. This relief and a time capsule 'Burial' details reburial of time capsule items (11 June 1982). Edinburgh Evening News. Can be viewed at Edinburgh Room, Central Library, Edinburgh. (discovered in the foundations of the church during its demolition and then reburied under the new structure) are all that remain of the Kirkgate United Presbyterian Church on Henderson Street.
Earlier architecture in the area Scottish Parliament
The most tragic loss of the improvement scheme (which is not wholly explained) is the Scottish Parliament/ Council Office which is now only remembered in the name "Parliament Street". This stood on Coalhill and was a highly ornamental (carved stone) building with a "fabulous interior". This was erected at the instruction of Mary of Guise who lived nearby on Queen Street (now called Shore Place) for the use of her Privy Council around 1545. It was still described as "regal" in the mid 19th century but either fell from grace or was forgotten in the replanning exercise. This was possibly due to its juxtaposition to Peat Nook, a large doss house for unemployed seamen and the lower parts of society.Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh; vol. 6, pp. 246/7
Yardheads distillery