St Leonard's is a neighbourhood of south-central Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. Once notable as a centre of industry, it is now primarily residential.
The area takes its name from the mediaeval hospital of St Leonard, which stood on St Leonard's Hill on the edge of Holyrood Park. The hospital had fallen out of use by the mid-17th century but, by the middle of the following century, a small village had developed on the east side of the road between Edinburgh and Dalkeith. One prominent house built in this time, Hermits and Termits, survives. In 1831, the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway opened its northern terminus at St Leonard's. Later in the 19th century, businesses including Thomas Nelson & Sons publishers and J. & G. Stewart distillers established manufacturing operations in St Leonard's. Industry declined throughout the 20th century with the station and Nelson's Parkside Works closing in 1968. In this period, abortive plans to demolish much of the area in favour of a ring road led to "planning blight" and the destruction of many older properties. Since the 1970s, however, St Leonard's has been redeveloped as a residential neighbourhood.
St Leonard's is the site of the University of Edinburgh's Pollock Halls of Residence, including the Confucius Institute of Scotland. The Royal Commonwealth Pool – used in the 1970, 1986 and 2014 Commonwealth Games – is located here, as is St Leonard's Police Station. Until 2020, Scottish Widows was headquartered in St Leonard's. History St Leonard's Hospital
St Leonard's is named for the mediaeval hospital of St Leonard, which was located on St Leonard's Hill on the site of what is now the former James Clark Technical School at St Leonard's Crag.Gifford, McWilliam, Walker 1984, p. 244.Harris 1996, p. 504. Saint Leonard was a popular dedicatee of chapels and hospitals in mediaeval Scotland. In addition to St Leonard's College, St Andrews, chapels and/or hospitals dedicated to the saint stood in Ayr, Dunfermline, Lanark, and Roxburghshire. Two other dedications to Saint Leonard existed in Midlothian.Smith and Paton 1940, pp. 113-114.Forrest 1865, pp. 4-8.Durkan in McRoberts 1962, p. 118.
The hospital was founded by David I.Smith and Paton 1940, p. 114. It was granted to Holyrood Abbey by David II. The last building on St Leonard's Hill was erected in 1493: the date of its re-foundation charter from James IV to Robert Bellenden, Abbot of Holyrood.Smith and Paton 1940, p. 113. The chapel of these buildings was excavated and demolished between 1854 and 1855. The Incorporation of Hammermen met annually at the chapel with only a few exceptions from 1494 to 1558.Smith and Paton 1940, pp. 118-119. On 2 February 1529, members of the Douglas family and allies met near St Leonard's Chapel to form their abortive plot to assassinate James V.Smith and Paton 1940, pp. 119-120. The manner of the hospital's decline is uncertain but it had definitely ceased to exist by 1653 when reference is made to "the old ruinous hous and chappell of St. Leonards".Smith and Paton 1940, pp. 127-128.
The Lands of St Leonards
In the mediaeval period, the Lands of St Leonards formed part of the Barony of Broughton, which was gifted to the monks of Holyrood Abbey by David I. It remained in the monks' possession until the Reformation.Smith and Paton 1940, p. 112. These lands were bounded to the north by the Canongate and to the east as far south as Priestfield by Holyrood Park. Its western boundary followed the Pleasance southward as far as what is now Drummond Street, whereafter it followed an irregular line to Mounthooly Loan (now East and West Preston Streets), which it then followed to the road to Dalkeith as far as Priestfield.Smith and Paton 1940, pp. 111-112.
The Lands of St Leonards are first referred to by that name in a charter issued by David II in 1346. feuing of the lands appears to have begun by the middle of the 15th century, when the eastern side of the street of St Leonard (now the Pleasance) had begun to be feued. Reference is made to a "village of St Leonard" around 1650. This area now forms the northeastern tip of the modern Southside.Smith and Paton 1940, pp. 128-129.
At the Reformation, ownership of the Lands of St Leonards continued in the Commendators of Holyrood – successively, Robert Stewart, Adam Bothwell, and John Bothwell – until 1587, when all church lands were annexed to the Crown. That year, James VI granted the charter of Broughton to Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auchnoule. Bellenden's grandson William passed the lands to his maternal uncle, Robert Ker, 1st Earl of Roxburghe in 1627.Smith 1940, pp. 112-113. Charles I granted the charters to the magistrates of Edinburgh as governors of Heriot's Hospital in 1639.Smith and Paton 1940, p. 113. From this time until 1737, the lands were known as Heriot's Croft and St Leonard's; in that year, the city council itself took the feu in order to provide ground for George Watson's Hospital.Forrest 1865, p. 43. Brown took a large portion of the sub-feu and, from 1766, began to construct George Square, Buccleuch Street, and Buccleuch Place.Forrest 1865, p. 44.
17th and 18th centuries After the Battle of Dunbar, David Leslie placed cannon on St Leonard's Hill to protect his men against Oliver Cromwell's advance into Edinburgh. By this time, St Leonard's Hill had become a prominent site for duels: a notable example was that of Robert Aumuchty, who, on 2 April 1600, killed James Wauchope. Aumuchty himself was executed after a failed attempt to escape the Tolbooth.Forrest 1865, pp. 32-33.
An estate north of St Leonard's Lane was developed by the Montgomery family as a market garden in the late 17th century. They built a house here in 1700 and were succeeded as proprietors by William Mein, who began to develop buildings on the estate. Mein's wife and then his children held the estate until the end of the 18th century.Paton 1942, p. 222.
The 18th-century development of St Leonard's around the historic burial grounds at the former hospital occasioned a poet under the nom de plume Claudero to write in 1766:
By 1734, a village had practically formed in the area of the former crofts of St Leonard's Hospital, known as Hermits and Termits. In this year, the house of the same name was constructed by William Clifton and his wife Mary.Paton 1942, pp. 224-225. South of this, the area known as Parkside was developed with two houses during the tenure of James Brown between 1702 and 1716.Paton 1942, p. 227. One of these, later known as Parkside House, survived until the latter half of the 20th century.Paton 1942, p. 228. Nearby, a four-storey house was constructed in 1728. Though originally called Huntershall, it is recorded as early as 1738 under the name The Castle o' Clouts, apparently in reference to its builder: a wealthy tailor. It stood, latterly as a pub and hotel, until 1970.Paton 1942, p. 231.Black 1972, p. 17.Balfour 1900, p. 8. In 1802, physician Andrew Duncan took a feu of the northern portion of the former crofts. The same year, Jane Cleugh and John Gibson acquired the southern portion, giving it up to the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway in 1828.
Industry and growth
In 1825, James Jardine recommended St Leonard's as the site of the northern terminus of a railway line to connect the Midlothian coalfields with Edinburgh. The following year, the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway opened with its base depot and terminus at St Leonard's. The line opened to goods on 4 July 1831 and to passengers the following year.Thomas and Paterson 1984, p. 250, 252. The yard was soon handling over 200 tons of coal every day. Ironically, despite post-dating the invention of the steam engine and despite its main cargo being coal, the line was horse-drawn.Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol.2 p.384
Comparing the horse-drawn line's leisurely and scenic route to the unseemliness of its larger, steam-powered counterparts, Robert Chambers referred to "the innocence of the railway" and the name Innocent Railway soon stuck.Thomas and Paterson 1984, p. 253.
The North British Railway purchased the Edinburgh & Dalkeith in 1845 and the railway began to use steam engines the following year. St Leonard's Station closed to passengers in 1847, while remaining in use for coal. There was an abortive attempt to reintroduce passenger trains in 1860.Thomas and Paterson 1984, p. 254.Thain 2019, p. 9. The introduction of steam engines occasioned the expansion of tracks, support facilities, and commercial enterprises at the St Leonard's yard, including what was then the world's largest bonded warehouse.
The Church of Scotland responded to the area's growing population with the establishment of St Paul's Church with a parish quoad sacra in 1836.Bain 1936, p. 6.Dunlop 1988, p. 70. At the Disruption of 1843, the church's minister, Robert Elder led almost all the congregation out of the established church and into the newly formed Free Church. Unusually among seceding congregations, St Paul's retained the use of its building. A further Church of Scotland congregation, St Leonard's, opened on 6 April 1879.Balfour 1900, p. 22. On 21 November the same year, the church was gutted by fire but was soon rebuilt, reopening on 21 May 1880 and becoming a charge quoad sacra in 1883.Balfour 1900, pp. 23, 27-29.Dunlop 1988, p. 481.Scott 1915, p. 110.
After Thomas Nelson & Sons works at Hope Park were destroyed by fire on 10 April 1878, the company moved production to the Parkside Works in St Leonard's, opening on 16 July 1880.Paton 1942, p. 217.Palmer 1999, p. 28. Even before this move, the Nelson family was well-established in St Leonard's. In 1860, William Nelson purchased then greatly altered Salisbury Green: a house built sometime between 1770 and 1780 for Alexander Scott. In 1867, William's brother Thomas Nelson purchased the lands "commonly known as Parkside" and constructed a new house, St Leonard's.Paton 1942, pp. 234-235. The Nelsons also established a recreation ground and the Parkside Institute on Dalkeith Road for the use of their employees as well as a bowling green on the southside of Holyrood Park Road. It remains in use as the Parkside Bowling Club. In 1913, they founded the Nelson Hall at Spittalfield Crescent on the opposite side of St Leonard's Street in the Southside.Palmer 1999, pp. 28-29. J. & G. Stewart had a distillery behind the Parkside works while Usher's operated the Park Brewery in the vicinity.Palmer 1999, pp. 38-40.Balfour 1900, p. 15.
In this period, population growth was reflected by the establishment in 1876 of St Leonard's School between Forbes Street and St Leonard's Hill. In 1913, James Clark Technical School was constructed on St Leonard's Hill.
1918–1968 In the period leading up to the Second World War, establishments in St Leonard's witnessed further changes. St Leonard's School closed in 1931 and its buildings were retained as an annexe to the nearby James Clark School. In 1925, St Trinnean's School moved from 10 Palmerston Road in Marchmont to St Leonard's. The school, a progressive establishment, partly inspired Ronald Searle to create the St Trinian's cartoon series. St Trinnean's closed in 1946.Thain 2019, p. 41.