Leith - Culture and Community

Culture and Community

Leith has a long history of idealistic social advances, many of which were the first in Scots history:

All boys were educated for free from 1555 onwards. This was paid for by the local trade guilds. All girls were educated from 1820, admittedly a long time after the boys, but very early for free education for females (the law only required it from 1876). A free hospital service was provided from 1777, paid for by a local income tax, with beds sponsored by local shops. Leith had electric street lighting from 1890, and electric trams from 1905 (only Blackpool was earlier in the UK). The first public sewer in Scotland was built in Bernard Street in 1780; this simply flowed into the Water of Leith. The iron seal over the end of this is still visible next to Bernard Street bridge. The sewage is now pumped the other way (it was laid to fall westwards) to Seafield.

It is a multicultural area with sizable African-Caribbean, Asian and Eastern European communities.

Hibernian Football Club have their stadium at Easter Road in Leith.

The Utopia pub on Easter Road started a protest campaign against the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling after the 2008 Budget.