Leith - Traditional Industries

Traditional Industries

Leith was Scotland's premier leader in several industries for many centuries. Of these the most notable are:

• Glass – the Leith Glassworks stood on Baltic Street and dated from 1746. There is also some reference to earlier glass production from 1682, but the site of this earlier works is unclear. Leith specialised in wine bottles, largely for export to France and Spain. At its peak (c.1770) production was a staggering one million bottles per week. The Leith pattern bottle is the parallel-sided, round shouldered, narrow neck bottle now dominant within the wine industry. Around 1770 the company branched into lead crystal glass, mainly for chandeliers. This was under a new company name of the Edinburgh Crystal Company but stood on the same site in Leith (ironically this company has never truly been in "Edinburgh".
• Soap – the Anchor Soapworks was established on Water Street around 1680. This largely used whale oil in its production. This survived until around 1830.

• Wine and whisky storage – wine storage in Leith dates from at least the early 16th century, notably being connected with the Vaults on Henderson Street from this time. At its peak there were around 100 warehouses storing wine and brandy. In the late 1880s, due to the collapse of wine harvest in Europe, most of these were "converted" to whisky storage. Around 85 bonded warehouses stood in Leith in the 1960s. Jointly these matured around 90% of all Scotch whisky. One of the largest, Crabbies on Great Junction Street, stored whisky for some of the foremost whisky distilleries: Lagavulin, Talisker, Laphroaig etc. The last bond, on Water Street, closed around 1995. An offshoot to the wine industry (for obvious reasons) were several vinegar works. Crabbies also had a famous Green Ginger manufactory alongside its bond.
• Lime juice – Rose's lime juice was founded by Lachlan Rose in Leith on Commercial Street in 1868. This was originally and primarily focussed upon provision of vitamin C to seamen.
• Shipbuilding – originally centred around the Water of Leith and limited in scale due to the shallow water, Leith's shipbuilding started to fade as vessels increased in size. Latterly Leith specialised in odd ship types: tugs, hotel ships, cable-layers etc. Whilst the most notable large shipyard Henry Robb's, closed around 1981 this was technically outlived by a very small shipbuilder on Sherrif Brae (run by the Scottish Co-operative Society) which closed around 1988. The most notable ships built in Leith are the SS Sirius, one of the first steamships to cross the Atlantic, and SS Copenhagen one of the largest rigged ships ever built.

• Lead – Scotland's largest leadworks stood on the corner of Mitchell Street and Constitution Street. Founded around 1760 the operational part worked until the 1970s and the empty buildings stood until the late 1980s. The offices, on Constitution Street, still survive. The company specialised in lead pipes for water supply and lead drainpipes. They also produced lead sheet for roofing and lead shot for weapons.
• Whaling – the mainstay of Leith for centuries. Originally focussing on local waters (the last whale in the Firth of Forth was caught in 1834) and on Icelandic waters, by the mid 19th century ships were travelling to the Antarctic. This was latterly all under the umbrella of the Christian Salvesen Company who had many whaling stations in the South Atlantic. This led to the main settlement of South Georgia (which came to fame at the beginning of the Falklands War) being named Leith. The company moved from Leith to Fettes around 1980 and then left Edinburgh altogether in the mid 1990s. The founder, Christian Salvesen is buried in Rosebank Cemetery. The whale ships from Leith brought the very first penguins to Edinburgh Zoo around 1900.