Old Leith Town Hall

A quick photo down in Leith of the old town hall on the corner of Queen Charlotte & Constitution Streets.

The street takes its name from Constitution Hill, which stood on the site of the current Assembly Rooms. The road was only completed in 1800, at that time being built as a bypass from Bernard Street to Leith Walk, avoiding the crowded and twisting medieval streets of old Leith. The street at that time was causewayed, rising around 2m above natural ground level. Buildings which predate this now have their original fine ground floor rooms buried at basement level.

The street has an unusual claim to fame. On 9th January 1823 the last two men executed for piracy in Scotland were hanged at the north end of the street (near what is now Tower Street). The two men were Peter Heaman, from Sweden and Francois Gautiez from France. They were found guilty in the summer of 1822 of capturing the brig "Jane", en-route from Gibraltar to Brazil, killing its master and stealing 38,000 Spanish dollars. The crowd witnessing this event was given as a huge 40 to 50,000 persons. There bodies were afterwards awarded to Dr Robert Knox for dissection.

Leith Police Station, built as Leith Town Hall in 1827. This still contains the Victorian debating chamber of 1864, unchanged since that date. Attaching the north side, facing onto Constitution Street, is the jail. This still has its original interior. The windows on the outside belie this use. Only on inspection does one perceive that the windows are tapered in, and therefore could not operate. This is correct; They are dummy windows, even to the extent of having dummy venetion blinds created inside (in concrete). The three windows cover 4 cells, which clearly would not be allowed windows. Around the corner an early bit of facade retention: the Police station took over a terrace of Georgian houses in 1864 and incorporated them into the complex. The interior and entrance door date from 1868, everything else dates from c.1810.

Queen Charlotte Street is only indirectly connected to Queen Charlotte, consort to King George III, that is to say one of Leith's foremost ships of the period was "Queen Charlotte". Arguably the street is named after the ship rather than the queen.