Imperial Dock Grain Store

The granary was built for the Leith Dock Commission in 1933-34 to add capacity to the existing Leith dock grain operation. The building was almost a replica of the nearby Edinburgh Dock Grain Store ( demolished 1995-8). In the late 1950's and again in the 1960's the Imperial Grain Store silo capacity was expanded.

The building was decommissioned in 2006 due to the uneconomic investment required to update the infrastructure and equipment to meet current health and safety legislation for the handling of grain.

Grain is still imported through Leith docks but between the Caledonia Flour Mill at the Western Harbour and storage on the flat prior to uplift in dockside warehouses at Imperial Dock there is sufficient capacity for today's "just in time" demand.

The grain store is B-Listed but has been under threat as the best location for an urban biomass power generation scheme that the dock owners have been preparing to get planning consent for. The building is one of the largest structures in Edinburgh and has been an industrial feature of the city's northern skyline for 80 years so if it goes I will miss it but there are currently no applications that make economic sense for the retention of it and in its existing disused state it will only deteriorate further.