Portobello Public Baths: upstairs

Portobello Public Baths were designed by Robert Morham, working for the Edinburgh City Architect’s Department of Edinburgh Council, in 1898, as part of the agreement that Portobello should become part of Edinburgh (on 1st November 1896). They were opened in 1901. Through most of the century they used to have a sea water pool and a fresh water pool (in the 1980s I used to belong to a sub-aqua club that used the sea water pool on Monday nights for training), but both pools are fresh water now. The Turkish baths were original to the building and are magnificent.

This photo is available on Redbubble: Shadows reflecting.

Origins: Leith stones

The original stones from Port of Leith, fenced off inside a housing estate garden.

I took this photo here. It’s available on Redbubble: Foundations behind fences.

St Cuthberts: the Kirk below the Castle

This windowless tower is the most visible part of St Cuthbert’s graveyard, to a passer-by on Lothian Road or Kings Stables Road or Castle Terrace. It was built in 1827 to allow a watch to be kept on the graveyard after a body had been buried.

I took these photos here. They’re all on Redbubble: St Cuthberts.

Fort House, Leith

This photo was taken here. It’s on Redbubble: Fort House, Leith.

The remnants of Leith Fort (built 1779) still stand on North Fort Street in Leith. The Fort was built to defend the Port of Leith (the architect was James Craig (1744 – 95) who planned the layout of Edinburgh’s New Town). Leith Fort was used as a prison for the French during the Napoleonic Wars and as an army base until the end of WWII, but it was mostly demolished in the 1950s, leaving only the original entrance and boundary wall with the original guardhouse and adjutant’s office just inside the gate. This photograph shows the iron gates and the adjutant’s office, now the concierge office for the red brick tower blocks of Fort House, the worst housing estate in Edinburgh. The black cannon are a modern addition.