LEITH - In the Old Days

Leith, a major port since early medieval times, and a town that somehow managed to retain its unique identity after being swallowed up by Edinburgh in 1920.

Here, we look at the people and buildings of Leith through old photographs that capture the ordinary lives of its citizens. From the grandness of the Assembly Rooms and the Town Hall to the mundane task of collecting water in the street; from barefoot children to trams and ships and trains. This is an insight into the ordinary lives of people who lived in an extraordinary place.

Along the way we will see buildings and whole streets that have vanished to make way for the unrelenting march of progress, a progress that often led to the creation of concrete jungles with no heart or soul. We will see workmen laying tram lines in a construction upheaval that would be repeated 100 years later. And with a backdrop of old ships in the Water of Leith, the faces of the town's inhabitants peer out at us from areas that would soon be swept away to make way for improvments to their lives: houses with running water and other mod-cons.

This is an insight into the past, and into the lives of people long ago. Welcome to Leith.