A Stroll Down the Kirkgate
No matter where we lived or worked in Leith, at some time or another we would find ourselves drawn to the Kirkgate. Shops, Pubs, Billiard Hall, Theatre, Church, aye, even taking a saunter was reason enough to navigate the `Channel`.
With its varied buildings lining the non-symetrical journey from the `Fit o` the Walk` to Tolbooth Wynd, the Kirkgate became a mecca, not only for Leithers, but visitors like the seaman arriving in the Docks. I can still visage the Lascars, filing up the street in their dark dungarees always in single file. Often they would pop into one or other of the shops and emerge carrying their little parcels to take home to someone or another back in India. So many shops to visit. So many different types of goods to seek out.
As we entered the street from the south end, Leith Walk, on our right we found John White the tobacconist on the corner. Next, Polson and Smarts the Drapers. They also had premises on the other side. Just below them were the premises of Keirs Shoe Shop and Alberts the Fish Restaurant.
On the other side we had Allardyce the bakers. If you cared to turn right here, you would have found the old Laurie Street Cinema. Have to admit that I never was a frequent visitor for obvious reasons. It wasn`t known as the `Scratcher` for nothing. Incidently, after it closed down in the late forties, for a long time its last showing was still displayed on a fraying poster as featuring Alice Faye in `That Night in Rio`.
Continuing our walk, we had Fords fruit shop on our right, and Stella Blacks home bakery on the other side. and Meikles Public House. There was a wallpaper and paint shop adjacent but its name escapes me. Just below St Anthony Street we had a plethora of shops starting with Guthries tripe and offal, Liddles sweetie shop, Jeannie Wallace`s paper shop, and Parkers Store.
Giles Street then opened on our left with Trinity House on its corner. Digressing for a bit, I would often visit the old blacksmith in the lane behind this building. I would stand with my head and shoulders leaning on the closed bottom half of the door as I watched the smithy at work shoeing a horse. The hiss of the redhot shoe as it was applied to the hoof and the resultant smell and smoke I can still visualise.
Burton`s the Tailor with its billiard hall upstairs was just down from Trinity House. I always wondered, and still do, why Burtons Shops always had a billiard hall attached.
Continuing on again, we had a another shoe shop, Stead and Simpsons. Then Brickwork Close.
Facing this was Weir`s Close. The Gaeity Theatre, an ice cream shop, a barbers, a woollen shop, all that I fail to put names to.
Storries Alley, and St Andrew Street were the next to intrude onto the Kirkgate from the left. Mac Fisheries was in between them. Coatfield Lane signalled we had been about to enter the bottom of the Kirkgate. Bowmans the pork butcher, Hendry the offal dealer, and Manclarks shoe shop were some of the retailers on the right as we approached Charlotte Street.
Between St Andrew Street and Tolbooth Wynd were several shops that included a fruiterer, a pet store, and a gents outfitter. Again, I am at a loss to put name to these as with others Maybe with a bit more research I would have succeeded, but then of course, it would not be `my memories`.
The Kirkgate came to an end as it opened out first of all to Tolbooth Wynd then Water Street, and Charlotte Street.
A street full of character for many generation of Leithers and visitors alike, it was a sad day in the 1960s when misguided planners destroyed it all for future generation as well as ourselves in the name of progress. They have a lot to answer for.
