Great Junction Street

Great Junction Street is a street in Leith, on the northern outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland. It runs southeast to northwest following approximately the southwestmost line of the old town walls around Leith.

The road was planned c.1800 as a route to join the foot of Leith Walk with Ferry Road and the new wet docks bypassing the narrow and busy streets of old Leith. The link was completed by the construction of Junction Bridge over the Water of Leith in 1818 although the road between the bridge and Bonnington Road was not surfaced until the late 1830s.

The street was the site of a triumphal arch which was constructed for the reception of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1842. Great crowds attended this despite the heavy rain. Prince Albert added to the general merriment of the occasion by observing that he supposed that this was just a Scotch mist.

People from Leith often refer to Great Junction Street as Junction Street. North Junction Street lies at its extreme west end. It is connected to the area known as the Shore via Henderson Street.

Although typified by tenements the tenements in their own right are not necessarily typical. Great Junction Street has an abnormal number of flat-roofed tenements. These survived the ravages of the Scottish weather due to their novel construction; three inches of horse hair and tar (strong, flexible and impervious). These roofs normally survive well until tackled by Housing Repair Grant projects, which invariably replace them with felt, not appreciating the durability and value of the original roof.

Other buildings of note are the former Leith Provident Co-operative Society building with its octagonal clock tower with lead-covered domed roof and Ionic attached columns making it a local landmark. Built in 1911, the building is Category B listed by Historic Scotland. Also B listed, the attached building with ground floor shops also formerly occupied by Leith Provident was built in 1905. The central warehousing (east of Cables Wynd) was built originally as a wine vault overlooking fields to the south. It was bought by Crabbie's whisky, and served as a bonded warehouse for most of the 20th century, being greatly expanded on its west side. Crabbie's Green Ginger was made in a small modern building on the east side (now demolished). The warehouse also served to mature many of the famous whiskies, which largely came to Leith to mature. This building was internally labelled in rows for Talisker, Laphroaig and so on. Following sale to United Distillers it was closed down and has now been converted to flats.

On the south side of the road, Junction Place, shows where a collection of public buildings formerly stood. "Fire Engine House", stepping into the street midway, was a horse-drawn fire service, the gates opening onto the narrowest part of the roadway. At the very end of Junction Place stood Leith Electricity Generating Station, a surprisingly domestic scale building erected in 1895 to provide electric street lights, but having a bronze plaque to explain its creation. On the west side Dr Bell's School designed by R & R Dickson in 1839 operated the Madras System of Education. Behind it, Leith Swimming Baths (now restored) linked to the Public Baths (i.e. rows of enamel baths) and Laundry (both later demolished to create the Victoria Swim Centre. The baths were in use until the late 1970s, due to the high number of Leith dwellings lacking bathrooms up to that time.

In 2002 the very unusual but very out of character Telectra House was demolished and replaced with housing. This had been built (between Cables Wynd and King Street) in the early 1960s as a department store extension to the existing Leith Provident Co-operative Society building. Despite a late call to list the building as a monument to Modern Architecture this was blocked due to high asbestos content in the building.