Constitution Street

The street takes its name from Constitution Hill, which stood on the site of the current Assembly Rooms. The 1777 map of Leith calls it Constitution Road but it only goes from the eastern entrance to South Leith Churchyard to Bernard Street.^[1]

The street at its current length was only completed in 1800, at that time being built as a bypass from Bernard Street to Leith Walk, avoiding the crowded and twisting medieval streets of old Leith. The street at that time was causewayed, rising around two metres above natural ground level. Buildings which predate this now have their original ground floor rooms buried at basement level.

The bulk of the buildings lining the street remain substantially unchanged for over a century, but the previously industrial north end is now largely redeveloped as housing.

On 9 January 1823 the last two men executed for piracy in Scotland were hanged at the north end of the street (near what is now Tower Street). The two men were Peter Heaman from Karlskrona in Sweden and Francois Gautiez from France. They were found guilty in the summer of 1822 of capturing the brig "Jane", en route from Gibraltar to Brazil, killing its master and stealing 38,000 Spanish dollars.^[2] One account says their bodies were afterwards awarded to Dr Alexander Monro for dissection.^[3] A second account says they were buried where executed. Two bodies were discovered during an archaeological dig at the north end of the street in approximately the correct area in the summer of 2000, possibly validating the latter claim.

• The Conquest of the South Pole (1989) starring Ewen Bremner and John Michie
• Trainspotting (1996) starring Ewen Bremner and Ewan McGregor
• Sunshine on Leith (2013) starring Peter Mullan