St Leonards railway station (Scotland)

St. Leonards railway station is a closed railway station on the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway. It was Edinburgh's first railway station. The railway was built in 1831 to transport coal from the mining towns south of the city; and the following year opened passenger services. St. Leonards was the terminus for the south of the city and was named after the nearby region.

St Leonards
Surviving goods shed
LocationEdinburgh, City of Edinburgh
Scotland
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyEdinburgh and Dalkeith Railway
Pre-groupingNorth British Railway
Post-groupingLondon and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
2 June 1832Opened
1846Closed
1 June 1860Reopened
30 September 1860Closed to passengers - site reused as a goods depot
1968Goods depot closed

Passenger services ceased in 1846, when the North British Railway opened a station at North Bridge which later developed into Waverley station. Services from Dalkeith were re-routed via Portobello. The station reopened briefly between 1 June 1860 and 30 September 1860 when a service was temporarily re-introduced from St. Leonard's to Dalkeith, Portobello and Leith, but it closed again within a few months. The railhead continued to see heavy use in its original intended role as a coal yard until 1968.[1]

Both the coal depot and the railway line are now gone and have been redeveloped into housing. The goods shed is the only surviving building and is a category B listed building.[2] It is currently planned to be converted into a whisky distillery & visitor centre by 2019.[3] The route of the line can still be followed, protected from development by the construction of a cycle path where the tracks ran.

A 1905 Railway Clearing House diagram of Edinburgh railways, showing the location of St Leonards railway station

See also

References
  1. https://canmore.org.uk/site/131543/edinburgh-and-dalkeith-railway-st-leonards-station
  2. "St Leonard's Lane, St Leonard's Station Including Outbuilding at Gate and Gatepiers". Historic Scotland. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  3. https://www.holyrooddistillery.co.uk/edinburghs-1st-single-malt-whisky-distillery-for-90-years-completes-5-8-million-fundraise/


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