Editing Leith (section)

==Traditional industries==
Leith was Scotland's leader in several industries for many centuries. Of these the most notable are:

* Glass – the Leith Glassworks stood on Baltic Street and dated from 1746. There is also some reference to earlier glass production from 1682 at Leith Citadel. Leith specialised in wine bottles, largely for export to France and Spain. At its peak ({{Circa|1770}}) production was one million bottles per week. The Leith pattern bottle is the parallel-sided, round shouldered, narrow neck bottle now dominant within the wine industry. Around 1770 the company branched into lead crystal glass, mainly for [[chandelier]]s. This was under a new company name of the [[Edinburgh Crystal]] Company but stood on the same site in Leith (ironically this company has never truly been in "Edinburgh").
* Soap – the Anchor Soapworks was established on Water Street around 1680. This largely used whale oil in its production. This survived until around 1930.
[[File:Carved stone from a 17thC Leith merchant's house.jpg|thumb|The 'Porters Stone' from a 17th-century wine-merchant's house]]
* Wine and whisky storage – wine storage in Leith dates from at least the early 16th century, notably being connected with the Vaults on [[Henderson Street]] from this time. At its peak there were around 100 warehouses storing wine and brandy. In the late 1880s, due to the collapse of wine harvest in Europe, most of these were "converted" for the storage of whisky used in the growing business of whisky blending and bottling. Important in this business were William Sanderson with [[Vat 69]], [[Crabbies|John Crabbie]] who also produced green ginger wine, and Macdonald & Muir who later bought the [[Glenmorangie distillery]]. Around 85 bonded warehouses stood in Leith in the 1960s. The last bond, on Water Street, closed around 1995. An offshoot to the wine industry were several vinegar works.
* Lime juice – [[Rose's lime juice]] was founded by Lachlan Rose in Leith on Commercial Street in 1868. This was originally and primarily focussed upon provision of [[vitamin C]] to seamen.
* Shipbuilding – originally centred on the Water of Leith and limited in scale due to the shallow water, Leith's shipbuilding started to fade as vessels increased in size. Latterly Leith built specialised ship types: tugs, hotel ships, cable-layers etc. Whilst the most notable large shipyard ([[Henry Robb]]'s) closed in 1983, this was technically outlived by a very small shipbuilder on Sheriff Brae (run by the Scottish Co-operative Society) which closed around 1988. The most notable ships built in Leith are the [[SS Sirius (1837)|SS ''Sirius'']], one of the first steamships to cross the Atlantic, and [[København (ship)|SS ''Copenhagen'']], one of the largest rigged ships ever built. Robb's yard also made a great contribution to the RN and MN during the Second World War, building forty-two vessels for the Royal Navy, fourteen merchant ships and refitted and repaired nearly 3,000 ships of the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy. This means that one new ship was launched on an average every six weeks and a ship repaired every day of this long and bloody conflict. The RN list included Flower and Castle Class Corvettes and River, Loch and Bay Class Frigates.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leithshipyards.com/ships-built-in-leith/1939-to-1945.html|title=Leith built ships 1939–45|publisher=Leith Shipyards|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004233012/http://www.leithshipyards.com/ships-built-in-leith/1939-to-1945.html|archive-date=4 October 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Christian Salvesen harpoon gun, Leith.JPG|thumb|upright|Christian Salvesen harpoon gun on The Shore]]
* Lead – Scotland's largest leadworks stood on the corner of Mitchell Street and Constitution Street. Founded around 1760 the operational part worked until the 1970s and the empty buildings stood until the late 1980s. The offices, on [[Constitution Street]], still survive. The company specialised in lead pipes for water supply and lead drainpipes. They also produced lead sheet for roofing and lead shot for weapons.
* Sugar refining was developed at the [[Leith Sugar House]] by Robert Douglas, an established soap boiler, from 1677.<ref name="auto"/>
* Whaling – originally focussed on local, and Icelandic waters (the last whale in the [[Firth of Forth]] was caught in 1834); by the mid 19th century ships were travelling to the [[Antarctic]].  In the early 1900s, the [[Christian Salvesen]] company developed significant interests in whaling, initially in the Arctic, and then in the Antarctic. Among their many whaling stations in the South Atlantic, they established and operated from a base on the island of South Georgia, south east of the Falkland Islands at [[Leith Harbour]] (named for their base in Scotland). South Georgia later came to fame at the beginning of the [[Falklands War]]). The company moved from Leith to the Fettes area of Edinburgh around 1980 and then left Edinburgh altogether in the mid-1990s. The founder, [[Christian Salvesen]] is buried in Rosebank Cemetery. Whaling ships from Leith brought the very first penguins to Edinburgh Zoo around 1900.
* Corn trading – A [[Corn Exchange, Leith|Corn Exchange]] was erected in Constitution Street in 1861.<ref>{{Historic Environment Scotland|num= LB27140|desc= Corn Exchange, 29, 31, 33, 35 Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh|access-date=7 June 2023}}</ref>
* Fishing – During the 19th century Leith became an important entrepôt for the Scottish herring trade, with exports peaking at 388,899 barrels in 1907.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scottishherringhistory.uk/statistics/AnnualExport.html |title=The Scottish Continental Herring Trade 1810–1914 |access-date=2016-06-06 |archive-date=8 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508173546/http://www.scottishherringhistory.uk/statistics/AnnualExport.html |url-status=live }}</ref>