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Edinburgh, Gilmore Park, Union Canal Lifting Bridge

Road Bridge (20th Century)

Site Name Edinburgh, Gilmore Park, Union Canal Lifting Bridge

Classification Road Bridge (20th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Edinburgh And Glasgow Union Canal; Leamington Lift Bridge; Leamington Terrace; Lochrin; Leamington Road; Lochrin

Canmore ID 52717

Site Number NT27SW 88

NGR NT 24453 72692

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52717

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT27SW 88 24453 72692

Foot Bridge [NAT]

OS (GIS) AIB, May 2006.

A distinctive and unusual early 20th century lifting bridge. It has a rivetted steel framework and a short lifting span. The control cabin is incorporated within the framework, and when the bridge was lifted, pedestrians could still cross by the lattice girder footbridge.

J R Baldwin 1985; G Hutton 1993a.

This 'Leamington Bridge', an electrically operated bridge in which the deck was raised between gantries on each side of the road so that boats could pass, was originally at Fountainbridge. It replaced a wooden drawbridge at the time of the closure of the city basins in 1922.

G Hutton 1993.

This lifting bridge, with 'Leamington Bridge' inscribed on it, was originally sited at Fountainbridge near the Port Hamilton Tavern (NT27SW 3134). The current location is close to the present end of the canal.

H Brown 1997.

During February 2000, RCAHMS conducted a photographic survey of Leamington Lift Bridge. The purpose of this survey was to enhance and augment the National Monuments Record Scotland.

Visited by RCAHMS (MKO), February 2000

This iron vertical lifting bridge joins Gilmore Park (to the NW) and Leamington Road (to the SE) within the inner suburbs of SW Edinburgh and a short distance SW of the former terminal basin of the Union Canal. It remains in regular use by vehicles and pedestrians.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 15 May 2006.

Activities

Construction (1906)

Designed by Sir W G Armstrong-Whitworth. originally constructed at Fountainbridge, moved 1922.

Project (2007)

This project was undertaken to input site information listed in 'Civil engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' by R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.

Publication Account (2007)

Leamington Lift Bridge is the only surviving example of an electrical lifting bridge on the Union Canal. It was designed by Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth of Newcastle for the canal owners, the North British Railway, and installed in ca. 1906, not at this site but at Fountainbridge as a replacement for a lift bridge of 1869 [see RCAHMS NT27SW 3133]. This was the next road crossing to the north, just before the terminal basins of Port Hamilton and Port Hopetoun. Because of the decline in canal traffic, these basins were closed and filled in by 1922 and, as the canal then ended south of Fountainbridge, the bridge was dismantled in November 1922 and later re-erected at its present site. Twin portals of riveted steel box sections support the lifting mechanism and deck during operation, house the motors and keep the deck in position as it is raised and lowered. The navigational headroom is 9 ft. The bridge, after finally ceasing to operate in the 1960s, was refurbished as part of the Millennium Link Project and has been in regular use since its re-opening on 22 March 2005. It is the first bridge west of the new terminal facility at Lochrin Basin.

R Paxton and S Shipway 2007

Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.

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