टाइम लाइन - time line

29 April 1920 Edinburgh Boundaries Extension and Tramways Bill before House of Lords’ Select Committee; their Lordships recommend ‘Leith to confer with Edinburgh with a view to an amicable settlement being reached’, The Scotsman, 30 April 1920

31 May 1920 After Lords’ decision to approve Edinburgh’s extension scheme the Local Government Committee of Leith Town Council decide to take another, second plebiscite, of Leith ratepayers on the question of amalgamation with Edinburgh (for the result, see 15 June 1920 below)

8 June 1920 Edinburgh Boundaries Extension And Tramways Bill [Lords]—(By Order), HC Deb vol 130 08 June 1920 cc327-50 327. MP for Leith, Captain William Benn’s Private Members Bill for a Second Reading tried the stave off the inevitable union by an Act of Parliament that joined Leith and Edinburgh as equals

15 June 1920 Another inquiry of the Edinburgh Boundaries Extension and Tramways Bill case before House of Commons Committee. The second Leith plebiscite votes 26810 against amalgamation with 4340 in favour, ‘the proportion of votes against union is over 6 to 1, while in the first plebiscite it was 5 ½ to 1’ (The Scotsman, 16 June 1920)

4 August 1920 The Burgh of Leith to became part of the Burgh of Edinburgh. A statutory requirement that the City of Edinburgh clear the slums of Leith; another stipulation, was that a hall and library at Leith was to be erected by the Corporation of Edinburgh under terms of the1920 Edinburgh Boundaries Extension And Tramways Act

1 November 1920 Leith Burgh’s last day

3 January 1924 Approval for the purchase of the site of North Leith Manse for the new Leith Town Hall and Library for £3500

20 May 1925 Lord Provost’s Sub-Committee of Edinburgh Town Council recommends competitive plans for a new hall and library in Leith

26 April 1926 At a meeting of Edinburgh Public Libraries Committee, Councillor M’Crow noted that the feeling in Leith was that the erection of a public library was ‘long overdue’ (The Scotsman, 27 April 1926)

28 October 1926 Edinburgh Town Council agreed that time now right for the erection of a public hall

4 May 1927 Reported in The Scotsman that forty-one designs had been received by Edinburgh Corporation’s architecture competition for a hall and library in Leith; the winners, Messrs Bradshaw Gass & Hope, FRIBA

16 August 1929 Town Hall and Library plans passed by the Edinburgh Dean of Guild

30 August 1929 Architect’s drawings for Leith Town Hall and Library revealed in The Scotsman

11 October 1929 Foundation stone of Leith Town Hall and Library laid

20 July 1932 Leith’s new Town Hall and Public Library opened

21 July 1932 First concert given in new Leith Town Hall by Mr Robert Burnett’s Choir in aid of Leith Hospital

14 December 1932 First play performed in new Leith Town Hall – J M Barrie’s Quality Street in aid of Leith Girls’ Club

7 April 1941 Bomb damage during a particularly severe air raid resulted in the closure of the halls and library.

1953 - 1961 Restoration, repair and refurbishment of library and halls (town hall and small hall) under auspices of Clerk of Works, Mr Robert Forbes, who survived 1941 bombing of the town hall complex

1955 Leith Library re-opens

1957 Large hall, Leith Town Hall, re-opens (but see 23 June 1961 below)


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unless otherwise stated, all events listed below took place in Leith Town Hall, which changed its name to Leith Theatre in the 1970s


30 January 1958 Edinburgh Grand Opera’s production of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci

24 December 1958 Leith Christmas Eve Carol Service

January 1959 Edinburgh Grand Opera Company’s performance of Charles Gounod’s Faust

February 1959 Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group present Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance

22 August 1959 Gaelic Concert in Leith Town Hall

3 September 1959 Leith Town Hall hosts a Scottish concert with Elizabeth Robson, Jimmy Shand, and, Kenneth McKellar

8 November 1959 Leith Dock Commission and Granton Harbour Limited dance

February 1960 Edinburgh Savoy Opera Group present Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore

February 1960 Edinburgh Grand Opera Company’s production of Jacques Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann

23 June 1961 Re-opening of ‘this hall’ by Lord Provost as commemorated on a plaque located in the main foyer (crush hall) of Leith Theatre – was this the official re-opening of the small hall or the large hall, i.e. Leith Town Hall, or both?

August 1965 Alberto Erede conducts the New Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra in a concert of Haydn at the Edinburgh International Festival

February 1966 Edinburgh Grand Opera Group’s performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco

January 1968 Ukranian Christmas concert

July 1970 Commonwealth Games Weightlifting Competition

January 1976 Elephant at Leith Public Library to remind people to return their books!

12 June 1976 AC/DC’s Lock Up Your Daughters tour (Current Peak album), their first ever gig in Edinburgh (‘Edinburgh, England’, as noted on the publicity of the time)!

August 1979 Thomas Morton Hall, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Francisco Copello’s (1938-2006) production of Esmeralda (based on Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

August 1985 Edinburgh International Festival, Gian Carlo Menotti's 1950 Pulitzer Prize winning opera The Consul performed by Connecticut Grand Opera

August 1986 Edinburgh International Festival, Swedish Stockholm based Folkopera’s production of Giuseppi Verdi’s Aida

August 1987 Edinburgh International Festival, Shanghai Kunju Theatre Company’s performance of a Chinese version of Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth

August 1987 The Chinese Shanghai Kunju Theatre company’s production of Xianzu's opera The Peony Pavilion at Leith Theatre for the Edinburgh Festival

August 1987 Folkopera’s (Swedish opera company based in Stolkholm), production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute at Leith Theatre during the Edinburgh International Festival

August 1988 Edinburgh International Festival, Swedish Stockholm based Folkopera’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot

Aug – Sept 1992 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Grass Market Project's community theatre's Fringe First award winning MAD, directed by Jeremy Weller


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