Leith 1790s - a close, and bits of land.....

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 4:05 am

I just had a thought while reading the latest entries in this thread.

Is it possible that the "close" is a narrow passage between a group of tenements, which then have entries (closes) to the tenements.
A little bit different to what we now think of as a close, the entry into the tenements.

Excuse me if this has already been said

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 10:04 am

Hi StewL
Thanks for your thoughts and yes, I think you have the right sort of close, but I'm not sure tenement buildings, as we understand them today, existed in Leith in the 1790s.

I am aware of the two types of close - my understanding of a close, not from a dictionary, just from growing up in Scotland is that it can mean either:

1. a narrow passge between buildings, (often acting as a short cut between streets. ) This is what I took it to mean in the 1792 document.

2. A passageway inside a the building (such as a tenement) giving access to the flats within.

Its not the nature of the close I wanted to know about as such. Although I have a pretty good idea where the areas of land mentioned were within North Leith, I had hoped that by having a "street" name to work with I could pin down more precisely where everything was. However, not as easy is it looked, so I thinkI'm going to have to approach this from a different angle!

Best wishes
Lesley