It forms a curving artery between Great Junction Street and an area known as the Shore, where the Water of Leith runs into the Port of Leith/Leith Docks.

[3] Dr. Henderson worked to secure the implementation of the Leith Improvement Scheme (see below) which ultimately led to the street being built.

The cost of the project was estimated at £100,000 in 1881 but the Home Secretary (who controlled public spending) limited this to £70,000 which meant a more puritanical approach to much of the construction.

[7] The street was set out to be 50 ft wide and made up predominantly of residential houses[6] (these to be in the Scottish vernacular, Victorian tenement style[8]) and frequently including commercial/retail spaces at ground level.

directories was not automatic (and did require payment of a charge), the listings available give some indication of the kind of early residents and businesses on the street.

The Census of 1891 and 1901[11] show that many of the flats housed, by contemporary standards, large families (sometimes six to eight people, occasionally with the addition of a live-in lodger or maid).

[15] At the Shore end of Henderson Street, (odd numbers 73—91A) there is a noteworthy example of a sandstone residential and commercial building with intricate, detailed carvings and masonry work.

[18] In 1888, Craig, a Freemason, designed the Trafalgar Masonic Hall[19] on St Anthony Lane, just off Henderson Street.

The quantity of masonic motifs appears to reflect the elevated status of both stonemasonry, as a craft, and freemasonry, as a guild, within the area in the late nineteenth century.

The most tragic loss of the improvement scheme (which is not wholly explained) is the Scottish Parliament/ Council Office which is now only remembered in the name "Parliament Street".

This was erected at the instruction of Mary of Guise who lived nearby on Queen Street (now called Shore Place) for the use of her Privy Council around 1545.

This was possibly due to its juxttaposition to Peat Nook, a large doss house for unemployed seamen and the lower parts of society.

This has been substantiated by the discovery of a burial site in this location during the laying of gas pipes in St Anthony Street.

It is thought that the street name 'Yardheads' may derive from the old Germanic stem, in which the word Yard means a garden or orchard.

After the Scottish Reformation the monastery was allowed to languish; other buildings being gradually erected in its place and removing all physical traces of its existence.

[35][36] The Seal of the Preceptory of St Anthony[37] (used to authenticate official paperwork of the hospital / monastery and dating from the mid-1500s) is held at the National Museum of Scotland.

[38] The buildings have consistently been connected to the wine (Bordeaux / Claret) and spirit trade — important businesses for many centuries in the port of Leith.

Today, the Vaults are home to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (iv) with empty space for a restaurant / bar, below it.

[40] The Porters Stone was originally located at Tolbooth Wynd, which lies at the Shore end of Henderson Street.

The old Tolbooth Wynd led to Leith's Kirkgate and formed a major thoroughfare to and from the Shore until Henderson Street was built.

[41] The replica stone, visible on Henderson Street today, was carved by Cumbrian sculptor (and former Merchant Navy Seaman) Shawn Williamson in 1990 at the instigation of the then local councillor Cllr Rev Mrs Elizabeth Wardlaw and overseen by local historian and planner Stephen Dickson.

Though it is evident, from old photographs of the area, that these lamps were once part of a larger urban lighting scheme and were extremely prevalent throughout Leith, there are remarkably few left standing today.

Decorative motifs on the lamp heads include: a thistle, a shamrock and a tudor rose which are national floral emblems and used in the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom.

It was listed in the Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directories as the 'Empire Picture House' and was definitely active in the late 1920s and early 1930s,[10] though by the 1950s, it had been closed down and boarded up.

But we turned our back on all our friends during the Mussolini years, We broke their windows, wrecked their shops, threw jibes and dirty jeers.

[55] (The Leith-born artist Eduardo Paolozzi[56] provides the most internationally well known example of the Italian migratory influence on Leith).

The Italians of Henderson Street (and Leith in general) were also not immune to the results of Benito Mussolini siding with Adolf Hitler in World War II.

In all, 486 Italian and 175 German deportees were killed and the incident resulted in the British Government changing their policy on deporting interns overseas.

The fact that Scappaticci's would eventually be replaced by the Raj Indian restaurant (i) is indicative of the post war influx of Asian immigrants to Scotland[62] and the popularity of their food with the local population.

[63][64] More recently, one of Henderson Street's oldest bars, The Bay Horse (located at number 63—65 and in operation as a spirit merchant since 1897)[10] has succumbed to this international influence.