[1] The area is dominated by civil service office blocks, St Margaret's House and Meadowbank House, which were constructed in the early-1970s on the site of the St Margaret's railway locomotive depot, which was primarily for steam locomotives.

From 2008, St Margaret's House has been leased to Edinburgh Palette, a registered charity which provides some 200 affordable studio spaces for designers, artists, small businesses and community organisations.

Meadowbank Stadium, immediately to the west was the location for the 1970 and 1986 Commonwealth Games.

[2] Jock's Lodge was the first stop and change of the team horses for the original horse-drawn stagecoach run on the Edinburgh to London journey.

This journey began at the White Horse Close in the Canongate, technically then just outside Edinburgh.