Tollcross, Edinburgh

Tollcross is a major road junction to the south west of the city centre of Edinburgh, Scotland which takes its name from a local historical land area.

The earliest reference to Tollcross dates from 1439 with Tolcors being the typical early form with the cors ending continuing in use to the late 18th century.

Junction improvements in 1974 led to the clock's removal, causing public consternation, as a result of which it was returned to a spot close to its original position.

Princes Exchange, a large new office development (circa 2000) and home to the corporate arm of the Bank of Scotland, occupies a central position on Earl Grey Street.

The Meadows and Bruntsfield Links are public parks which skirt Tollcross to the east and south, with a children's playpark in each, and, respectively, tennis courts and a 'pitch and putt' course.

[5] Housing is mainly in the form of Victorian tenement flats, with a few, later, Dunn & Findlay blocks listed as being of significant local architectural or historical interest.

Some buildings from the old village of Wrychtishousis still stand on the west side of Leven Street; others surviving until recently next to the Golf Tavern were replaced in the 1990s by a block of student flats.

The four-storey tenements on the east side of Home Street were designed by the New Town architect James Gillespie Graham to provide 'room-and-kitchen' accommodation for poorer families.

Most of the area's housing was put up in the 1860s and 1870s by James Steel, an entrepreneurial Edinburgh builder who was responsible for many "working-class tenement developments"[6] in various parts of the city; others were the work of small local building associations.

Tollcross, like neighbouring Fountainbridge, was important to the city's industry in the 19th century after the nearby Union Canal, completed in 1822, stimulated economic growth in the surrounding area.

Like the distillery, the Drumdryan Brewery, which stood on the site now occupied by the King's Theatre (1906), drew water from the burn which, now culverted, still flows under the building.

In 1899 the tram depot and power station for the southern section of Edinburgh's large cable tramway system (later electric) opened here.