GILLESPIE - LEITH WALK

[Little Nell]

I don't think so, since it was still recorded in the Valuation Roll of 1915 as MacNeil Hall and in 1940.

It is possible that part of it was used as warehouses or workshops with tenements and much later redeveloped, around the 1990s, judging from property adverts in the newspapers.

Nell

[Forfarian]

It was maybe the spelling that got me i.e. Ancestry shows it as McNeill and you have it as MacNeill.

Don't get hung up on spelling. Both versions can be correct.

And especially don't trust Ancestry transcriptions to be accurate.

you wouldn't have a link to the 1915 valuation roll would you.

A selection of valuation rolls to 1940 is available at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk > Search the Records > People > Tax Records

[Leith Lass]

Hi
With the information given I just had a look on google maps and I noticed that at No. 80 is The Tattie Creel and at No.76 Kwick Claims.  As such there is no 78 Leith Walk, only a gate and an alleyway. There appears to be a building at the back and I am not sure if it is modern or old but obviously 78 was known as MacNeill Hall. All the times I have walked up and down Leith Walk I never seen that !!!

I notice in the chain that Nell said there was a Valuation Roll for 1915 - do you have the name of the owner please. 

Thanks to all

[Elwyn Soutter]

With the information given I just had a look on google maps and I noticed that at No. 80 is The Tattie Creel and at No.76 Kwick Claims.  As such there is no 78 Leith Walk, only a gate and an alleyway. There appears to be a building at the back and I am not sure if it is modern or old but obviously 78 was known as MacNeill Hall.

On Google streetview, the gate has the number 78 embedded in the ironwork, so that’s definitely the correct location.

[AlanBoyd]

1 February 1893: Edinburgh Evening News

[AlanBoyd]

Town Plan 1895 showing the passage way at 78
https://maps.nls.uk/view/74415651#zoom=4.8&lat=7815&lon=4012&layers=BT

side-by-side view with modern 78a and 78b numbered (set back from Leith Walk) if the view has reverted to satellite, select Open Street Map on the right
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=19.3&lat=55.96939&lon=-3.17328&layers=168&right=MapTiler

If you are a street view adept you can look at the rear of the buildings from Jane Street.

[AlanBoyd]

https://maps.nls.uk/view/102190564#zoom=6.9&lat=6502&lon=6314&layers=BT

This Post Office map of 1840 has a McNeill Place in that vicinity, although perhaps on the east side of Leith Walk?

[Leith Lass]

Hi Alan
I cannot thank you enough for these links. Especially the newspaper cutting. Christina Gillespie is actually the grandmother of Margaret Davidson Gillespie who was born illegitimate on 18 May 1893. Someone I am trying to trace for a friend.  I have posted another question on this person on RootsChat as I only have a birth certificate and her name on her brother's [William Henry Gillespie, also illegitimate] WWI enlistment papers as Margaret [Sister] 78 Leith Walk. I have no other records of her in censuses, marriages or deaths.  Her mother was also Margaret and her grandmother Christina.  Margaret [mother] died 1894. There are records of her son William living with Christina in 1901 and 1911 but no evidence of her daughter. 

Anyway, well I never. I would just like to thank everyone for clearing the mystery of 78 Leith Walk and I am in awe of your skills especially on Maps. I would never know where to begin.

Now on to the mystery of Margaret Davidson Gillespie   

[AlanBoyd]

You’re welcome. I did find one more snippet. This refers to a young woman, so possibly not Christina?

15 February 1894: Edinburgh Evening News