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Following up on my thread last night about the 1916 zeppelin bombing raid on Edinburgh & the port of Leith, I visited the sites of the bombs dropped on Leith. Thread follows...
I was accompanied by my friend John whose late grandparents, it turns out, saw the zeppelin over Edinburgh. John’s Grandma lived on one of the bombed streets. Pure chance that I asked John to come along so the synchronicity is pleasing!
The first bomb was dropped at 23.50 on April 2 1916, in the West end of the Edinburgh Dock in Leith. A couple of rowing boats were sunk & skylit smashed on a couple of Danish sailing vessels. This is as close as public access allows now to that dock. 
The second bomb (an incendiary) landed on the quay of the Albert Dock and was extinguished by the Police & others before any damage occurred.
3rd bomb, also incendiary, fell in a yard close to Albert Dock, setting fire to a wooden fence. The fire was again put out before damage occurred. This development now occupies the location shown in the 1916 Police report of the raid.
4th bomb (explosive) fell on the roof of Watt & Jackson’s grain merchant warehouse in Timber Bush, damaging roof and walls. The warehouse still appears to be present.
5th bomb (explosive) fell on the edge of the Custom House quay, damaging the quay & breaking lots of local windows. Leith has got off lightly so far but this was about to change.
Bomb 6 - explosive - fell on the tenement roof of 2 Commercial St, killing a top floor resident, Robert Love, a 66 yr old engineer, in his bed. The raid had claimed its first victim. No. 2 Commercial St is still there, as shown.
This is Robert Love.
Bomb 7, an incendiary, passed through the roof and floor of the top flat in 14 Commercial Street, leaving a hole in the floor, and set fire to the flat below...
The elderly lady in the top flat is reported to calmly have got out of bed and poured water through the hole onto the fire, putting it out. 15 Commercial St. no longer exists, being the site now of a small wooded park.
Oops, uncorrectable typo. It was 14 Commercial St, not 15.
The next 3 bombs, all incendiary, fell in Sandport St, where John’s Grandma lived at No. 32, hitting No’s. 9 and 45, but causing little or no damage. 9 & 45 no longer exist, having been replaced by car parking & modern buidings
Bomb 11 made a real mess. It fell on the roof of wholesale spirit merchants Innes & Grieve’s whisky bond, setting fire to it. The bond was completely destroyed. Stock & property worth £44K was lost, worth over £2M at today’s prices.The premises were not insured against aircraft!
The Innes & Grieve whisky bond was on Ronaldson’s Wharh, directly on the Watet of Leith. John’s Dad worked as an architect in Edinburgh & remembers the resultant gap site being problematic to fill for decades but is now filled by this modern development.
The 12th bomb, an incendiary, fell through a tenement roof, 15 Church Street, into a house occupied by a soldier’s wife & 3 children, & through their floor to the house below with a family with 5 children. Although both houses were set alight & much damaged, no injuries resulted.
I struggled to locate 15 Church Lane on App, Google Maps, etc and here’s why. The photo shows that it is no longer there, although whether that’s due to the fire, I don’t know.
Zeppelin L14 then crossed over the Water of Leith, dropping 4 bombs in the vicinity of Mill Lane. The first, an incendiary bomb 13, fell on the roof of the manse of this church, then St Thomas church, setting it alight & practically destroying it....
The Minister, his wife and their servant were all in bed and had ‘a miraculous escape’. The manse was not insured against aircraft and there was no manse for me to photograph today!
The 14th bomb, an incendiary, fell harmlessly on gravel here in front of the Leith Hospital in Mill Lane.
Bomb 15, another incendiary, fell harmlessly in the playground here at St Thomas’ School, next door to the church in Mill Lane, and no damage was done.
Bomb 16, another incendiary, fell next door in the yard of Hawthorn & Cos. Shipbuilding yard, causing no damage. The shipyard is gone but a plaque on the gate pillar recognises that it was set up by John Gladstone, father of William Gladstone, four times British Prime Minister!
The next 2 bombs, both explosive, fell at 200 Bonington Road, one harmlessly in a garden but the 18th falling in a court there, breaking windows , damaging doors and killing a one year old boy in his bed by a piece of shell which went through a window.
While No. 202 Bonington Rd next door is still there, No. 200 has gone, the space occupied by a health service facility. Ironically, I worked in the building directly next door on the other side for over 3 years without knowing any of this history.
I confess that, by this stage, the miserable sleaty conditions had defeated us and I packed in my walk, also on account of having been able to identify the location of the former Bonington Tannery where the final 2 bombs fell in Leith before the zeppelin headed south to the city.
My final visit was to the commemorative plaque in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, commemorating the zeppelin raid on Edinburgh, on the spot that another bomb landed, wrecking the frontage of what was the Gothenburg pub, now the White Hart, which I used to attend as a student!
A final couple of posts to share 2 photos, taken last weekend at the @NtlMuseumsScot National Museum of Flight, of an unexploded bomb from the zeppelin raid, defused obviously. I recall from a press article that the Museum’s @RadarArchive thought the bomb fell in Marchmont.
*unable to locate Bonnington Tannery*
Thanks to @Nickfitz, Bonnington Tannery which received bombs 19 and 20, the last dropped in the Leith area before zeppelin L.14 headed south to the city, has been located. It’s the large circle on the photo, with the small circle showing 200 Bonnington Road, also bombed.
@threadreaderapp unroll please!
@threadreaderapp unroll this please!
