Stone dock warehouses give way to tenement streets along the Water of Leith, the setting for Sunshine on Leith and T2 Trainspotting.
What Leith looks like
The Shore runs along the Water of Leith between rows of stone dock warehouses and bonded stores, several of them behind converted fronts that now hold restaurants and the Malmaison hotel. stands back from the quay in whitewashed stone with crow stepped gables and a timber balcony. The faces the water at the end of Commercial Street, a columned front over the quay, with a cobbled lane and loading bay closed off behind it by high gates. runs off the quay in a narrow stone walled passage between the warehouse blocks.
crosses the river on a stone bridge, tenement blocks and painted shopfronts lining both banks. Commercial Street continues past the Custom House toward Sandport Place, where flats sit close to the water's edge. runs nearby in a plainer block of brick flats with open access balconies.
runs south from the water in a straight commercial strip of four and five storey tenements, shopfronts and cafes under sandstone and red brick fronts, with trams running down its centre lane toward Ocean Terminal and Newhaven. Away from the Walk, streets such as and hold plainer bay windowed tenement rows with parked cars along the kerb.
Shot in Leith
Sunshine on Leith opens with its cast singing past the Port O' Leith pub on Constitution Street, then follows Davy home to his family's flat on Bernard Street. The same production used Commercial Street for a walking montage and Sandport Place for a scene by the water, both a short walk away.
Bernard Street and Coatfield Lane
Both are real Leith streets, a few hundred metres apart along the same stretch of the Water of Leith. Sunshine on Leith and T2 Trainspotting used them four years apart.
Sunshine on Leith, 2013
Bernard Street
Davy comes home from Afghanistan to his family's flat on this street, and the reunion plays out here. The production also shot the film's opening number outside the Port O' Leith pub on Constitution Street, a short walk east. Street View
T2 Trainspotting, 2017
Coatfield Lane
Spud goes to buy drugs at the flats on Coatfield Lane, a plain block of brick housing with open access balconies. The production filmed extensively around Leith and Edinburgh that year, including scenes nearby on Salamander Street and Commercial Street. Street View
Merchant City's sandstone tenements and warehouse conversions sit at a similar scale to Leith's own dockside streets, both built for nineteenth century trade and now holding bars and flats behind their original fronts. Cochrane Street has stood in for 1870s New York on screen, showing how far the sandstone can be pushed with the right dressing. Glasgow's grid is wider and its sandstone runs warmer in tone than Leith's paler harling, so a tight frame on one block holds the match better than a corner. Try searching sandstone warehouse conversions now.
Stanley Dock's brick and stone warehouses around its dock basin read close to Leith's own bonded stores, both built for the same shipping trade and now standing largely empty behind their original walls. Its cobbled streets and warehouse fronts have played wartime Brooklyn and early twentieth century Birmingham on screen. Stanley Dock's warehouses are taller and its dock basin far wider than the Shore, so a tight frame on the brickwork and cobbles holds the match better than a wide shot. Try searching brick dock warehouses now.
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