46 Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh is a Grade B listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 1 February 1989. Tenement, public house. 1 related planning application.

46 Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh

WRENN ID
sombre-footing-crimson
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
City of Edinburgh
Constituency
Edinburgh North and Leith MP: Tracy Gilbert (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
1 February 1989
Type
Tenement, public house
Address
46 Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 6RS
OS grid reference
NT 272 763
Coordinates
55.97484, -3.16741
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

This is an early 19th century, three-storey and six-bay tenement located on Constitution Street in Leith, Edinburgh. The building has undergone later alterations, including a shopfront at No. 46 in 1894, and a public house front at No. 44 designed by W.N. Thomson in 1897-8. The front of the building is constructed from grey sandstone, with stugged ashlar facing the street and coursed rubble to the rear and sides. The first-floor windows are architraved and corniced, originally with panelled aprons, though these are now obscured by the shopfronts; a band cill course runs along the first and second floors, and a dentilled eaves cornice with a blocking course tops the facade.

The front elevation features projecting, single-storey, flat-roofed shopfronts at ground floor. An entrance doorway to the tenement is located to the outer right. The fenestration above the shopfronts is regular, with two canted tripartite dormers to the left.

No. 44, now Noble's Bar, has a three-bay public house front with a tripartite window in a depressed-arched opening at the centre. This window features carved timber mullions and transoms, flanked by doorways with oval-shaped panelling to the doors and large rectangular fanlights. Decorative pilasters with festoon carving and free Ionic capitals support the facade. Ornate, mottled stained glass depicting ships and fish is set within the window and fanlights, though this is now decaying. A cellar opening is also present. An ornate bracket supports a trade sign.

No. 46 has a four-bay shopfront constructed from red sandstone, with a polished black granite base. Shallow granite pilasters flank the front, with a laurel wreath to the frieze, and a balustraded parapet above. The bay to the outer left contains a doorway and an oval bull's-eye window above. The three bays to the right feature arcaded, moulded, and keystoned depressed-arched windows with elaborate bulbous and fluted Corinthian columns, with a recessed doorway at the centre.

The rear elevation is irregular, featuring single windows and a small, flat-roofed projection with a tall tripartite window.

The building has plate glass timber sash and case windows, with some 12-pane windows to the rear. The roof is black slate, with polygonal cupolas and coped mutual and apex stacks to the end gables.

The interior of No. 46 features ornate cornices and octagonal Corinthian columns. No. 44 (Noble's Bar) has a plaster ceiling, ornate cornices, a shallow frieze with ship motifs, diamond-panelled woodwork throughout, and a carved timber gantry behind the bar, which has been moved from its original location and features a dentilled cornice.

Local climate

46 Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 53% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 1 application
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. 44 Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh Grade B 12 m
  2. 42 Constitution Street, Edinburgh Grade B 21 m
  3. 40 Constitution Street, Edinburgh Grade B 23 m
  4. 36, 38 Constitution Street, Edinburgh Grade B 30 m
  5. 49, 51, 53 Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh Grade B 34 m
  6. 45 Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh Grade B 36 m
  7. 60, 60A Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh Grade B 42 m
  8. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 Bernard Street, Edinburgh Grade B 43 m
  9. 55 Constitution Street, Leith, Edinburgh Grade B 44 m
  10. 18, 19, 20 Maritime Lane, Leith, Edinburgh Grade C 46 m