Ne Ranges, Edinburgh And Leith Gas Works, 1-5 Baltic Street, Edinburgh

This is a group of early to late 19th-century gasworks buildings set within an enclosed former gasworks site. The surviving structures comprise the altered remains of processing and store buildings, a retort house, gasometer houses, and office buildings. The buildings are arranged as a series of ranges along the edges of the site with one structure remaining in the central area. The northeast ranges date from around 1825; the west and northwest ranges date to before 1853; the central building and the office building to the east date from the later 19th century. The surviving ranges have been altered and some have been reduced in height. The buildings now stand at single and two to three storeys and form a central area, now appearing as a courtyard, enclosed by a tall boundary wall that has been altered at various dates. The site operated as a gasworks until around 1906 and was latterly used and adapted primarily as a sawmill and timber merchants. The predominant construction materials include coursed and squared cream and grey sandstone and coursed rubble with brick infill, and some droved dressings.

Northeast Range

The northeast range contains the remains of the earliest gas processing buildings and includes the former retort and gasometer house dating from 1825. The buildings are mostly built of cream and grey coursed sandstone with dressed quoins and window and door margins. The west elevation has four tall round-arched openings, partially blocked with stone and with rectangular openings at ground level. The former retort house is covered by five modern metal doors and a lean-to structure on its west elevation. There are six blocked window openings above the lean-to. The east elevation contains four large rectangular shuttered openings. The south elevation has two tall round-arched bricked-up openings to upper level and one to ground level. The interior of the retort house is a large open space with exposed and probably later roof trusses. The upper level of the interior is divided by a wall, running southwest to northeast, supported on pairs of metal columns.

Adjoining the retort house on the south is a three-storey building, the former gasometer house, of the same date (around 1825), with several irregular openings to the west and with doorways to the east. Adjoining the retort house on the north is a two-storey building, the former exhauster house, of later date with several irregular openings on the north and west.

Northwest Range

The northwest range is a three-storey rectangular-plan former purifying house, coal store and processing plant which is built primarily of coursed and dressed cream and grey sandstone. It was later altered to become stables for the sawmill. On its south elevation there are three segmental-arched openings at the ground floor (two now blocked); two tall segmental-arched openings on the first floor (now blocked), the western arch sits on a stone forestair; and irregularly distributed windows, mostly bricked-up. The east elevation is gable-ended with a sandstone-capped wallhead and has blocked window and door openings. The west elevation is a featureless and massive sandstone gable, which formed the gable of the demolished granary to the west. The north elevation can be viewed from outside the site. The ground floor of the north is enclosed by a modern, wrap-around single-storey, lean-to brick extension. The first storey is lined with around a dozen regularly spaced windows, some still partly glazed.

West Range

The west range is a long and prominent former gasometer house, reduced in height from four storeys to approximately two. It is mostly constructed from sandstone rubble and dressed stone with a brick wallhead and brick infills in places. The north gable has the remains of a stone segmental-arched opening and a taller brick-arched opening at ground floor. The first storey level has traces of openings. The eastern elevation has traces of stone segmental-arched openings, now blocked, with several later openings with metal lintels (some now blocked) along the elevation and relatively recent window and door openings still in use. There are nine metal ties fixed to the northern part of the east elevation at first floor level. The west elevation can be partly viewed from outside the site and displays less evidence of alterations and changes to openings. The west elevation has at least four blocked windows with remains of decorative cast-iron lattice grilles.

The southern elevation, of neatly coursed and dressed sandstone, is the street frontage of two storeys. The ground floor has a large opening with a metal lintel to the right of centre; a doorway with projecting lintel on stylised corbels to the left of centre; and four single windows (some blocked). The first floor has six single windows (some blocked). The wallhead is capped by a later, plain projecting cornice. The interior is a mixture of relatively recently fitted and subdivided commercial and industrial units, some operating as retail units and others as stores, warehousing or workshops.

Central Building

The south or central building is the remains of approximately half of a retort house and coal shed. It is constructed mostly of sandstone with some brick infills and wallheads and is rectangular on plan. The east and west elevations have numerous rectangular and segmental-arched openings, now mostly blocked. The north elevation is a gable end with large openings with metal lintels and stone segmental-arched openings on the ground floor. The first floor of the north elevation has a tall narrow round-arched opening to centre flanked by smaller but wider round-arched windows (all partially blocked). The north elevation has a sandstone capping to the wallhead. The southern elevation, the opposing gable end, is later and partly obscured by a more recent single-storey extension but blocked openings on the first floor level are visible. There is one central arched window flanked by matching windows and the south gable wallhead is also capped in sandstone. The interior is a large open space, now used as a store or warehouse, with roof trusses visible.

Office Building

To the southeast of the site is the later 19th-century offices with some early 20th-century additions and early 20th-century interior. It comprises a two-storey range of dressed and neatly coursed sandstone with some harling to the south and a pitched slated roof. The Baltic Street elevation has four single windows (now blocked) at ground floor, and two single windows plus a quadripartite canted timber oriel at first floor level. A shouldered wallhead chimney stack stands on the left of the Baltic Street elevation. The side, east, elevation has a door, three single windows and a pend to ground floor with six single windows to the first floor. The windows of this elevation are timber sash and the pend to north has remains of boarded doors with decorative iron grilles. The west elevation faces into the central area of the site with timber sash single windows and a door to ground and single windows at first floor levels. The west elevation has later flat-roofed and harled, single and two-storey extensions into the central area of the site.

The interior of the offices retains features from the early 20th century, from 1913 when in use as a timber yard. The board room with oriel window contains decorative architectural details including decorative plasterwork on the ceiling, wooden coving, wooden panelling to walls and window rebates, wooden skirtings and door architraves and unusual panelled doors with heavy Art Nouveau-style handles and hinges. The office staircase has a decorative timber banister, newel post and spindles with wood panelling to dado height on walls and wood detailing on the ceiling. Elsewhere in the office, wood panelling to window rebates and wooden skirting and door architraves still survive.

Historical Context

The Leith Gaslight Company, founded in 1822, opened the Baltic Street gasworks around 1825. The gasworks were subsequently operated by the Edinburgh and Leith Gas Company, founded in 1840. Baltic Street gasworks was located at the northern end of Leith, then a separate town from Edinburgh. Charles Thomson's Plan of the Town of Leith from 1822 shows the site to be occupied by four feus including part of the naval yard, residences and gardens, and light industry. The gasworks site was positioned immediately south of the new railway line laid in 1835, with sidings providing convenient and efficient transport of coal, processed and burned to create gas fuel, into the site. In the early years of the gasworks, a coal depot was located to the west of the gasworks and Edinburgh and Leith Glass works operated from the site to the east. The southern edge of the gasworks was bounded by Baltic Street.

The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of Edinburgh surveyed 1849–51 provides a detailed plan of the gasworks. The southeast of the site had a substantial manager's house and weighing machine. The east of the site had a gasometer house with Smith and Wright's Shop adjacent and a large retort house adjoining the north of those buildings. The northeast of the site had condensers, a purifying house, lime house and meter house. The northwest of the site had further processing houses. The west of the site was dominated by the vast gasometer house with a further gasometer house and stores within the central area of the site.

The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of Edinburgh surveyed 1876–7 indicates the general layout of the site was largely unchanged with some additions and alterations. The largest change was the creation of a substantial retort house in the central area. The west gasometer house had the northeast corner altered to become coal stores. The central area gasometer house was also converted to a coal shed. Smaller structures were added to the west side of the manager's house and a chimney was erected just behind the Baltic Street elevation of the site.

The 19th-century detailed Ordnance Survey Town Plan of Edinburgh surveyed 1893–4 depicts the boundaries of the gasworks to be similar in plan to what still remains on the ground today. One of the most significant changes from 1876–7 has been the removal of the manager's house and the creation of the office block and other structures to the southeast of the site. The associated pend is also shown on this map. The office block does not fully extend to the edge of Baltic Street which provides further evidence that the current street facade with the oriel window was a later addition from circa 1913 when the site was a timber yard and merchants. The 1893–4 mapping also confirms the extent of the later 20th-century downtakings within the site, notably within the central area of the site where several buildings have been demolished and others reduced in plan layout.

Baltic Street Gasworks was superseded by the Granton Gasworks (opened in 1903) and ceased operating by 1906. The site was sold and then operated as a timber yard until around 1980. During the 20th century, the site underwent major changes with several structures, mainly within the central area and to the northeast, being demolished. The vast gasometer house to the west was reduced from four to two storeys around 1975. During the later 20th century, the site was home to various yards and building supply depots. Further structures were altered and removed during this period. By the 21st century, the site housed commercial retail units, storage and building supply depots with around half the structures on site unused.