Niddrie () is a residential suburb in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. It is situated in the south-east of the city, south-west of the seaside area of Portobello, and west of

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; ; ) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It had a population of as of . History The name Musselburgh is Old English language, Old English in ...

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

near

Fort Kinnaird Fort Kinnaird is a large outdoor retail park in Newcraighall, located off the A1 in the south-east of Edinburgh, Scotland. Often known simply as "the Fort" to locals, it is currently the second largest retail park in the UK with 75 units occu ...

retail park. The western section of Niddrie is also known by the alternative name of

Craigmillar Craigmillar (from Gaelic ''Creag a' Mhaol Àird'', "rock of the bare summit") is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland, about south east of the city centre, with Duddingston to the north and Newcraighall to the east. History Despite the relati ...

History

The place name is believed to be of Brythonic origin, *''nowid treb'' meaning "new settlement". It was known historically as Niddry Marischal to distinguish it from several other nearby localities:

Longniddry Longniddry (, )
is a coastal village in East Lothian ...

and Niddry Bents. The Wauchope family owned the majority of the area up to the 1930s. Robert Wauchope,

Archbishop of Armagh The Archbishop of Armagh is an Episcopal polity, archiepiscopal title which takes its name from the Episcopal see, see city of Armagh in Northern Ireland. Since the Reformation in Ireland, Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic success ...

and Primate of Ireland, was born in Niddrie Marischal around 1500. In the 1590s

Archibald Wauchope of Niddrie Archibald Wauchope of Niddrie ( – 1597) Scottish landowner and rebel. Family background He was the son of Robert Wauchope of Niddrie, who died in 1598, and Margaret Dundas, daughter of James Dundas of Dundas. He was known as the "Laird of Nidd ...

was a supporter of the rebel

Earl of Bothwell Earl of Bothwell was a title that was created twice in the Peerage of Scotland. It was first created for Patrick Hepburn in 1488, and was forfeited in 1567. Subsequently, the earldom was recreated for the 4th Earl's nephew and heir of line, F ...

. The family home Niddrie Marischal House was immediately west of the present-day Jack Kane Centre sports complex in Hunters Hall Park. The Wauchopes eventually donated their lands to the city. In 1839 John Henderson designed the lodge and gates to the Mansion. The House was demolished although the vaulted tomb-house, which adjoined the western extension, remains as a listed building. From the mid-19th century the area was developed by the family for coal-mining purposes with several pits being built and a great number of miners cottages were erected.

Social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

was built in Niddrie Mains by Edinburgh

Corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

from 1927 until the mid-1930s, under the designs of City Architect,

Ebenezer James MacRae Ebenezer James MacRae (18 January 1881 – 15 January 1951) was a Scottish people, Scottish architect serving as City Architect for Edinburgh for most of his active life. Life He was the son of Rev Alexander MacRae of the Free Church of Scotl ...

. The new housing was linked to a major

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

scheme in the St. Leonard's Ward of Edinburgh. Families from these cleared areas were housed together with local coal mining families from Niddrie. The Niddrie Mains council housing estate is now almost completely demolished, with very few of the buildings surviving. The land has been mostly redesignated for private rather than social housing. The site is currently being developed by PARC, an ALMO or

Arms Length Management Organisation In the United Kingdom, an arms-length management organisation (ALMO) is a not-for-profit company that provides housing services on behalf of a local authority. Usually, an ALMO is set up by the authority to manage and improve all or part of its ho ...

, fully owned by the

City of Edinburgh Council The City of Edinburgh Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Dhùn Èideann'') is the local government authority covering the City of Edinburgh council area. Almost half of the council area is the built-up area of Edinburgh, capital of Sco ...

. The development includes a new primary school for the surrounding area, with the old Niddrie Mill Primary School and St Francis Primary School being put on a joint campus. The first, though unassociated, phase of redevelopment in the Niddrie Mains area was the Hays area, constructed around 2001 and consisting of two-storey blocks with gardens and

pedestrianised Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...

streets.

Crime

Between the 1980s and 2000s, Niddrie suffered from a high crime rate.

Antisocial behaviour Anti-social behaviours, sometimes called dissocial behaviours, are actions which are considered to violate the rights of or otherwise harm others by committing crime or nuisance, such as stealing and physical attack or noncriminal behaviours s ...

is fairly common, though gang fights and

knife crime Knife legislation is defined as the body of statutory law or case law promulgated or enacted by a government or other governing jurisdiction that prohibits, criminalizes, or restricts the otherwise legal manufacture, importation, sale, transfer, po ...

are of a lesser degree today compared to the levels recorded between the 1980s and 2000s. During the 1980s, Niddrie was one of the most drug-riddled communities in Scotland, and still has problems with

class A drug The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (c. 38) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It represents action in line with treaty commitments under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the ...

use today. For a number of years, the area has had problems with joyriding and youngsters stealing cars and motorbikes.

Greendykes Greendykes is a neighbourhood of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It was originally a council scheme, consisting mostly of low-rise flats but also two 15-storey tower blocks (Greendykes House and Wauchope House). It is sometimes considered ...

and Niddrie Mains was ranked as the fourth-most deprived area in Scotland in the 2006

Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation A deprivation index or poverty index (or index of deprivation or index of poverty) is a data set to measure relative deprivation (a measure of poverty) of small areas. Such indices are used in spatial epidemiology to identify socio-economic con ...

. Episodes of public disorder have seen police and fire service personnel subject to attack. During the bonfire night period in 2023, a police vehicle was struck by a Molotov cocktail in the area with gangs on motorcycles racing through the area "while fireworks were lobbed at the ground". Young people in masks were reported to be filming themselves using a "rocket launcher to shoot fireworks at police". In an effort to control the disorder several roads in the area were closed in the Hay Avenue area of the suburb and police became involved in a stand-off with around 100 youths on the Sunday night. On 5 November 2023 the BBC reported that "about 50 young people have clashed with riot police in Edinburgh with fireworks and petrol bombs being thrown directly at officers".

Demographics

Transport

Niddrie once had its own railway station, on the

Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway was an early railway built to convey coal from pits in the vicinity of Dalkeith into the capital. It was a horse-operated line, with a terminus at St Leonards station, Edinburgh, St Leonards on the south side ...

. Today the nearest stations are at and , both located on

Edinburgh Crossrail Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

Borders Railway The Borders Railway connects the city of Edinburgh with Galashiels and Tweedbank in the Scottish Borders. The railway follows most of the alignment of the northern part of the Waverley Route, a former double-track line in southern Scotland a ...

Lothian Buses Lothian Buses is a major bus operator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom: the City of Edinburgh Council (through Transport for Edinburgh) owns 91%, Midlothian Council 5%, East Lothia ...

provide 8 buses to the area: 2 Hermiston Gait - Broomhouse - Saughton - Gorgie - Haymarket - Grassmarket - Southside - Prestonfield - Niddrie - Asda *Evening Buses terminate at Broomhouse Roundabout 14 Muirhouse - Granton - Pilton - Ferry Road - Leith - Elm Row - North Bridge - Southside - Prestonfield - Niddrie - Greendykes 21 Royal Infirmary - Niddrie - Portobello - Leith - Ferry Road - Silverknowes - Davidsons Mains - Clermiston - Sighthill - Gyle Centre/Clovenstone 30 Queen Margaret University - Fort Kinnaird - Niddrie - Prestonfield - Southside - Princes Street - Longstone -

Wester Hailes Wester Hailes is an area in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Wester Hailes borders on Kingsknowe and Longstone to the east. Bankhead Industrial Estate and Sighthill Park lie to the north. History Although named after a large private ...

- Clovenstone 46 Rosewell - Bonnyrigg - Dalkieth - Danderhall - Royal Infirmary - Niddrie - Fort Kinnaird - Stoneybank - Musselburgh 48 Gorebridge - Mayfield - Dalkieth - Danderhall - Royal Infirmary - Niddrie - Fort Kinnaird - Stoneybank - Musselburgh 400 Edinburgh Airport - Gyle Centre - Wetser Hailes - Colinton - Oxgangs - Kaimes - Royal Infirmary - Niddrie - Fort Kinnaird N30 Westside Plaza - Baberton - Clovenstone - Longstone - Princes Street - Niddrie - Queen Margaret University - Stoneybank -

Community Arts

Immediately adjacent to

, and part of Edinburgh City's political ward Craigmillar/Portobello, it was also the home of the

Craigmillar Festival Society The Craigmillar Festival Society (CFS) was a community arts organisation in the Craigmillar area of Edinburgh, Scotland, that ran from 1962 to 2002. It is regarded as an important contributor to the Community Arts Movement. Many of its producti ...

, a community arts organisation, founded by local mother and "Woman Of Achievement"

Helen Crummy Helen Crummy MBE (10 May 1920 – 11 July 2011) was a founder of the Craigmillar Festival Society, and served as the Organising Secretary for the group until 1985. Biography Helen Crummy was born in Leith, Helen Murray Prentice. She became on ...

References

External links

Niddrie
at

Gazetteer for Scotland The ''Gazetteer for Scotland'' is a gazetteer covering the geography, history and people of Scotland. It was conceived in 1995 by Bruce Gittings of the University of Edinburgh and David Munro of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and co ...

Photos of Niddrie
{{Areas of Edinburgh Areas of Edinburgh