I am having a strong sense of deja vu here - Krakow and Kazimierz, Edinburgh and Leith.
Leith has always been Edinburgh's port and until 1920 was a separate town. Stevenson was well acquainted with the area of Pilrig Street (I often go through there to pick up developped films from one of our favourite labs), often going to Leith Walk to sonsort with prostitutes. Irvine Welsh situates his characters in the area (wile referring to Edinburgh's Old and New Town as 'shortbread disneyland' and 'run by snobs for snobs').
At the moment Leith is quickly becoming a very fashionable part of Edinburgh - old workshops are converted into posh flats, the top advertising agencies have their headquaters there, old port brothels are being converted into boutique hotels. Although if you get a 16 bus down Leith Walk there are still really strange people getting on it and through the window one can see an array of dirty shopping windows (blame the tramworks), Polish delis and defence lawyers (mind you - they are always defence lawyers which have their offices in Leith).
We have been having a photoshoot near the old docks and after this busy working time we went to a nice fish restaurant just by the waterside. It was a pleasant but exhausting afternoon and we were happy to get up to our part of town.
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