The Story of “Little London” Leith
Eastward from the Kings Wark on Bernard Street lies the locality oddly named “Little London”
Which apparently measured ninty feet from east to west by seventy-five feet. How it got the name “Little London” is now unknown. From the existing views it consisted of four houses and was two storeys high.
It is probable tht it derived its name from being the quarters of 1500 English soldiers who under Sir William Drury, Marshall of Berwick, came from Englnd in 1573 to help the Regent Morton to try to reduce Edinburgh Castle. These men left the following June and it would appear a few remained in Leith and the area became known as “Little London”, in the same way that near to Craigmillar there is a area called “Little France” from the servants of Mary,Queen of Scots.
Near to one of the houses in “Little London” was a garden in which it was said that a young girl was buried as she had committed suicide . The reasons for the suicide are not known and the story was passed down from generation to generation. The garden doesn’t exist now.
Also in Bernard Street (see photo on this site) there is a building called the Leith Bank which produced Leith Pound notes.
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There is a hamlet called Little London just south of the village of Shere, in Surrey. It is believed that it was called Little London because it is the place that former inhabitants of London took refuge from the Black Death. They aparently left London in the hope of escaping death, but not being welcomed in the villages, lest they bring Black Death with them, they were allowed to settle outside the villages.
Comment by Caroline — 4/28/2004 @ 7:19 pm