Geograph - photograph every grid square

The old Midlothian County Council building from the days before regional reorganisation in the mid-1970s caused Edinburgh and Midlothian to part company. Midlothian built new Council offices on the opposite side of the street which have since been demolished. The City now uses the old County building to house its registry of births, deaths and marriages (or as Edinburgh folk are wont to call it, "hatches, matches and despatches").

The traffic light on the left stands at what was formerly the head of Libberton Wynd, which was swept away by the building of George IV Bridge in 1834. The wynd was the site of John Dowie's tavern, a "howff" (favourite haunt) frequented by Robert Burns during his stay in Edinburgh in 1786. Patrons included the painter Henry Raeburn, the poets Robert Fergusson and Thomas Campbell, the philosopher David Hume, the writer Christopher North, the song-collector David Herd—who provided material for Scott's 'Minstrelsy'—and the brewer Archibald Younger. Among the menu's delights were "Solan Goose" (baby gannet from the Bass Rock) and "Nor Loch eel-pie".