Frequently Asked Questions

• Is there a way to filter the map's features?
  • Old Leith Rediscovered incorporates more than 300 features, each associated with a particular Leith location. To help you discover these features, we provide a number of filters, accessible via the [insert icon image] icon located in the top left corner of the map.
    
    
  • Example 1: Choose photograph (category) and 1900-1950 (theme) to see all the photographs dating to the first half of the twentieth century.
  • Example 2: Choose quote (category), audio (category) and shops (theme) to see all the quotes and/or audio files that mention shops.
  • Example 3: Choose commentary (category), street names (theme) and businesses (theme) to see all the encyclopaedic snippets that mention street names and/or businesses.
  • Once you have selected a filter, simply click on it again to de-select it.

• How did you decide which features to include?
  • Our choices were shaped by many factors, including availability, quality and copyright restrictions, coupled with a determination to populate most of Goad's plan of Leith and a wish to cover a variety of topics through multiple media. We also prioritised items likely to be of widest interest to Leithers old and new. We fully acknowledge that other choices were possible and perhaps even preferable to some Leithers, but we did our best.

• What do all those abbreviations and symbols on the Goad map mean?
  • The National Library of Scotland have created a page with the majority of the abbreviations and symbols found on the map. The British Library also provide a scan of signs used on the maps. The two are not identical, so it is worth checking both.

• Why are some parts of Goad's plan of Leith of different dates?
  • The Charles E Goad Company first published its Fire Insurance Plan of Leith in 1892 in eleven sheets plus a key plan. A further four sheets were added in 1906, and individual sheets were periodically updated thereafter. Old Leith Rediscovered uses the copies owned by the National Library of Scotland, the dates of which are listed here. The British Library provides access to the 1892 versions of sheet 8, sheet 9 and sheet 10.

• What is the 1893 OS map for?
  • In our Map Stories page, you can compare Goad's map to the 1893 Ordnance Survey map by selecting
    Show 1893 OS map
    from the filter menu. This covers the whole of Leith at a scale of 1:500 (120 inches to 1 mile) and adds yet more information through its own system of abbreviations and symbols. For a guide to the OS abbreviations see here. For guides to the symbols see here.

• Can I share my own memories and photos of Leith?
  • Absolutely! Contact us by email at info@oldleith.org or in person at the Wee Museum of Memory to make arrangements.

• Are there similar maps of other cities?
  • The Charles E. Goad Company conducted insurance surveys of towns and cities throughout the world. The British Library holds the most comprehensive collection of Goad's Insurance Plans for the British Isles and provides free access via an online gallery. The National Library of Scotland additionally provides free access to the plans for Campbeltown, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Greenock, Leith and Paisley.
  • You can order prints of the available maps directly from the libraries. Maps of other cities created by Charles E. Goad and his company have been digitised by various libraries and archives around the world. A UK company, Old Street Maps sell a comprehensive selection of prints from Goad's UK and international maps.

• Are there other such projects combining maps and social history?
  • We have compiled a list of such projects relating to Scotland here. On the same page, you can also find information on related organisations and resources.

• Can we replicate your project for another location?
  • Of course.
  • The georeferenced Goad Map of Leith was used courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. You can contact them via their map index page.
  • The web pages were created using the OpenLayers library for the map interactions, and OpenSeaDragon for the image interactions. The building data were created using JOSM, and a subset of the OpenStreetMap tagset (see JOSM for Beginners and Advanced JOSM Training for examples of video tutorials.)
  • If you have any questions or you want to discuss your idea, feel free to contact the project, or our web developer, Vasilis Karaiskos.