Early history The Fountainbridge area first began to be developed at the beginning of the 18th century, when Alexander Brand bought the surrounding estate of Dalry and feued out land on the north side of the
Lanark road for building. The name derives from a bridge that carried the road over the Dalry or Lochrin Burn. This had originally been called Foul Briggs or Foul Bridge, but Brand rechristened it "Fountainbridge" after a nearby well. The quiet and rural nature of Fountainbridge made it appealing to wealthier citizens who wanted to escape the cramped and insanitary Old Town, and it soon came to be "dotted over with pretentious and roomy mansions". The
Leamington Lift Bridge, installed in 1906, stands at the entrance to the basin. In 1856, the former Castle Silk Mills in Fountainbridge became the headquarters of the
North British Rubber Company, manufacturers of
Wellington boots and other rubber goods. The company was to become one of the biggest employers in the area over the ensuing century. During the
Second World War, the rubber mills employed 9,000 workers and operated 24 hours a day. The company was bought out by
Uniroyal in 1966, and the new owners began relocating operations to
Newbridge on the outskirts of the city. The last facility at the Castle Mills site, a hose factory, closed in 1973. Another major employer in Fountainbridge was
McEwan's, which opened its Fountain Brewery here in 1856. By 1889, the site had grown to cover and the company was valued at £1 million. McEwan's merged with
Younger's to form Scottish Brewers in 1931, which in turn became the
Scottish & Newcastle company in 1960. In 1973, the company invested £13 million in a state-of-the-art brewery at the old Castle Mills. The new brewery continued to operate until 2004. The new
Boroughmuir High School opened here in 2018. A remnant of the Castle Mills complex that the brewery had used as an office was leased to the
Edinburgh Printmakers at a nominal rent. The building underwent an extensive renovation and opened in 2019 as a "multi-use arts complex centred around printmaking production". The rest of the site is earmarked for homes, offices, and shops. Edinburgh Quay on the Union Canal is now the home of the annual Edinburgh Canal Festival.
Scottish Canals offers long-term berths on the canal as part of its "Living on Water" programme. ==Demographics==