A district and street of W Central Edinburgh, the street crosses Lothian Road and the district surrounds its western section, to the west of Tollcross. Once principally an industrial district, the area has been undergoing regeneration since the late 1990s. The Union Canal begins here and the Western Approach Road was built along the line of the former Caledonian Railway in the 1970s. The Fountain Brewery was located here until its closure in 2004, with the site being regenerated to provide new homes, student residences, offices, shops and a public park. An older section of the Fountain Brewery was redeveloped as the Fountain Park Leisure Complex in 1999. The Edinburgh Meat Market (1884) which was also located here became for a long time a restaurant, but the building was demolished in 2007. A section of the facade was rebuilt nearby as the Meat Market Arch.
The actor Sean Connery was born here in 1930.
