Burke and Hare murders two men were hanged in December 1831 for the crime. A bill was quickly introduced into Parliament, and gained royal assent nine months later to become the Anatomy Act 1832. This Act authorised dissection on bodies from workhouses unclaimed after 48 hours, and ended the practice of anatomising as part of the death sentence for murder. The events of the West Port murders have made appearances in fiction. They are referred to in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1884 short story, "The Body Snatcher", and Marcel Schwob told their story in the last chapter of "Imaginary Lives" (1896), while the Edinburgh-based author
West Port, Edinburgh the Edinburgh College of Art stands on the south east corner of West Port and Lady Lawson Street. Plans have been unveiled for a new building to be constructed on the West Port side of the block between Lady Lawson Street and Lauriston Street, to be called Westport 102. This would be built on the same site as the old Post Office headquarters, which famously collapsed during demolition, leading to several roads being closed in the area for an extended period of time. West Port, Edinburgh The West Port is a street in Edinburgh's Old Town, Scotland, located just south