History of Edinburgh the meantime the Old Town continued to decay into an increasingly dilapidated, overcrowded slum with high mortality rates, and was practically segregated socially from the rest of the city. This was especially true where the sub-division of tenements offered the cheapest lodgings in narrow alleyways that formed the backdrop to the infamous 'West Port Murders' of Burke and Hare. In 1865 Alexander Smith wrote of one of the poorest districts, The Cowgate is the Irish portion of the city. Edinburgh leaps over it with bridges: the inhabitants are morally and geographically the lower orders. They keep to their own quarters,
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