Bridge Street

About Bridge Street

Leading to Rennie's Bridge across the Tweed, this street is lined with many interesting buildings. To the rear of Numbers 5-7 Bridge Street were the former stables for Havannah House (now Ednam House). These were converted into flats in 1994 and the completed development is called Havannah Court. Numbers 5-7 once formed one of Kelso's original Georgian built for the Hendersyde. Originally Ormiston was a Quaker merchant and banker during the 17th century. Looking up you will see Venetian style windows on the 1st floor. The building was converted into a shop in the 19th century when the frontage with internal cast iron columns was inserted.

On the opposite side of the road numbers 10-12 is the building which was formerly occupied by the “Kelso Mail". This local newspaper was founded in 1797 by James Ballantyne, who later became Sir Walter Scott's Publisher.
Numbers 9-11 Bridge Street, now Swan's shoe shop is said to have been the first house in Scotland to be lit by gas when, in February 1818, local coppersmith William Muir, installed the lighting to his house.

During the days of stagecoaches, travellers would rest and have a meal and a drink whilst fresh horses were prepared to take them on the next stage of the journey. The Queen's Head (dating from the 18th century)and the Spread Eagle (early I9th century) hotels both had extensive property to the rear to cater for coaches and horses. In the heyday of Kelso Abbey the properties lay within the graveyard of the abbey, a fact which was highlighted with the discovery of burials beneath the Spread Eagle during development in the early 1990s.