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St Mary Magdalene's Parish is situated approximately one mile from Portobello on the east side of Edinburgh. It was established forty years ago when new houses were built in the area. It was in 1948 that the Local Council built a housing scheme in the area known as Bingham and then continued eastwards across NIDDRIE ROAD (presently called Duddingston Park South) to build another housing scheme called the Magdalene scheme. This scheme was named after the burn which in turn derived its name from a medieval chapel of St. Magdalen which stood 200 yards east of the mouth of the burn. This burn was variously known as Magdalen or Maidland Water. The early spellings, Maidland(s) in 1448, Medlen in 1661 or Maitland all reflect the medieval pronunciation maudlin, and the third of them may have been influenced by (or confused with) the name of the Maitlands of Thirlestane, who owned nearby Brunstane from 1597 to 1696. The Magdalene Brig is noted in the Town Council Minutes 1557 as decayed to the point of falling down. The ground west of the brig is notable as one of the oldest inhabited sites in Edinburgh since a cemetery of the Food Vessel folk had been found here in 1881. This area was also the site of salt pans belonging to Kelso Abbey in the middle ages, and of a variety of manufactures in later centuries. The housing scheme built on Easter Duddingston ground a mile upstream from the old settlement was named in 1956 as Magdalene Avenue, Drive, Gardens, Medway and Place, and in 1975 Magdalene Court was added to the group.
Both the Bingham and the Magdalene schemes fell within the parish of St. John the Evangelist,Portobello and remained so until 1961. In September of that year it was announced from the pulpit of St John's that a new parish was to be formed from the part of the parish lying south of the Milton Road and north of the freight railway line on the northern side of St. Teresa's Craigmillar. The new parish would embrace both housing schemes and a considerable number of bungalows built before the war. This new parish had no name, no church, no presbytery but it did have a priest Rev. Father Lawrence A. Glancey, Ph.L, who was to reside in St. John's until a house could be found. Until further notice parishioners would still attend St. John's.
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