FEATURE: THE BATTLE OVER LEITH'S BOOZERS

by Dave Hynes

There’s something strange happening in Leith’s pub culture at the moment. In fact, it’s been happening over the last ten years but what started out as a few brave attempts to give Leith newly-refurbished and redecorated modern bars has now developed into a full frontal attack on Leith’s traditional drinking dens.

There are still countless nods to the Leith of old; dark, dingy dungeonesque pubs still populate much of Leith Walk and Great Junction St. Most haven’t changed in years and you see brazen-faced septuagenarians smoking outside them, as though they were gatekeepers to the old secrets of Leith’s watering-holes. They stubbornly refuse to submit to the gastro pub fever which has begun to infect Leith. Most of them are for drinking only and they are exclusively locals-oriented rather than all-welcoming. These pubs reflect the Leith of old; drinking dens which helped sustain the stereotype of Leith as the sick man of Edinburgh. Epitomised by the likes of Balfour’s, The Spey Lounge, The Dalmeny as well as the unforgivably derelict Marksman, their aim is clear- renovation equates to devastation. For the publicans and punters alike these pubs offer familiarity and escape from a community in flux.

So what of the new bars with their laminate-floored, airy, light and spacious preoccupation with all things miniaturist? Many of these new bars, like Sofi’s, Boda Bar, Victoria and a host of others which populate the ever-changing Shore area of Leith reveal the new chapters in this community’s drinking culture. They seem gay-friendly, overtly trendy, with an emphasis on cocktails, wine lists, food offerings and act as vehicles for marketing brands of exotic beers. They are of an altogether faster pace than their old Leith counterparts, harbouring young yuppies and businessmen on working lunches and after work pints. They combine to make Leith feel the most alive and urbane part of Edinburgh to live and drink in.

So Leith’s drinking culture has become polarised into two camps- the old and the new- with very little crossover and customer loyalty tending towards either rather than both camps. No where is this contrasting ambivalence more pronounced than on Henderson St where the delicate pastel blue, pink-curtained Sofi’s sits proudly under the banana flats and next to Wilkies, The Trafalgar and Anderson’s- three very rough pubs. Just round the corner lies the hip Waterline and very suave Bar Diesel. The contrast is uncanny and a symbolic testament to the extent Leith’s pub culture has both changed and remained the same.

Leith’s pub culture is its barometer for wider changes in the community; trams, expensive housing redevelopments and corporate investment mean that Leith’s face will be unrecognisable to those who remember Sick Boy, Renton and Spud heading down to the Volunteer Arms to help their heroin-induced comedowns. What Leith will gain from this new chique gastro pub culture- affluence, class, panache, she will surely also lose something too; her roots and her soul.

Will Leith Walk become the next George St? The battle over Leith’s boozer’s rages on and the odds have never been higher.

Photo by photojenni