Edinburgh

[S3M]

Right I'm going to be off to work in Scotland fairly shortly. So I was just wonder if anyone can give me some details on the city of Edinburgh where I'm going to be working.

So if anyone know any details about the city, good places to live and agencies to contact about flats (No one mention Gumtree). What's the night life like and where are the places to avoid in the city as I don't want to find my self in the ruffish area of town.

Any good retro and gaming stores as well?

[S3M]

No one here lives in Edinburgh or ever been there? I see there is a few Glasgow threads on the forum.

[Rossco]

I've been there mate but really don't know anything about it! I might have to hijack into this thread at one point anyway as I'm mainly applying for jobs in Edinburgh myself.

[vanpeebles]

You will have to warn us if you stumble upon a knot of roughs.

[Skull Commander]

I have been a few times, but I don't really like the place. My impression of Edinburgh folk is that they think they are a class above everyone else in Scotland, and that's just not true.

Except Dundee. But that's true for EVERYONE else in Scotland

[Rossco]

Haha you are right alot of Edinburgh people do think they are the dogs bollocks!

[Colin]

Personally I like Edinburgh the most out of all the Scottish cities, spent a lot of time there in my younger days. I've been living away from Scotland for 11 years though, so I couldn't really give much insight in to the best places to go these days. Only ever really there for rugby matches and the odd gig when visiting the family now.

[Skull Commander]

Personally I always preferred Glasgow to Edinburgh. Edinburgh just feels like a big Aberdeen with bagpipes and a castle. It doesn't have a lot of soul and I can never find much decent pubs.

[Colin]

Haha, i'd put Glasgow behind Edinburgh AND Aberdeen, so maybe it's just the kind of thing I like. Spent six months working in Aberdeen when I was about 19, blitzed out my face in Henry J Beans (I think?) every night. Glasgow does have the best gig venues though, and obviously it's better than Dundee.

[tom-nook]

I'm an Edinburgh lad but moved to Fife about 13 years ago.

Really nice city to live in with plenty of parks and things to do. Quite a relaxed vibe compared to a lot of bigger cities but the town centre can get pretty mobbed during the festival.

The Grassmarket & Cowgate used to have some good places to drink and Lothian Road was generally best avoided....chav central ahoy.

Centrally I can't really think of any particularly bad areas to live (parts of Leith were a bit iffy but may not be now) but some can be noisy esp. on Fri / Sat nights. Some of the housing schemes a bit further out are best avoided though.

If there are any places in particular you're looking at let me know and I'll try and give you a heads up on them.

[Skull Commander]

The Grassmarket & Cowgate used to have some good places to drink...

Disagree. It's full of students and rugger buggers.

Ikobo: It was indeed Henry J Beans. I think your ages with myself (30's?), and if so you were in the first version of it, when it smelt of puke (most likely coming from under the floorboards. After that it got 'done up' and reopened as "Berlins", a chav mecca with stupidly cheap drink promos and scummery.

A few years later it was taken over and reverted back to the Henry J Beans name, but had a more rock bar feel. Another rebranding a while later and it was The Bassment, a rock bar/pub grub type place with a nice line in cocktails. It was my regular haunt after work when I worked in the city centre, and some epic night outs started there.

Unfortunatly it's been bought again by the Barfly chain now and has seen steady decline since. It was sorely needing a refurbish, but for some reason it's now in limbo and seems to be shut

Sorry about the de-railment of the thread, but feel free to absorb my historical pub lesson

[tom-nook]

Disagree. It's full of students and rugger buggers.

I did say 'used to'

There were some students but rugger buggers were in a minority. Mind you most of my old haunts have long since closed or been 'gentrified'

[Skull Commander]

Fair play Nook. It's the same all over. You get a good pub and it gets bought over by a chain then made over so it's no longer the place you loved. I have lost count of how many times that has happened up here

[Colin]

Ikobo: It was indeed Henry J Beans. I think your ages with myself (30's?)

Yeah, i'm 36 mate, was the early nineties when we were doing work up there. Was a great laugh, even if I couldn't understand what some of the lads we fell in with were saying half the time.

As for Edinburgh, i've noticed myself that all the places I liked when I was younger are mostly gone or changed. When I go out there with my brother, he still seems able to find great little boozers with quality live music though.

[Skull Commander]

I'm 32, so it was possibily your stale puke I was smelling under those floorboards!