Accessible Edinburgh 1 - Full PDF eBook

122 Accessible Edinburgh: A Festival Guide Drinking & Nightlife 123

There are regular club nights on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday
as well as live bands. It’s listed as wheelchair-accessible on Yelp,
but we have no first-hand testimonial.

Malt Shovel

0131-225 6843; http://www.taylor-walker.co.uk; 11-15 Cockburn St;
11am-11pm Sun-Thu, to 1am Fri-Sat; buses 36, 41

A traditional-looking pub with dark wood and subdued tartanry,
the Malt Shovel offers a good range of real ales and more than
40 malt whiskies, and serves excellent pub grub including fish
and chips, burgers, and steak and ale pies. It’s wheelchair-
accessible and toilets are on the same level, but there is no
designated accessible toilet.

Villager

0131-226 2781; http://www.villagerbar.com; 49-50 George IV Bridge;
noon-1am; buses 23, 27, 41, 42

A cross between a traditional pub and a pre-club bar, Villager
has a comfortable, laid-back vibe. It can be standing-room only
in the main bar in the evenings (the cocktails are excellent), but
the side room, with its brown leather sofas and subtropical pot
plants, comes into its own for a lazy Sunday afternoon with the
papers. The bar and restaurant areas are wheelchair-accessible,
but toilets are on the lower ground level, which is not accessible
by wheelchair.

White Hart Inn

0131-226 2806; http://www.whitehart-edinburgh.co.uk; 34 Grass-
market; 11am-11pm Mon-Fri, to 12.30am Sat-Sun; bus 2

A brass plaque outside this pub proclaims: ‘In the White Hart
Inn Robert Burns stayed during his last visit to Edinburgh, 1791.’
Claiming to be the city’s oldest pub in continuous use (since
1516), it also hosted William Wordsworth in 1803. Not surprising-
ly, it’s a traditional, cosy, low-raftered place. It has folk/acoustic
music sessions seven nights a week. It’s wheelchair-accessible
and on the level, but the toilets have narrow doors and are not
wheelchair-friendly.

South Edinburgh

South Edinburgh’s large student population is well served by lots
of stylish pre-club bars and cafe-bars clustered around Edin-
burgh University’s George Sq and Old College buildings.

Tollcross, formerly a working-class industrial district, has a

good range of traditional real-ale pubs, though designer bars and

craft-beer bars are beginning to make inroads, especially in the

trendier district of Bruntsfield to the south.

Auld Hoose

0131-668 2934; http://www.theauldhoose.co.uk; 23-25 St Leonards St;

noon-12.45am Mon-Sat, 12.30pm-12.45am Sun; bus 14

Promoting itself as the Southside’s only ‘alternative’ pub, the

Auld Hoose certainly lives up to its reputation with unpretentious

decor, gig posters on the walls, a range of real ales from remote

Scottish microbreweries (Trashy Blonde from BrewDog on

Arran, Avalanche Ale from Loch Fyne in Argyll) and a juke box

that would make the late John Peel weep with joy. It’s wheelchair-

accessible, but there is no accessible toilet.

Bennet’s Bar

0131-229 5143; http://www.bennetsbaredinburgh.co.uk; 8 Leven St;

11am-1am; all Tollcross buses

Situated beside the King’s Theatre, Bennet’s has managed to

hang on to almost all of its beautiful Victorian fittings, from the

leaded stained-glass windows and ornate mirrors to the wooden

gantry and the brass water taps on the bar (for your whisky –

there are over 100 malts from which to choose). It’s wheelchair-

accessible – wheelchair users have reportedly had no problem

negotiating the small step at the front door – but there is no

accessible toilet.

Caley Sample Room

0131-337 7204; http://www.thecaleysampleroom.co.uk; 58 Angle

Park Tce; noon-midnight Mon-Thu, to 1am Fri, 10am-1am Sat,

10am-midnight Sun; buses 4, 28, 34, 35, 44

The Sample Room is a big, lively, convivial pub serving a wide

range of wines and excellent real ales, and some of the best pub

grub in the city. It’s popular with sports fans too, who gather to

watch football and rugby matches on the large-screen TVs.

Although it’s wheelchair-accessible, one reviewer from 2014

bemoaned the lack of an accessible toilet. However, new man-

agement are refurbishing the building, including installation of

an accessible toilet, which should be complete by the time you

read this.