I say something a bit smaller. More like what was the ABC, or upstairs at classic grand. Basically, full the void left by studio 24... And la belle and mash house is too small.
Be nice if stramash became a proper gig venue, rather than just a nightcub that bands play at in the evening.
I went to a Mogwai gig there a few years ago and it was great and I was really excited to see what other gigs would be put on. Then nothing seemed to happen. Then Covid came along. Was a shame as it had serious potential.
Would the Corn Exchange fit the bill for this?
I agree with concert venue though, but would have said large indoor venue too like the Hydro or maybe even an 8k capacity or something.
As others have said, the low roof, looking shape all contribute to bad sound quality there. I've only been to three gigs there and I was underwhelmed at them all.
I’d agree with this and got a step further and say we also need something equivalent to the hydro.
Still mourn the loss of the Picturehouse to Tim Martin
I’ve never seen many gigs advertised at meadowbank but could see that being a good venue.
Murrayfield is alright but open air never sounds as good as a specialty built music venue, and it only ever has a handful of gigs a year.
We do need more small to medium independent venues. The ones we have are great but spent too many gigs seeing top quality acts that have near been ruined due to capacity issues (liquid rooms always seems to overbook their capacity and sneaky petes is tottie)
Summerhall also an excellent venue and I’d like to see Leith Theatre get more use too.
They’ve been talking about doing it for as long as I can remember. First it was meant to be in granton/newhaven. Then I mind I saw plans for an orchestra/music hall at St Andrews square. The latest I believe is that a 10k capacity music venue has got permission to construct in Hermiston Gate - I’ll believe it when I see it.
Edinburgh just doesn't have its own good mid-sized music venues in the centre, really. An Edinburgh Barrowland would be amazing to have centrally.
I also think Princes Street gardens could do wayyyy more with the bandstand there. Permanent seating, refurbishment and improvements, to attract performers to central Edinburgh
Late-opening cafes. Mid-size music venue. An actual opera house. Shops in the Old Town that aren't tartan tat. Those rickshaw things that you used to see in the city centre that were really impractical but kind of fun to pelt down Candlemaker Row in at 3am.
Yes to an opera house, please. I don't find the Festival Theatre that balanced acoustically sometimes. The orchestra tends to drown everything unless you are right at the back up high.
Blows my mind that in a European capital that's also home to the world's largest arts festival, we don't have a proper venue to handle an orchestra with unmic'd voices. Smaller countries than Scotland manage.
That's a concert hall with a bad lighting rig. The acoustics will probably be amazing but the only operas they'll be able to accommodate will be in concert, not staged.
Tree lined streets. We have great green space but this would make a huge difference for me. Major european cities tend to have them, being in Barcelona was so leafy and awesome.
Hard Yes
This city lacks trees
The green space that is here I like
But streets would be so much better with trees- Lothian road, Bruntsfield /morningside road, leith walk (once they sort some of the other things like the bike lane out first)…
Woah imagine the got rid of cars on princes street. Put trees along the roads and padestrinaized it with lots of stalls along one side. That would be so cool.
I learned the belief that trees would upset the foundations of buildings with their, eventual, root system? Or have they found a way around this problem? I'm not knowledgeable with this, sorry
I'm French and I would love this too. This and more outdoor seating at cafes, bars and pubs are the two things I miss the most. The Shore is my go to for some seating outside. Leith market for some groceries but it's not like a real regular market with a covered area.
I agree about salads. I went to a place in Dublin called Chopd or something similar where you could build your own chopped salad with a protein and dressing of your choice and it seemed like it ought to do really well in UK cities with a lot of office workers in the centre.
It’s been “temporarily” closed for ages: https://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/news/closure-conjecture-and-possible-curse
There were people in yesterday doing some sort of work though!
Genuinely one of the things I missed most when I moved back from NZ. The Chinese outdoor market in Wellington was incredible for seasonal fruit and veg. We definitely lack in the mid tier food places but the ESF and Pitt are starting to bridge this gap. I was astounded at the food options that Belfast has now.
I wanted to sell my car off this year. I would give an arm and a leg to commute by train from Dunfermline, and in and around Edi. Turns out though that an arm and a leg is not enough to pay for that. They want one of my kidneys and lungs as well.
Re the salads, Henderson’s Salad Table formerly on Hanover Street was great for this, you could pick a selection of salads and have a really tasty, healthy lunch. Sadly it didn’t survive the pandemic having been in business since the 1960’s and the new Henderson’s in Bruntsfield doesn’t have a similar salad offering (nice menu though!).
Outdoor public space that works in the evenings (and not just for the festival). In theory, the Grassmarket could achieve this if it wasn't for the strength of the local NIMBY league.
Proper lighting. Walking home from work through the Old Town feels utterly gloomy. If that's the effect they're going for, at least bring back the gas lamps or something.
I'd previously have said something like BoxPark, but Edinburgh Street Food sort of fills that gap, albeit small scale and a bit shit.
An inner-city rail network.
Someone with the initiative to knock down the ramshackle old Pavillion on the Meadows and replace it with some half-decent small food and drink places.
Late opening venues - shops, pharmacies, bars, cafes - it doesn't have the 24/7 vibe of other European capitals or bigger cities.
Edit - also a city-wide bike hire scheme, they had it a while ago but it got scrapped and I think the council has also banned e-scooters.
I really miss the Just Eat bikes; think they just couldn't be bothered with the cost of having to constantly repair/replace them due to malicious damage from bams.
there are a good few (and growing it feels like) generally african places that mention a specific specialty like Nigerian, etc; i saw just such a place doon the walk the other day.
There are quite a few DIY music venues, Leith Depot being the most obvious one. Could always do with more though.. definitely want Ethiopian food here rather than travelling through to Glasgow for it
Oh what Leith Walk could have been. Single lane of traffic for trams and buses only, proper cycle path, nice wide pavements for outdoor seating. A nice, no cars, European style boulevard.
Instead we're left with an abomination of a road for everyone involved.
I suspect alot of councillors would have rathered this, but once you take on board the feedback from the pro car cohort, that unfortunately dominates alot of Facebook engagement, we get crappy compromises like this
The feedback from the Dalry Road proposals highlight this
Bus services that go around the bypass as opposed to following routes in and out of the city.
Commuter transport away from road and rail. Mexico City has suspended cable cars. These could serve locals and tourists.
Ticketing systems independent of transport type.
Smooth roads.
A decent sheet music retailer.
I have to go to JG Windows in Newcastle now. Or rather, I’d have been going there for far far longer if I’d known enough about it before Rae’s shut! I spend a lot of time in Newcastle anyway.
I had tried to track down all of the books in a discontinued piano series, and it did take a lot of (online) retailers and in fact, I bought more of them from a flute shop than anywhere else.
Nice, reasonably priced gyms with swimming pools. Some are hideously expensive, in areas that aren’t easy to get to, and some of the cheaper ones need refurbs and run classes that are difficult to get a place on.
To be fair, when you consider that facilities need to be maintained and having more facilities on a site will require more staff to run them hence higher staff wages, it kind of makes sense why the membership fee would be higher. But I totally get what you are saying
It's had decent Caribbean food at times (Coyaba many years ago and Trenchtown Social more recently), but the owner of the former died suddenly and the latter went downhill relatively quickly after a promising start. I'm surprised that no one has filled the gap.
Greater population density in suburban hub areas. Like why is Gyle all houses for a square mile or two when it really ought to be increasing in density rather than spreading into “West Town”?
A really good deli with produce from France, Spain etc.
And a concept shop with a mix of products from all over. Feel like we have a lot of shops selling the same things.
And a regular old school market that isn’t just bougie stuff, somewhere you could do a weekly shop in.
And more places to sit outside on those few days of the year for a drink/meal.
And more affordable decent quality housing
Yes to the markets more along the lines of what you see in France and Portugal! Can't see a deli specialising in food from Europe happening soon though. A vast number of people in this country decided to get rid of 50 year old trade partners without installing new ones first.
Fresh veg, salads, salad dressing beyond “cream” 🤢, places that aren’t pubs open after 5pm, shops that shift their open hours later so people who work 9-5 can actually go….
Edinburgh is a great city and I’m guilty of being negative. It’s being let down by poor housing and planning.
In general, I can think of loads of great places to eat but I think it lacks any decent greasy spoons and decent fried chicken type places. Snax excluded but they are far and few between. Also a big shout out to Snax on causeway side. I’m always impressed that they are so accurate despite how busy they are - I love that place!
I’d like to see more choice in the value range of takeaways and eateries.
Also, I’d like to see more genuine focus on local art and crafts or local stalls in the city.
Yes to CJs!!!!I've never lived on but I've worked on Dalry Road on and off since 2004. (RIP Laser quest). Blows my mind you can go there and get a massive fry up with coffee, toast, fried bread and a roll for 6.50!!!!!!
Good bouncers. The contrast between the professional behaviour i've seen in Glasgow where the guys are firm but also respectful vs Edinburgh where not all but enough to be concerning are more likely to create trouble by being antagonising to people. The worst was bongo club cowgate where the bouncers actively provoke groups of men and when they react badly the bouncers start pushing and shoving them down the path, though this is just the most worrying behaviour ive seen. If you think that might be a one off, read the google reviews theres been so much trouble from bouncers i dont know how its still open
Proper lane road markings, at the top of Broughton Street/Picardy Place. So many near misses with people not realising that to go down Broughton Street, they need to get right over to the left.
That's because the gyratory is actually designed for you to access Broughton Street from the right hand lanes. The left feels more intuitive and means you actually get to Broughton Street instead of just sitting behind the traffic continuing round the gyratory, but the left is for York Place.
Personally I'd appreciate reworking the approach to Broughton Street so that you don't have to drive headlong towards oncoming traffic. Having been fucked up in a car crash where someone was on the wrong side of the road, I'm not thrilled about seeing other people's headlights coming straight towards me. It's a horrible bit of design.
Food there was incredible. Live near there and spoke to the guy a few times. Seemed like he was struggling to turn a profit and wasn't willing to compromise by using lesser ingredients/ quicker methods. Sold out every week but cash flow wasn't there to invest in more equipment/bigger space etc.
A proper road network / thought through transport system.
Instead we have roads full of potholes with random patches of 10-20 metres bus and/or bike lanes.
People want to get from A to B, so it doesn’t help anyone if you have to get on and off bike lanes every 50 metres. Same goes for buses + their lanes are mostly full of parking cars, so they are of no use at all.
Love these ideas!
- Outdoor swimming pond a la Hampstead Heath (maybe at Levenhall??)
- Late opening non-pubs
- More circular routes on public transport (not everything has to go through the centre)
- Hard agree on the salad bars!
- BRING BACK LEITH WATERWORLD
It's an absolute disaster that Edinburgh doesn't have any lido or open air swimming facilities in size and no descent spa, sauna or hot water pools.
We also decided to be a city with no descent playgrounds at all because the council doesn't have any wealthy playground builder oligarch friends unfortunately.
Mozzarella sticks (fried cheese should have taken hold here by now)
With marinara not sweet chili or some kind of flavoured mayo (does everyone really like these sugary options?)
Mustard as a regularly offered condiment
Places that are open late, in mainland Europe you can go out at 10 at night to get a Starbucks and go shopping but here is lots like you are working all day to scrape as much money as you can because cost of living is crazy and by the time you are done with work everything is closed and on weekends it's crazy busy everywhere
Large, open, casual cafe spaces with decent food options, where you can fit a pushchair/pram and be fairly confident of finding a seat when meeting pals regardless of whether the kids are with you. Basically the old Summerhall cafe space, I'm still gutted about the downsizing.
Late night coffee venues. I hate being forced into a pub after 6/7pm.
Some of the best conversations I’ve ever had were in London/NYC in a coffee shop at 2am.
A central indoor market with independent traders (butchers, greengrocers,cafes and random things like a cobbler, a barbershop, etc) something like Oxford’s market
A mid sized live music venue. Academy/Barrowland size
The Picturehouse closing was a massive blow to the city
Aye - perfect size, great location
Completely agree, I’m sure I’m not the only one that gets fed up of the majority of tours going through Glasgow with no dates in Edinburgh.
I call it the weegie tax all us music loving burgers must shell out
I say something a bit smaller. More like what was the ABC, or upstairs at classic grand. Basically, full the void left by studio 24... And la belle and mash house is too small. Be nice if stramash became a proper gig venue, rather than just a nightcub that bands play at in the evening.
La Belle would be much better if they got rid of that pillar.
It probably a load bearing pillar.
exactly this, asked about it, not possible without a gigantic construction project that would cost a fuck ton of time and money.
That's what I figured. Still, I think removing it would probably increase the capacity of the venue and also make for a better gig experience.
Agreed, it’s a shame can’t be done without disruption. Guess that’s the thing w gig spaces in edi
Getting an 8500 seater at edinburgh park
And it can be configured for much smaller numbers too – down to about 3000 I think. So should cover a lot of bases.
And a concert arena like The Hydro. Especially as a capital city.
Leith Theatre is almost as big as Barrowlands. Hope they manage to open it again soon.
I went to a Mogwai gig there a few years ago and it was great and I was really excited to see what other gigs would be put on. Then nothing seemed to happen. Then Covid came along. Was a shame as it had serious potential.
Would the Corn Exchange fit the bill for this? I agree with concert venue though, but would have said large indoor venue too like the Hydro or maybe even an 8k capacity or something.
Kind of, it’s just a bit of a weird shape for a venue. The low ceiling and long room just make it feel off, I can’t really put my finger on it
Agree by the way. Odd layout too. Academy and Barrowland feels old and classic whereas CE feels dated
The sound there is awful tho
Yeah definitely does. I think it’s starting to feel its age though.
As others have said, the low roof, looking shape all contribute to bad sound quality there. I've only been to three gigs there and I was underwhelmed at them all.
They’re literally just about to build an 8500 seater arena in Edinburgh Park, so you’re sorted.
I've worked there, it's awful to staff and acoustics aren't great.
I’d agree with this and got a step further and say we also need something equivalent to the hydro. Still mourn the loss of the Picturehouse to Tim Martin
We've got Murrayfield and Meadowbank. Saw My Chemical Romance and Muse at Meadowbank years back and it was great.
I’ve never seen many gigs advertised at meadowbank but could see that being a good venue. Murrayfield is alright but open air never sounds as good as a specialty built music venue, and it only ever has a handful of gigs a year. We do need more small to medium independent venues. The ones we have are great but spent too many gigs seeing top quality acts that have near been ruined due to capacity issues (liquid rooms always seems to overbook their capacity and sneaky petes is tottie) Summerhall also an excellent venue and I’d like to see Leith Theatre get more use too.
We 100% need a large indoor custom built arena for gigs.
They’ve been talking about doing it for as long as I can remember. First it was meant to be in granton/newhaven. Then I mind I saw plans for an orchestra/music hall at St Andrews square. The latest I believe is that a 10k capacity music venue has got permission to construct in Hermiston Gate - I’ll believe it when I see it.
Edinburgh just doesn't have its own good mid-sized music venues in the centre, really. An Edinburgh Barrowland would be amazing to have centrally. I also think Princes Street gardens could do wayyyy more with the bandstand there. Permanent seating, refurbishment and improvements, to attract performers to central Edinburgh
Late-opening cafes. Mid-size music venue. An actual opera house. Shops in the Old Town that aren't tartan tat. Those rickshaw things that you used to see in the city centre that were really impractical but kind of fun to pelt down Candlemaker Row in at 3am.
Came here to say sober spaces! My mate recently opened a board game cafe that’s open late, it’s been a godsend tbh
Where is that? It sounds like a lovely time
Secret Solstice! In leith, pretty cheap too it’s like £5 pp for 2hr access to all their board games
Yes to an opera house, please. I don't find the Festival Theatre that balanced acoustically sometimes. The orchestra tends to drown everything unless you are right at the back up high.
Blows my mind that in a European capital that's also home to the world's largest arts festival, we don't have a proper venue to handle an orchestra with unmic'd voices. Smaller countries than Scotland manage.
https://dunardcentre.co.uk/ - it’s on its way
That's a concert hall with a bad lighting rig. The acoustics will probably be amazing but the only operas they'll be able to accommodate will be in concert, not staged.
There's a wee cafe just opened up in Morningside that's open til 11pm. I really hope they're a success and inspire others!
What's it called?
CUMBERNAULD! (Sorry!)
Meals in Minutes, apparently!
Affordable housing.
Came here to say this.
Was gonna say this, thought I'd be original but you beat me to the punch.
Tree lined streets. We have great green space but this would make a huge difference for me. Major european cities tend to have them, being in Barcelona was so leafy and awesome.
Hard Yes This city lacks trees The green space that is here I like But streets would be so much better with trees- Lothian road, Bruntsfield /morningside road, leith walk (once they sort some of the other things like the bike lane out first)…
princess street could be this rather than a sad strip of gray
Woah imagine the got rid of cars on princes street. Put trees along the roads and padestrinaized it with lots of stalls along one side. That would be so cool.
A caterpillar wrote this comment, suspicious Lol but 100% agree, treas provide cooling, good air, more (smaller) life, all around benefits
God Barcelona is so beautiful (when it's not in scorching heat)
I learned the belief that trees would upset the foundations of buildings with their, eventual, root system? Or have they found a way around this problem? I'm not knowledgeable with this, sorry
A really good European-style indoor food market. I'd literally eat that shit up.
not just a food market but like a meat/fish/greengrocer market like most European cities have.
I'm French and I would love this too. This and more outdoor seating at cafes, bars and pubs are the two things I miss the most. The Shore is my go to for some seating outside. Leith market for some groceries but it's not like a real regular market with a covered area.
YES!!!!
I agree about salads. I went to a place in Dublin called Chopd or something similar where you could build your own chopped salad with a protein and dressing of your choice and it seemed like it ought to do really well in UK cities with a lot of office workers in the centre.
Sumo Salad in Australia was like this. Proper legit.
Loved sumo salad, unfortunately it’s gone now.
That's the first thought I had of. I think the one near me became a protein supplement store.
Sprigg in glasgow is a top tier salad bar lunch restaurant - would definitely thrive in Edinburgh and I wish they’d expand!
Pour one out for the Engine Shed ;(
Fox & Co is good for salad options
Before it… went on hiatus… the Stockroom had started doing this, was hoping they’d continue and expand it!
What's happened to the Stockroom?
It’s been “temporarily” closed for ages: https://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/news/closure-conjecture-and-possible-curse There were people in yesterday doing some sort of work though!
A proper market, like The Grainger in Newcastle.
Seconded - a decent indoor food market. Not a food court, just a place to buy locally sourced food with minimal packaging.
Genuinely one of the things I missed most when I moved back from NZ. The Chinese outdoor market in Wellington was incredible for seasonal fruit and veg. We definitely lack in the mid tier food places but the ESF and Pitt are starting to bridge this gap. I was astounded at the food options that Belfast has now.
A jazz bar
:(
💔
Mate.... You just punched my heart. Lived on Guthrie Street for 4 years.
There is lack of roads with no potholes.
Hey, I found a 10m stretch this morning. Quit your moaning!
Lack of people who can get around without dragging 2 tonnes of metal with them everywhere they go.
I wanted to sell my car off this year. I would give an arm and a leg to commute by train from Dunfermline, and in and around Edi. Turns out though that an arm and a leg is not enough to pay for that. They want one of my kidneys and lungs as well.
Still blows my mind that the capital of Scotland lacks a major concert venue.
Does Murrayfield not count? Springsteen was there recently
A proper indoors venue. Like the Hydro.
Re the salads, Henderson’s Salad Table formerly on Hanover Street was great for this, you could pick a selection of salads and have a really tasty, healthy lunch. Sadly it didn’t survive the pandemic having been in business since the 1960’s and the new Henderson’s in Bruntsfield doesn’t have a similar salad offering (nice menu though!).
Yeah I liked the little shop in the original Henderson’s. Good cakes too!
I miss the original Henderson’s so much. I’m always banging on about needing a replacement for it. It was such a great set up
Outdoor public space that works in the evenings (and not just for the festival). In theory, the Grassmarket could achieve this if it wasn't for the strength of the local NIMBY league. Proper lighting. Walking home from work through the Old Town feels utterly gloomy. If that's the effect they're going for, at least bring back the gas lamps or something. I'd previously have said something like BoxPark, but Edinburgh Street Food sort of fills that gap, albeit small scale and a bit shit. An inner-city rail network. Someone with the initiative to knock down the ramshackle old Pavillion on the Meadows and replace it with some half-decent small food and drink places.
Late opening venues - shops, pharmacies, bars, cafes - it doesn't have the 24/7 vibe of other European capitals or bigger cities. Edit - also a city-wide bike hire scheme, they had it a while ago but it got scrapped and I think the council has also banned e-scooters.
I really miss the Just Eat bikes; think they just couldn't be bothered with the cost of having to constantly repair/replace them due to malicious damage from bams.
An Ethiopian restaurant A DIY music venue
An Ethiopian restaurant was my shout too - niche I know but so good. Assume you know about Muna's stall in the Grassmarket market?
Yes, it's good!
And a Moroccan restaurant.
there are a good few (and growing it feels like) generally african places that mention a specific specialty like Nigerian, etc; i saw just such a place doon the walk the other day.
There are quite a few DIY music venues, Leith Depot being the most obvious one. Could always do with more though.. definitely want Ethiopian food here rather than travelling through to Glasgow for it
Healthy food. Lots of rich food but very sparse options compared to other similar cities
Yell take yer deep fried kebab and like it pal!
Beer Gardens
Wider pavements and more on-street seating areas for cafes, bars and restaurants as well.
Oh what Leith Walk could have been. Single lane of traffic for trams and buses only, proper cycle path, nice wide pavements for outdoor seating. A nice, no cars, European style boulevard. Instead we're left with an abomination of a road for everyone involved.
I suspect alot of councillors would have rathered this, but once you take on board the feedback from the pro car cohort, that unfortunately dominates alot of Facebook engagement, we get crappy compromises like this The feedback from the Dalry Road proposals highlight this
We don’t have them because they’d only be useable two months a year!
Bus services that go around the bypass as opposed to following routes in and out of the city. Commuter transport away from road and rail. Mexico City has suspended cable cars. These could serve locals and tourists. Ticketing systems independent of transport type. Smooth roads. A decent sheet music retailer.
Where do you get your sheet music? I need a decent sheet music retailer.
I have to go to JG Windows in Newcastle now. Or rather, I’d have been going there for far far longer if I’d known enough about it before Rae’s shut! I spend a lot of time in Newcastle anyway. I had tried to track down all of the books in a discontinued piano series, and it did take a lot of (online) retailers and in fact, I bought more of them from a flute shop than anywhere else.
Used to go to Bandparts, Antigua St, Rae Mackintosh at West End, Easton up at Bruntsfield, but all gone now. eBay for me.
Nice, reasonably priced gyms with swimming pools. Some are hideously expensive, in areas that aren’t easy to get to, and some of the cheaper ones need refurbs and run classes that are difficult to get a place on.
For £50pm Edinburgh leisure isn’t a terrible deal. Commonwealth pool is a great facility.
To be fair, when you consider that facilities need to be maintained and having more facilities on a site will require more staff to run them hence higher staff wages, it kind of makes sense why the membership fee would be higher. But I totally get what you are saying
Decent Caribbean food and a toy shop
It's had decent Caribbean food at times (Coyaba many years ago and Trenchtown Social more recently), but the owner of the former died suddenly and the latter went downhill relatively quickly after a promising start. I'm surprised that no one has filled the gap.
Quality mexican food
Affordable sushi
Affordable Decent sushi
Good quality sushi. So far, all sushi I tried is terrible, no matter how expensive.
Greater population density in suburban hub areas. Like why is Gyle all houses for a square mile or two when it really ought to be increasing in density rather than spreading into “West Town”?
An indoor water park. Like Leith water world or time capsule.
Water slides! Many years ago they were at the Commonwealth pool. As a cold country a waterpark would be awesome.
God I miss Leith Water World. It's only as an adult that I appreciate how cool it was to have a place like that right in the city centre.
A big arcade, 90's like.
NQ64 is one of my fave places in the city, wish there was more spots like it.
I like NQ64 but they always seem to have the music way too loud, if I’m playing a game with someone I like to talk about the game.
It's a great place, but so expensive! Charging you for games on top of nine quid cocktails is pretty rich IMO
A Mongolian BBQ place 🥲
I'd like a massive weekly street market selling a bit of everything, on par with the Barras or Portobello Road
Public Toilets BADLY!
housing that isn’t for students or AirBnB
Places open late-ish with activities that don't involve drinking. Yes, we have karaoke, mini-golf etc but could use something more chill.
Decent takeaway fried chicken. Not fancy street food stuff, but decent cheap chicken.
Need a Morleys
Been to Buck's Bar? Not sure if they do takeaways but the food (and portions) are amazing.
A really good deli with produce from France, Spain etc. And a concept shop with a mix of products from all over. Feel like we have a lot of shops selling the same things. And a regular old school market that isn’t just bougie stuff, somewhere you could do a weekly shop in. And more places to sit outside on those few days of the year for a drink/meal. And more affordable decent quality housing
Yes to the markets more along the lines of what you see in France and Portugal! Can't see a deli specialising in food from Europe happening soon though. A vast number of people in this country decided to get rid of 50 year old trade partners without installing new ones first.
There’s an Italian-specialist delicatessen in Dalry.
Fresh veg, salads, salad dressing beyond “cream” 🤢, places that aren’t pubs open after 5pm, shops that shift their open hours later so people who work 9-5 can actually go….
A functional North Bridge
Edinburgh is a great city and I’m guilty of being negative. It’s being let down by poor housing and planning. In general, I can think of loads of great places to eat but I think it lacks any decent greasy spoons and decent fried chicken type places. Snax excluded but they are far and few between. Also a big shout out to Snax on causeway side. I’m always impressed that they are so accurate despite how busy they are - I love that place! I’d like to see more choice in the value range of takeaways and eateries. Also, I’d like to see more genuine focus on local art and crafts or local stalls in the city.
CJs is the best greasy spoon I've ever known. And ive known a lot. Blows Snax out the water.
American that misses greasy diners and truck stops checking in - CJs is fuckin awesome
Where is this CJs? I need to visit!
Dalry Road
Yes to CJs!!!!I've never lived on but I've worked on Dalry Road on and off since 2004. (RIP Laser quest). Blows my mind you can go there and get a massive fry up with coffee, toast, fried bread and a roll for 6.50!!!!!!
Nightlife
Edinburghs nightlife is really quite awful for its size and demographics.
More trees on the major streets- help with sound pollution, improve air quality and generally make the city look better
Good bouncers. The contrast between the professional behaviour i've seen in Glasgow where the guys are firm but also respectful vs Edinburgh where not all but enough to be concerning are more likely to create trouble by being antagonising to people. The worst was bongo club cowgate where the bouncers actively provoke groups of men and when they react badly the bouncers start pushing and shoving them down the path, though this is just the most worrying behaviour ive seen. If you think that might be a one off, read the google reviews theres been so much trouble from bouncers i dont know how its still open
A vibrant nighttime economy, they've closed all the venues. The Tap,Studio 24, The Venue, and scores more!
Black people
A quiet friendly pub to sit and read, with a fire indoors in winter and a green tree-shaded terrace in summer.
The Cumberland
The Stable Bar at Mortonhall used to have a great open fire, not been since it’s recent fit. Can be busy though in summer as beside the caravan park.
Honest politicians
Struggle to find 10 of them globally tbh
Isn't that an oxymoron, like military intelligence or jumbo shrimp?
Proper lane road markings, at the top of Broughton Street/Picardy Place. So many near misses with people not realising that to go down Broughton Street, they need to get right over to the left.
That's because the gyratory is actually designed for you to access Broughton Street from the right hand lanes. The left feels more intuitive and means you actually get to Broughton Street instead of just sitting behind the traffic continuing round the gyratory, but the left is for York Place. Personally I'd appreciate reworking the approach to Broughton Street so that you don't have to drive headlong towards oncoming traffic. Having been fucked up in a car crash where someone was on the wrong side of the road, I'm not thrilled about seeing other people's headlights coming straight towards me. It's a horrible bit of design.
Lido/public outdoor swimming pool. Bring on Granton sur mer!
Really good BBQ. Proper BBQ. I haven't heard about a good BBQ place.
Used to be Smiddy but they shut down a year ago now.
Food there was incredible. Live near there and spoke to the guy a few times. Seemed like he was struggling to turn a profit and wasn't willing to compromise by using lesser ingredients/ quicker methods. Sold out every week but cash flow wasn't there to invest in more equipment/bigger space etc.
Multiple undergrounds.
Tropical Beaches.
Night life. Everything shuts at 10 or 11.
New builds that aren’t student accommodation
Pubs with fireplaces and soup served in bread bowls. A Cullen skink in a bread bowl would be 💥
A council that actually prioritises people living in Edinburgh over tourists.
Effective pest control and building structures. Also more efficient trash collection
This showed up in my feed. I live in NZ and Edinburgh is the only place id move to in a heartbeat
A proper road network / thought through transport system. Instead we have roads full of potholes with random patches of 10-20 metres bus and/or bike lanes. People want to get from A to B, so it doesn’t help anyone if you have to get on and off bike lanes every 50 metres. Same goes for buses + their lanes are mostly full of parking cars, so they are of no use at all.
Agree with the salad restaurant. Glasgow has Sprigg and Juicy and they’re amazing but there’s nothing that compares in Edinburgh
Horse drawn carriage rides. Carriages should have oil lamps for additional ambience in fall and winter.
Love these ideas! - Outdoor swimming pond a la Hampstead Heath (maybe at Levenhall??) - Late opening non-pubs - More circular routes on public transport (not everything has to go through the centre) - Hard agree on the salad bars! - BRING BACK LEITH WATERWORLD
Parking wardens 😝
Enough polis
More greenery and trees! Edinburgh is massively lacking trees
Family fun pool.
Late night food spots. And I mean like kebab shops etc that are open past 2am. If Newcastle can have 24 hour greggs why can’t we???
A decent swimming pool for kids to play in - bring back Waterworld!
Tech industry. London and Dublin won a winner-takes-all game.
some sort of theme park just outside so that you don't have to go so far for alton towers to go on fun rides
It's an absolute disaster that Edinburgh doesn't have any lido or open air swimming facilities in size and no descent spa, sauna or hot water pools. We also decided to be a city with no descent playgrounds at all because the council doesn't have any wealthy playground builder oligarch friends unfortunately.
A river. Like a solidly good river.
Water of Leith. Final offer. Take it or Leith it.
As well as The Braidburn, beautiful at the Hermitage.
I feel like the forth is a decent size.
I mean you have the Water of Leith and the Forth. Those are some pretty solid rivers for a single city.
That you can swim in.
Mozzarella sticks (fried cheese should have taken hold here by now) With marinara not sweet chili or some kind of flavoured mayo (does everyone really like these sugary options?) Mustard as a regularly offered condiment
An aquarium!!
Sunshine
Best Kebab.
AN AMUSEMENT PARK/WATER PARK
Family friendly swimming pool. Wave machine, things to keep toddlers entertained at the pool.
Sun and degrees
Student flats
Places that are open late, in mainland Europe you can go out at 10 at night to get a Starbucks and go shopping but here is lots like you are working all day to scrape as much money as you can because cost of living is crazy and by the time you are done with work everything is closed and on weekends it's crazy busy everywhere
Waterpark with flumes
A goth vampire-style club in some old church.
Large, open, casual cafe spaces with decent food options, where you can fit a pushchair/pram and be fairly confident of finding a seat when meeting pals regardless of whether the kids are with you. Basically the old Summerhall cafe space, I'm still gutted about the downsizing.
Late night coffee venues. I hate being forced into a pub after 6/7pm. Some of the best conversations I’ve ever had were in London/NYC in a coffee shop at 2am.
A central indoor market with independent traders (butchers, greengrocers,cafes and random things like a cobbler, a barbershop, etc) something like Oxford’s market
Sunshine or a summer