Artisan Bar & Lounge - A Happy Home
A pub which was built during the temperance movement must be made of sturdy stuff.
What’s it about?
If you think Edinburgh’s housing crisis is bad now, try going back two centuries. From 1825 to 1860, no new houses were built due to a recession. Meanwhile, population levels continued to go through the roof.
By the mid-19th century, squalid slums in the Old Town were referred to as “chambers of death”: Each room packed with more people than your average prison cell, in the most unsanitary conditions of any city in Britain. At the same time, Victorian morals resulted in pearl-clutching over the spread of moral depravity and excess alcoholism.
This led the Free Church of Scotland minister Reverend James Begg to call for an overhaul in social housing for the working class - suggesting they stop spending their money on booze, and instead club together to buy cheap land on the outskirts of town to build on.
By 1861, over a thousand house builders and stone masons were on strike because of a dispute over working hours. It was during this three-month period that they formed the Edinburgh Co-Operative Building Company - which would take Rev Begg’s ideas, buy up cheaper land and create the now-famous Colonies houses. Begg encouraged this. In 1866 he wrote a book called Happy Homes for Working Men, and How to Get Them. An early investor to the scheme was Robert Cranston, owner of the Waverley Temperance Hotel on Princes Street. As the name of his establishment suggests, Cranston was no fan of alcohol.
Despite anti-alcohol campaigners such as Rev Begg and Cranston backing the Colonies houses, somehow - and who knows how - a pub ended up being built among them. Which is why we have the Artisan Bar & Lounge at the foot of Regent Place in the Abbeyhill Colonies. And we are much better off for it.
The Artisan is hardly off the beaten track, sitting on the busy London Road and between Calton Hill and Holyrood Park. But it feels like a local’s pub, and when I was there on a Friday night, it had a welcoming buzz about it. A grand central bar dominates the room and around it regulars were chatting. There seemed to be a good mix of ages in there. The perimeter of the room is lined with leather seating and stools. Long, thin tables are bolted to the floor and leave enough space for a pint or two.
The beer does not disappoint. This was some of the best cask I’ve had in Edinburgh, at very good prices too. I only had one pint, as this was midway through a mini crawl, but it was by far the best of the night. It’s definitely got me wanting to go back very soon.
The history of the place - built with the Abbeyhill Colonies houses, sometime between 1866 and 1877 - is apparent by the seemingly hundreds of framed photographs which cover every wall. Alongside the other various bits of beer paraphernalia which all good pubs should have, these show Abbeyhill as it once was - while, at the same time, suggesting that The Artisan has hardly changed in the past century and a half.
The Colonies are a 150-year-old reminder that a community can find creative solutions when faced with a housing crisis. The Artisan Bar & Lounge is a reminder that pubs still have a place in our society. Yes, we are losing more and more by the day. But a pub built amid a temperance movement must be made of pretty strong stuff. Here’s to the next 150 years.
The chaser
While I believe that pubs are a brilliant window into our social history, there’s always a risk of romanticising the past. That applies here, too. While the building of the Colonies came out of a workers’ movement, it doesn’t necessarily mean they were owned by workers once they were built. Professor Richard Roger of Edinburgh University, who wrote a book about the houses, says that many were bought by private landlords who would rent them out to workers. In a blog, he wrote: “the idea that the Colonies were an early example of a property-owning democracy is misplaced.” Now, they’re some of the most-desired real estate in the city.
For more on the Colonies, read Prof Roger’s blog and an appraisal of the different sites from Edinburgh Council.
Where is it?
Where next?
If you’re up for a bit of a walk, head a mile down to the other end of Easter Road for more good beer and some great Polish food at The Percy.
The Percy - You won’t find food like this in any other pub
In other news
Two bits in the Edinburgh Inquirer from earlier this week:
The number of days around Christmas when pubs are allowed to extend their hours have been cut. So Edinburgh pubs will have to operate normal hours on 18/19 December and 3 January.
More than 2,500 people have signed a petition calling for the reinstatement of Central Bar’s music licence. The Leith pub has been hosting live music and karaoke for decades but had its licence taken away after noise complaints from neighbours.
Really interesting read - great history here !