The Breweries of Old Edinburgh

[Music] get t fore for well this is uh Gilmore Park and it's almost impossible to recognize this area um it's so much building happening most of it is housing I said it before probably a few times but given the amount of housing that were're building and you know it was the same on the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh we went to S long way through kind of areas that used to be industrial with coal mines and Ironstone mines and things and now there's just a lot of housing developments getting built but with all the people who live in these new housing developments work at given that we've lost so much industry you know this was the fountain Brewery William mun's Fountain Brewery at Fountain bridge I think main body of the brewery was just across the road it's just it's all houses getting built you know I wanted to start here because I used to work in this building right behind me um I think this building this is the only part of mun's found that's still left um and I I suspect it probably served a number of functions but in the early 1970s I was a stationary a stores Clerk and actually worked uh Below in the basement below ground level start dealing with all the paperwork that the hotels and pubs would use on a day-to-day basis I only lasted about um 9 months in this job then I moved across the road to be a laborer um I think there was probably more money laboring uh but I only lasted a month doing that you been tasked to put up shelving in some dim bows of a structure and everywhere I look there was guys hiding in Corners drinking cans of beer it was kind of grim you know the you're going to risk your job for a can of beer we got you know in working for Scottish and Newcastle Brewery you got 24 three cans of beer every month which is a bit of a struggle try to get them home but you know I I I don't understand what what these guys were doing other than drinking beer and stealing you know um I remember I mean also the tart social club which was the the social club for Scottish Newcastle breweries in this area and I remember just visiting there once it was me and am I used to sign in a couple of band mates was in a band at the time was the best player in the drummer and well one pain and in fact we didn't even have that one pain because we sat down the drummer started sort of having a go or goding the Bas player uh it got to the stage where the bass player couldn't take it anymore and punched them and I think in the process drinks went flying and we were thrown out of the tan Social Club the good old days I don't [Applause] think but that's you know that's I wanted to start this video here and while apart from this building the whole of um mun's Fountain and Brewery has vanished in the same way that um William younger's hollyood and Abby breweries have also vanished you know these were certainly in the latter part of the 20th century mun and youngers Scottish Brewers Scottish Newcastle these were of made the major Brewers in Edinburgh these are the ones that bought up all the smaller breweries and shut them down but um the main difference between this video and looking at breweries in Old Edinburgh and comparing that with breweries in old Glasgow is that there are far more Brewery buildings surviving here in Edinburgh they're no longer breweries they're generally repurposed mostly for housing I think but there's just an awful lot of them still standing compare that with Glasgow where we just see have demolished practically everything what is going on such a difference between the two sides of the country but enough waffling let's [Music] go [Music] [Music] oh [Music] I think brewing in Edinburgh undoubtedly started with monks down at holl Abby and over a period of time it would gradually gradually have spread its way up the Royal mile into the various closes and winds leading off thorough Fair uh just behind me is Bell's wind and it was named after a John Bell who was a brewer long time ago and just near the top of this wind there's a little sort of um Avenue that leads into Burnett's close named after a Samuel Bernett who is also a brewer um way back in the 16th century and I think the these Brewers were fairly small Affairs probably operations carried out in a basement or seller or maybe an out building uh brewing beer to supply in and taverns in this area these weren't a huge uh purpose-built Brewing operations that appeared in the 18th century well um that's the Pleasence there and this is drumond Street old police box here the other side of the road there is a site of what's probably one of the first major purpose-built breweries in Edinburgh it's Bell's Brewery you can see it in an 1865 map and that map is probably one of the very first really good um maps of Edinburgh it gives a lot of detail and information that tells you that this is Bell's Brewery and you can see the shape of it it's been a brewery for a long time and I think like all as is often the case I I think the original Brewery is probably still in there somewhere I I think it's unlikely that it would have been demolished I think it's more likely that the original Brewery would have been added to to make the uh to make it more able to cope Within inreased orders as the years went by it changed hands any number of times um on a slightly later map the next kind of good map of Edinburgh that also gives a lot of detail you can see an additional Brewery just from the right hand side H forest's Brewery and we'll go go and have a look just to see um if there's anything recognizable through any of these arches there but the Bells Brewery while it as I say was taken over any number of times it was closed in 1934 by customs and exis because of um I think it was brewing irregularities which I think must cover a a multitude of sins but they're clearly up to no good Customs are exi don't close you down for no good reason but let's see if we can find any more details over there you know I don't think there's really any doubt that much of what we can see behind me is the original 18th century Brewery Bell's Brewery I mean the bit along the end looks as if it may a little bit later you know it will have been added to over the the centuries it's a long time in operations from the 1700s up until the 1930s and there is a part of me wonders if um the name the owner of this Brewery a Mr Bell was somehow related to John Bell who was a brewer in that close that we saw near the beginning of the video just off the Royal M it's quite likely you know and again it's just lovely to see this old building still here are you wander the streets of Edinburgh it does at times seem that every turn of a corner brings you another old Brewery building into view like the bur loock Brewery by The Meadows is this a brewery you better believe it the hair at Brewery in the grass Market the castle Brewery also in the grass Market maybe up there somewhere they are gu Brewery between Chamber Street and the [Music] [Applause] cowgate and any number of Brewery structures in the area of hood and its Palace well it's in this sort of area not that far from hollyood house that we had the huge breweries of William youngers The Abbey Brewery and the hollyood brewery were both in this area probably occupied a good part of the land here um and just if you look behind me you see the large building with the small windows and you look at it and you think yeah that's got to be a bit of a brewery there or maybe a bit of a malt house I sometimes think that a lot of today is going to be spent looking at structures and saying is that a brewery is that a brewery surely that's a brewery or it could be a malt house there's going to be a lot of wondering here on today I think but nevertheless absolutely certain as part of uh one of William younger breweries the smaller building that don't think but I'll show you in a minute you maybe can't see it I think I'm in the way but uh there's a smaller building there a very important structure I used to wonder if that was part of younger durri think it might have been but natural fact I think it's an earlier structure and apparently it's actually quite important little structure um when Scotland was was signing up to a union with England in 1707 uh that it seemly some Scottish people weren't exactly happy with that and the Scottish parliamentarian Scottish parliamentarians who were signing the treaty or the union with England um felt unsafe there was crowds Gathering it wasn't safe to be around that's apparently that's that little structure there to sign the what's it called the act of Union 1707 you know so in that little building that's where Scotland's Freedom was signed away that's where it all ended is that a brewery yep is sometimes hard to tell the difference between breweries and Mings theyve got a similar kind of look about them this is a little cobbled lane leading from holwood Park uh to whatever thead the end is there um and it's called cofton Ry you know it's funny there's so many tourists in Edinburgh this is a cobbled lane that I've got the camera tripod set up in the flat the bit of pavement that's flat and I was getting real scours and bad looks from people tourists who had these kind of wheeled suitcases with the handles you know these suitcases on Wheels it just make horrendous noise why you the fuels made out of plastic could I not made the wheels out of rubber to make it a little bit quieter no they just want to noise everybody up so I've been going of glowers because I'm in their way they want to go in this nice made pavement they don't want to go in a cobble cuz it's more difficult for them tough cookies this is probably one of the kind of major Brewing centers in Edinburgh coft and rig and there was two breweries in this Lane you had the St AR's Brewery and um the cofton Ry I think one was in one side of the lane one was the other side there's also mol thingss as well and you know this is really what this video is all about I've said it I think earlier on um here in Edinburgh we just have so many uh old breweries still standing that perhaps in most cases been repurposed and used for housing it's hard to know to be honest whether um they just built better Brewery buildings here in Edinburgh maybe a better quality Sandstone they were more able to withstand or you know stand the test of time and more longevity to them and maybe in Glasgow we used a poer quality sandstone in the buildings didn't quite last as long or maybe is the case as I perhaps said in a number of videos in Glasgow we don't care that much for RO buildings we just knock stuff down without a great deal of thought here in Edinburgh that's clearly not the case and it's lovely to see these Brewery buildings still standing in this beautiful little lane that right now is devoid of any of the noise of those horrible wheeled suitcasing well I'm just off Colton Road here and this it used to be called North back of Canon gate just at foot of Colton Hill in the prison it used to built there and this is one of the pretty major Brewing uh areas in in Edinburgh and there are a number of old breweries that are still standing now I think housing in most cases we can actually see to them from here you can see the Gable end there and some kind of green wooden balcony bits that I think is One Brewery and you can see what it's clearly another one just over there way at the far end of uh Colton Road you used to have the the craigan brewery then they had malt houses belonging to that Brewery then you had the CT Hill Brewery then two other breweries one in each side of this road so this whole Road was absolutely jam-packed with breweries must have been in a good spot for whatever reason maybe good water or something and it but not that far away from where the Victorian breweries of William youngers were built the ABY Brewery and the the holwood brewery again we're not far from coft and Ry or coft and rig sure it's coft and Rye God [Music] knows [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] oh the ultimate fate of many breweries was to be bought over and shut down in most cases by Scottish Brewers later Scottish and Newcastle breweries who themselves now no longer exist being taken over by heekin and carlburg in 2008 e you have no idea how much I love that little building let's get all the charm of a fairy tale or something you know or something at a Lord of the Rings Hobbits and little people it's right beside Hollywood Palace and Hollywood um Abbey and of course the big question is was it a brewery I think it's called Queen Mary's bath house or something like that you know kind of a little bit not convinced if I'm honest you know I think if I was a queen in the palace would I want to come outside to go in another building have my bath i' want a bath in the palace and given that this is was at one time pretty much the Brewing heart of Edinburgh the north B of can B not sorry North Bank of canate and um cof and Ry or cofton rink it wouldn't be surprised at one time in the many hundreds of years at which this building has existed there some been brewing in there you never really know and this is where I'm going to end the video the sun's out I mean we've had a lovely day maybe I learned a little bit about buies but not too much I'm Eddie Burns they [Music] for [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] [Music] oh

Channel: Ed Explores Scotland

Views: 4,014

Keywords: Scotland's beer brewing history, beer brewing in old Edinburgh, Edinburgh, beer, ale, brewing, Scotland's brewing heritage, the industrial heritage of Scotland, Eddy Burns, Bell's Brewery, Forrest's Brewery, The Pleasance Brewery, Fountain Brewery, Gilmore Park, McEwan's Brewery, Boroughlough Brewery, Calton Hill Brewery, Craigwell Brewery, Croft an Righ, North Back Canongate, Holrood Brewery, Younger's Abbey Brewery, Bell's Wynd, St Ann's Brewery, Scottish Brewers

Id: VWjpGTEAH-w

Length: 26min 16sec (1576 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2024