Marchmont

I’ve been spending a lot of time in Marchmont lately and it has left me wishing I’d lived there as a student. Though to be fair that was a looooong time ago and I think Marchmont has recently gotten even better.
Full of green grocers, cafes, old school funky shops, eateries and local pubs it is small and cute and independent.
It’s also so close to the greenery of the meadows and of course from there just a hop into old and new towns.

Having lived all over the city I always had a hankering to get back to Marchmont. I really love this place its quiet, the meadows is on you door step and it is really well provided for.
Shopping: We have the best fruit and veg shops in Edinburgh that I have found along Argyle place and Argyle street. These guys offer an array of the usual fruit and veg with some exotics chucked in. There is an excellent local butcher and of course Eddies fish mongers to accompany this. There is even a health food shop called the new leaf selling all sorts of veggie/​vegan friendly foods and ethical produce. They also sell Mrs Unis veggie haggis pakora for the ultimate post night out weird food cravings. For the more everyday kind of needs we have Margiottas and a Scotmid times two. I rarely leave Marchmont for food shopping infact can pretty much stay on my block all weekend. The only thing missing for me is somewhere to buy specific south east asia ingredients, but East cross causeway and Causewayside are a short walk.
Eating out: A plethora of cafes have popped up over the last few years from sandwich shops to sit in coffee shops to compliment some of the businesses that have been in situe for years. My Favourites are Freemans, No39 and Café artista. When it come to take away food I am a creature of habit and kasbah has been my go to for the last decade or more in fact I used to grab food in there when it was called k2 around ¹⁹⁹⁸⁄₁₉₉₉. More recently I have really taken to Delicious Italian for pizza. For chinese food there are seferal options, but I always default to GY for salt and chilli tofu.
Bars: For bars we have 2 local bars in the Earl of Marchmont and the Argyle, plus a hotel bar in the Links Hotel. The Argyle was renovated last year under a new ownership and its is a great place to grab that post work beer or drift your way through a lazy Sunday with some nachos and a pint. Never really took to the Earl, but check the reviews on here many folk seem to like it. The Links hotel is great and my first choice to sit outside on that thing rarier than a nessie sighting a sunny day in Scotland.
What to do: Everything is on your door step so a wander around the meadows, walk into town or go for a swim at the warrendar baths at the south end of the area.

I have lived in various parts of town since I’ve been in the ‘burgh’ and only moved Marchmont almost a year ago.
Despite its reputation of being ‘studentville’, Marchmont is actually quite a lovely residential area in the middle of the city, with families and professionals. And I certainly cannot complain about students’ parties. I actually really enjoy being is such a nice and quiet area, just about 10 min walk from the city centre.
Marchmont has a number of lovely shops — fishmonger, deli, art gallery, recently refurbished convenience Scotmid — as well as quite a lot of coffee shops and pubs, considering the size of the area. The most recent addition is the Cellar Monkey (part of the Monkey Brass group) which I yet have to explore.
There is also a swimming pool and a gym, refurbished only a few years ago.
Finally, one of the best things about living in Marchmont is the proximity of the Meadows, whether it’s for a jog, a game of frisbee or a barbecue. How nice to have such a great front garden!

Marchmont has been my home the whole time I have lived in Edinburgh. In that time I’ve found it is both student and mice infested, and at points very rarely strayed into the heart of it.
But in recent months there have been a few new openings, relaunches and refurbs to make it a neighbourhood I’m proud of.
Starting with the basics, the Scotmid has refurb’d and wooooo boy is it swish. Seriously, go check it out. There’s a fresh orange juice machine, there’s 4 different types of salami, there’s loads of fresh bread (rye, rye cross bloomer, sourdough, roasted garlic). For such a small supermarket store it packs a lot in.
Then there’s the swimming pool. The walk here takes me through the heart of Marchmont, so I can admire it all. A lovely wee local swimming bath, that’s mainly frequented by families with kids and an older generation. So it makes for a pleasant, quiet swim on a Friday morning.
Then there’s the newly taken-​over Argyle Bar. This used to be the most-​avoided business in Marchmont, and I’d wager it’s going to now be one of the most frequented. Great local bar, reason alone to make your way to Marchmont.
And then there’s The Institute coffee shop. Having spoken to a barista at Artisan Roast, they were praising The Institute, and the guy who owns it, to the high heavens of coffee beans. And apparently there are nude photos of the baristas at Artisan Roast on the walls of the Institute. Either way, this is a proper local coffee shop with cake and scones and attitude.
There’s also a few brunch spots like Toast, coffee shop like Black Medicine, a few other bars (Earl of Marchmont). It’s pretty small. I’m not lauding it up as somewhere to visit. But as somewhere to live, it has that perfect village feel which is very homely. You walk down the street and always see someone you know, and at the same time you have the whole of Edinburgh on your doorstep just across the Meadows.

With rows of tawny-​coloured tenements, massive student population, a surfeit of artsy cafés and independent grocery stores, Marchmont’s vibe falls somewhere between bohemian and genteel. It’s bordered by the Meadows on one side, and the wealthy mansions of the Grange on the other, and has its own character as a fairly sleepy residential neighbourhood, disturbed only by the occasional blaring music of student flat parties.
When I lived here, I loved its smallness, and the village-​like quality — the fact that, whenever I left my flat, I’d meet someone I knew, and could survive for days at a time without ever venturing across the Meadows, getting all I needed from the cornershop, having a pint in the Argyle down the road, renting DVDs from Alphabet, and generally shying away from the outside world.
Now that I’ve moved away, I feel slightly relieved to have escaped this insular community. Still, I’ll always have a soft spot for Marchmont’s leafy streets and turreted tenements.

Marchmont is where I spent my second year in a flat overlooking the meadows. If you are an arts student at Edinburgh Uni, then this is the place to be, you can be out of bed and in your lecture theatre within 15 minutes, 10 at a push. What’s more, when it is sunny, then you have a huge expanse of grass on your doorstep to lay and frolic on.
If you need to go to the Kings Building, like my flatmate was, then it is quite a bit less convenient and takes about 25 – 30 minutes to get there, and that’s if you are walking fast. Another drawback about the area is that there is no big supermarket around, even the ones on Nicolson Street, really aren’t that big, so I found that I tended to shop online and this actually worked out pretty well.
Marchmont is a student hotspot and you can feel that you are in a student bubble with all the local businesses tailored to you needs, which is handy, but you do lose a little bit of character that you find in other parts of town.

I’m surprised a review hasn’t been written on Marchmont. Mainly because there’s nowhere in Edinburgh that feels more like a village within a city than Marchmont. Actually, no, that’s not true. Stockbridge wins that, but only because they have the Waters of Leith there, and we don’t.
Marchmont is effectively a wee student slash boho community in the middle of the city. By middle of the city I mean the edge of the city because the further south you head from Marchmont, the more residential it gets, until the city finally tapers off.
Plus, Marchmont’s just on the edge of the Meadows and about a ten minute walk from anywhere in Old Town. I mean, where else could you possibly want to live, right?