Gorgie Road

Have you been down to Gorgie? Or just through it? This strip of tarmac winds its way through EH11, heading out to the Calder Road and beyond, peppered to the left and right with plenty of entertainments for all the family. I’ve lived here for four and a half years and it gets under your skin, so high time I wrote a review.
Where else are you going to find an SPL football ground (Hearts) within a goal kick’s distance of a working farm? The Caley Brewery is just around the corner, likewise the North British Distillery. Half a dozen supermarkets in walking distance and half a dozen pubs (that I haven’t been to, which says more about me than them). Gorgie Parish Church seems to do a roaring trade on Sundays, and there’s the Memorial Hall with its calendar of activities through the year. The Union Canal is but five minutes walk to the south, the Water of Leith the same distance to the west, and Murrayfield Stadium a short walk past the distillery.
I should spend more in the local shops rather than the supermarket chains. This was easier before Patisserie Jacob moved to Haymarket, because the quality and variety in there is tremendous. The traditional butchers’ across the road does the best steak pies though, and Shumba Meats will probably get you anything you want or offer you something exotic instead.
Is Gorgie ‘up and coming’ as some folk have said to me? I suspect it’s been up and coming for a generation or two, maybe longer. It’s hard to keep up with some of Edinburgh’s more expensive areas and Gorgie Road will always have a particular character because it’s a thoroughfare through the city — not dissimilar to Leith Walk and Nicholson/​Clark Street. (They don’t have a farm though. We have a farm.) There’s no shortage of investment in the area, with a brand new high school building having opened in the past year or so.
Four stars: it’s a great place, but there’s plenty it lacks — I’m glad that pubs like The Caley Sample Room and The Fountain aren’t too far away, they suit me better. There’s a good mix of long standing residents and shorter stay students and folk new to Edinburgh. As you’d hope from an area developed in the later 19^th century there’s a lovely stock of traditional Edinburgh flats: high ceilings, original floorboards and those wonderful open spaces in the shared back gardens. You may well drive through from time to time, but stop a while and see what’s doing.