Row, The Cadies and Witchery, a genuine little shop of horrors, the grimy geek—depths of Deadhead Comics and Aha Ha Ha, a joke shop decked out with a gigantic false nose and comedy specs.
Victoria Street, with its curving parade of coloured shop fronts peeling up from the foot of the Grassmarket, tends to attract younger, funkier store owners. Right down at the foot, there’s the crazily hip Analogue, a gallery and bookstore that works with guest artists to publish its own regular zines. Totty Rocks run by two former liCA fashion lecturers, has its own in—house label, as well as stocking Scottish designers such as Bebaroque, while Swish has been busily dispensing skate—smart unisex streetwear for well over a decade. There’s also the food, of course: you can’t ignore the rather forceful aroma of IJ Mellis, everyone’s favourite cheesemonger, and this is the site of the original Demijohn (see panel. right).
A couple of minutes away, curving off down the Royal Mile, Cockbum Street. crammed with youth-focused, grungy-cool clothes shops with
Grassmarket and Clerk Street, Edinburgh, www.armstrongs vintage.co.uk
The grandmamma of vintage shops. its cavernous depths are hung with old furs and flapper frocks, as well as many wearable bargains. Must-stop for fashionistas.
Herman Brown, West Port
pocket-money friendly pricing policies, has long been an after-school Mecca to Edinburgh's more gothically inclined teenagers. There are some great one—offs to be found here: well-priced indie fashion labels at Pie in the Sky (for cool cotton fashion) and Cookie (fun-formal dresses), velvet goth frocks at Voodoo and graphic T—shirts at Fabrick, as well as mystical homeware at Eden, while the bong-laden windows of Whiplash Trash have attractions all of their own.
Finally, no Old Town shopping round up would be complete without the Jeffrey Street/St Mary‘s Street/ Canongate intersection, which. by combining high—end designer fashion (Corniche) and cosy, arty Scottish woolies (Ragamuflin) with idiosyncratic eccentrics such as Present (brilliantly unusual gifts), is almost a microcosm of what makes Edinburgh‘s indie shops great. (Kl)
King’s Court, Glasgow,
lNDLPENDENT 11‘ 3'7
Angus Ferguson runs Demijohn, 'the world’s first liquid deli', with branches on Victoria Street in Edinburgh and Byres Road in Glasgow
‘When I was a student, I lived very briefly in Naples in Italy. The Italians get their wine from cantinas; you take along a container, try the wine you like and they just skoosh it in from a sort of petrol pump. It seemed to me to be a brilliantly simple, good fun way of finding out which wines you like. and I couldn't understand why we didn't do it here. The idea stayed with me for years, during which I travelled all over the world with the Black Watch, tasting foods. oils and wines and growing into quite an adventurous foodie.
l've always wanted to do my own thing in life too. and the idea for a liquid deli, everything bottled in—house. so you could try the oils and vodkas before you bought them, just started biting me. We started a little hunt for this underworld of British producers and sure enough we found there were teachers out there. retired bankers, farmer's wives, all having a go in their kitchen. That's really when the idea started to come together — we could become a co-op. lots of small British producers working together. We definitely took the right direction of sourcing locally, British products where possible, sticking with quality and good sourcing: people really want that.‘ I 01413373600, 0731225 3265 www. demijohn. CO. uk
Queen Street, Glasgow, www.tamshepherd strickshop.co.uk Pretty much our definition of an institution, as it's been in the same place for over a century, selling practical jokes and funny hats.
www.mrbenretro clothing.com
Another vintage clothing shop. and one responsible for transforming pallid Glasgow Uni freshers into splendidly-Afghaned hipster creatures of the night.
Cockbum Street, West Nicholson Edinburgh, www.avalan Street, Edinburgh, cherecords.co.uk; www.word-power.co.uk Dundas Street, Opened by James Glasgow, www.avalan Kelman in 1994, cheglasgow.co.uk Edinburgh's only radical Arguably the Central independent bookshop
Belt '8 best-loved muso havens. Generally staffed by minor members of Scotland's indie aristocracy too.
feels increasingly necessary in the current climate. Part local treasure. part rallying point for the community.
16—30 At)! 200‘.) THE LIST 23