WAVERLEY ARCHES
M ost successful eating and drinking destinations are born, not made. A chef opens their i rst restaurant, a bright spark refurbs the pub next door, and slowly, slowly, a Shore or Stockbridge emerges. It tends not to work quite so well when the process is developer-led: it seems we have an aversion to shiny new ‘quarters’ that arrive fresh out of the box. It’s interesting, then, that East Market Street’s arches project seems to be establishing itself as something really rather good.
that The row of 19 C-listed Victorian arches – the smallest barely more than a crawl space, the largest now holding a 60-seat restaurant – lay mostly disused for years, until the Hidden Door festival opened them up, bringing them to the attention of an impressed public. It then emerged the arches were to be part of the New Waverley (formerly known as Caltongate) development. The Caltongate saga has been a long and controversial one, with legal challenges to the council and bankrupt developers all in the heady mix. Importantly, it’s been a real hook for debate about the kind of city we want to live in, both architecturally and socially (40 affordable houses across a 7.5 acre site hardly sounds lavish, after all). Even as the shiny new hotels have opened their doors and ofi ce buildings and apartments have started to rise from the ground, the issues haven’t gone away. But perhaps it’s time to take a stroll and see what at least some of the fuss is about.
The arches themselves are striking; part of the fun of a daunder along is seeing how each vendor handles the space. Tiny wine shop Vino embraces its arch’s cave-like nature,
with shelf upon shelf of wines which can all be enjoyed from one of a handful of seats and for a modest corkage fee. There’s a simple menu of nibbles to accompany your glass – and it’s worth noting nearly all the arches have a few outdoor seats with cracking views. Gannet and Guga i ttingly festoon their ceiling with a l ock of origami birds to admire when picking up your lunch of Vietnamese summer rolls or a pile of pulled meat. At the end of the row, the city’s second Chop House steak restaurant gets over the challenges of i tting a square peg into a round hole by seating diners inside a metal endoskeleton, suspending the ground-l oor seats from the newly created mezzanine ceiling. Buff Concept Store
NOT ON THE HIGH
STREET
Jo Laidlaw takes a stroll along East Market Street’s Waverley Arches, Edinburgh’s newest
shopping, eating and drinking quarter
6 Yard Box
Inevitably, with two hotels, existing ofi ces nearby and more planned, there’s a focus on food on the go. Baba Budan takes its coffee seriously, but their fabulous donuts are the real draw as well as a range of bits and pieces from other city names like the Bearded Baker and Union of Genius. Tempo Tea specialises in bubble tea, the addictively odd Taiwanese drink. If all that doesn’t l oat your boat, Juice Warrior offers us its now-obligatory clean and raw vibe, and Comely Bank’s Ronaq have plans to bring their second Indian restaurant to the corner of the block.
With a range of indie retailers dotted among the row, there’s a real sense of community building their between the vendors and customers. Here’s hoping that translates to the rest of what has been one of Edinburgh’s most troubled developments. Waverley Arches, East Market Street, Edinburgh.
62 THE LIST 3 Nov 2016–31 Jan 2017 Chop House