Bill H. Jenkins

Society of Brewers, Chambers Street

 History of Brewing  No Responses »
Jan 292018
 
Exterior of the extension of the National Museum of Scotland, once the site of Society of Brewers

Original location of the Society of Brewers

Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF

In 1596 the Society of Brewers, or, to give it its full name, the Fellowship and Society of Ale and Beer Brewers of the City of Edinburgh, was established on the site where the modern extension to the National Museum of Scotland new stands. Their brewing operation here was supplied with water pumped from the South Loch, later called the Boroughloch, which was later drained to create the Meadows.  A number of other breweries were established here in later centuries. Archibald Campbell started brewing near here in Campbell’s Close in 1710 before moving a short distance to the site of the Argyle Brewery, the buildings of which still survive between Chambers Street and the Cowgate. In the eighteenth century it specialised in brewing porter, much of which was transported by cart to be sold in Glasgow. There were three other brewers in this area at different times in the nineteenth century: Aikman, J. & T. Usher and William J. Raeburn.

McEwan Hall, University of Edinburgh

 History of Brewing  No Responses »
Jan 292018
 
Exterior of McEwan Hall at the University of Edinburgh

McEwan Hall

Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG

The McEwan Hall of the University of Edinburgh is named after the Edinburgh brewing magnate William McEwan (1827–1913), who had learnt the art of brewing from his uncle, who ran a brewery in the Grassmarket. The Hall and a new medical school were opened in in 1897, built with £115,000 donated by McEwan, a princely sum at the time. It is used by the University principally for graduation ceremonies. McEwan was not only a brewer, but a local politician, philanthropist and, strange as it may seem, an ardent member of the Temperance Society. How he squared his moral stance on the evils of alcohol with his extremely lucrative business interests is hard to imagine. On the other side of Bristo Square you will see the McEwan lantern pillar, bearing the family coat of arms, erected at the same time as the Hall.

McEwan lantern pillar on Bristo Square

The McEwan lantern pillar, Bristo Square.

Black and white portrait of William McEwan

William McEwan (1827-1913)

Red, white, and black label for McEwan's Export.

Label for McEwan’s Export India Pale Ale.

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Windmill Street

 History of Brewing  No Responses »
Jan 292018
 

Windmill StreetWindmill Street, Edinburgh EH8 9HN

This street was originally close to the South Loch, which was drained to make way for the Meadows park in 1722. The street was named after the windmill which stood near this spot and provided power to pump water from the Loch to the Society of Brewers’ brewery near what is now Chambers Street. Although Edinburgh was surrounded by boggy, badly drained land, finding a source of clean water was always a problem, and many breweries had their own wells so that they could be sure of the water quality. Breweries often had to drill down as far as 180 metres to find clean water. The South Loch was also sometimes known as the Boroughloch. The name of the Boroughloch Brewery, which closed in the early 1900s, can still be found on an archway at the entrance to the brewery on Boroughloch street, a short walk south of Windmill Street. The loch itself was drained long before the foundation  of this brewery in 1805.

 

Windmill Street street sign

Windmill Street street sign.

 

Gates of former Boroughloch Brewery.

Gates of former Boroughloch Brewery.

 

Boroughloch Brewery sign.

Boroughloch Brewery sign.

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Summerhall

 History of Brewing  No Responses »
Jan 292018
 
Exterior of Summerhall

Summerhall

Summerhall Place, Edinburgh EH9 1PL

The first beer was brewed at Summerhall in 1704. It was one of the earliest commercial breweries in Edinburgh and predates the draining of the South Loch, which occupied the site of the present Meadows park. The brewery was founded by Robert McClellan, the gardener who looked after the garden that was then on the site. A well and stone wall boundary wall are all that remain of the original brewery today. From 1916 to 2011 the building on this site was the Royal School of Veterinary Studies. Summerhall is now a vibrant cultural centre, but its connection with brewing continues through Barney’s micro-brewery, which can be found towards the rear of the site. This was established by Andrew Barnett in Falkirk in 2010 before moving to this site in 2012.

Boundary wall in the courtyard of Summerhall that is all that remains of the old brewery buidlings

Boundary wall in the courtyard of Summerhall that is all that remains of the old brewery buidlings.

Label for Barney's Good Ordinary Pale Ale, brewed at Summerhall.

Label for Barney’s Good Ordinary Pale Ale, brewed at Summerhall.

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Bell’s Brewery, the Pleasance

 History of Brewing  No Responses »
Jan 292018
 
Exterior of the University of Edinburgh's sports facility at Pleasance, which once housed Bell's Brewery

Bell’s Brewery

48 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJ

The building that now houses the University of Edinburgh’s sports facilities was once Bell’s Brewery. This brewery united with three others in the 1920s to create Edinburgh United Breweries, but this new conglomerate rapidly ran into financial difficulties. As a result, one of the directors and the head brewer decided that the only way for the brewery to survive was to avoid paying the full amount of duty on the beer they produced. From 1926 until the fraud was discovered in 1933 it was the practice at the brewery to keep two sets of books for the brewery’s business records. Only one of these books, representing only a part of the production of the brewery, was shown to the inspectors from Customs and Excise. A sacked employee finally told Customs and Excise what was going on, leading to the exposure of the scheme. The brewery could not afford to pay what they owed leading to the business going under. A book based on this case by John Pink was used for many years in the training of new officers.

Orange, black, and white label for 90 Shillling Pale Ale, brewed by Edinburgh United Breweries.

90 Shilling Pale Ale, brewed by Edinburgh United Breweries.

The Meadows: The ‘Yiddish Parliament’

 Jewish History  No Responses »
Dec 182017
 

North Meadow Walk, The Meadown, Edinburgh EH3 9GEThe Meadows

Prior to the opening of the Salisbury Road Synagogue in 1932, which brought together the Russisher/Griner and Englisher Shuls on the Southside, all who had moved south were required to re-track their route across the Meadows to reach the synagogues in the St Leonard’s area and in Graham Street. After Salisbury Road Synagogue was opened, the Meadows still had its uses as a place for the young to meet on a shabbat afternoon, and for the elders of the community to sit and kibitz. Indeed, the bench you are sitting on was the seat of the ‘Yiddish Parliament’, where immigrant gentlemen discussed religion, community politics, and generally gossiped on Saturday afternoons.

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Salisbury Road Synagogue / Community Centre

 Jewish History  No Responses »
Dec 182017
 

4 Salisbury Road, Edinburgh EH16 5ABSalisbury Road Synagogue

Here we are in Salisbury Road synagogue, a building designed to reflect the significance of the Scottish capital’s Jewish community. In 1932 the synagogue building was complemented by a community centre on the opposite side of the road. This was sold off in the 1980s and the proceeds invested in dividing the synagogue building to create a community centre underneath the sanctuary. What you see today upstairs is used from 1 July until the end of the High Holidays, for Shabbat mornings and festivals. The smaller sanctuary at the back of the shul is used in the winter months and for Shabbat evening services, the community now struggling to gather a regular minyan and to maintain the large building.

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5 Roxburgh Street, Drs Sam and Julius Lipetz’s GP Practice

 Jewish History  No Responses »
Dec 182017
 
 5 Roxburgh Street, Edinburgh EH8 9TARoxburgh Street

Sam and Julius Lipetz’s GP practice was here at 5 Roxburgh Street, next to the office of their patient, Nobel Laureate Peter Higgs at no.3. Their father, Lazarus Lipetz, had come to Edinburgh from Lithuania in 1888 aged 16. The area surrounding the practice included insanitary and overcrowded housing, poverty and unemployment in the streets to the south and east. Sam and Julius were deeply moved by the inhuman living conditions suffered by many of their patients, and were early advocates of the NHS. The brother’s partnership continued until Julie’s sudden death in 1972 aged 69. Neither was ‘religious’ and they attended synagogue occasionally. However, being ‘Jewish’ was very much part of their identities; there was hardly a communal activity, charitable or social, they didn’t participate in.

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North Richmond Street

 Jewish History  No Responses »
Dec 182017
 

North Richmond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9STNorth Richmond Place

The first synagogue in Scotland was established in a rented room in Richmond Court in 1817. The community numbered around 20 Jewish families, most of whom had come to Edinburgh from Amsterdam. In 1868, it moved to larger premises near today’s Edinburgh Students’ Union in Teviot Place. In 1898 Edinburgh’s Jews were divided between two outlooks: Graham Street (The Englisher Shul) for the established Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation (EHC), and Richmont Court (the Russisher / Griner Shul) frequented by recent immigrants. Under Rabbi Dr Salis Daiches, who came to Edinburgh in 1919, the communities united and built a synagogue in Salisbury Road. Today, there are three Jewish religious communities in Edinburgh: the orthodox EHC, the Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Congregation, and the Chasidic Lubavitch Community. However, most of the 900 Jews recorded in the most recent Census are unaffiliated.

Entrance to North Richmond Place

Entrance to North Richmond Place.

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Sciennes House Place: Braid Place Cemetery

 Jewish History  No Responses »
Dec 182017
 

Sciennes House Place , Edinburgh EH9 1NWBraid Place Cemetery

Braid Place cemetery was the first communal Jewish cemetery in Edinburgh. This cemetery was consecrated in 1820. Twenty-nine separate stones can be found in this cemetery. On the companion website you can find out more about one stone and the history it can reveal: Moses Ezekiel. Across the street is the house of the moral philosopher, Professor Adam Ferguson, one of that renowned group of literati of Edinburgh’s ‘Golden Age’, of the Scottish Enlightenment, where in 1786 the only meeting between Sir Walter Scott and Rabbie Burns took place. In that era, the house was so remote from the city centre that his house was called Kamchatka, the name of a village in north-eastern Siberia. Even 34 years later, when the Braid Place Jewish cemetery was consecrated, the area was considered remote.

Gravestone of Moses Ezekiel

Gravestone of Moses Ezekiel

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