The Booking Office (JD Wetherspoon), Edinburgh

One of several Wetherspoon pubs in town, this one is adjacent to the main railway station, and was, as it’s name suggests, the station booking office in a former life. It’s not quite as large as many of the company’s outlets, and was pretty much full to capacity on our recent Tuesday evening visit. Internally it’s arranged in a T shape, with the bar counter at the back. The central part of the “T” has grey parquet style wood flooring, with patterned carpet off to the sides. Décor wise there is really little of any note, with most of the paintwork being a fawn shade, along with dark wood panelling in places giving a slightly elegant feel perhaps, as well as some small sections of exposed brickwork. Some mirrored shelving off to the right contained a random assortment of objects such as old mining lamps, an old telephone handset and a few old photographs. To the left was an open kitchen whilst there was a snug type room off to one side at the rear with lots of large black and white industrial photographs on the wall, and there was a conservatory extension at the other side. The menu offered the usual extensive cheap and cheerful selection and I opted for the Teriyaki noodles with the added option of chicken. This arrived alarmingly quickly, and was just about ok I suppose, but that’s all I can really say about it. They hadn’t even taken the trouble to stir the chicken through, it was all just piled up on one side. Beers on tap were Jack Back, Edinburgh Festival and 80/- from Stewarts, along with Orkney Dark Island, Abbot Ale and Doom Bar. Deuchar’s IPA looked as though it may have been off as the pump clip was turned to the side, whilst two further pumps were definitely off. Ciders meanwhile were Thatcher’s Gold, Strongbow, Strongbow Dark Fruit and Magners.

This former North British Railway Company office and latterly Jimmy Cheung's Chinese Buffet and now opened as a Cask Marque Accredited Wetherspoons in June 2016. Just inside the entrance the floor features a large mosaic of the North British Railway Company. This Wetherspoons features This pub serves 3 regular beers from Caledonian Deuchars IPA, Greene King Abbot & Stewart Edinburgh Gold. I visited during the Edinburgh Fringe festival; the place was so busy I was unable to search out further ales. There is outside seating at both sides of the building. In defence of Wetherspoons, the 2019 CAMRA Good Beer Guide, the UK’s best-selling beer and pub guide and ultimate list of pubs serving tip-top real ale, includes no fewer than 243 Wetherspoon pubs, consistently more than any other pub company. Of those, 83 pubs have been listed in the guide for the last five consecutive years.

Guest ales here are £3.10 a pint, which is not particularly cheap by 'spoons standards. But I suppose it's all location, location being on top (literally) of Edinburgh Waverley railway station. The interior is fairly light as there is a glass roof roughly above the bar counter, and there's also a small outside drinking area at the front, which was highly popular on a warm and sunny day. It was very busy in the general area on the Friday afternoon I visited, perhaps exacerbated by the fact that the Edinburgh Festival was due to kick off the following day. It's another day, another 'spoons. This one was at least as good as most I've been in.

Originally the booking office for the train station which then became the parcels office then a bar and then a chinese restaurant. Wetherspoons spent around £1.9 million transforming the site. Quite a plain interior with a replica North British Railway Company mosaic at the entrance. Handy for the train station it has live train departure screens and is across the road from the airport bus terminus.