South Edinburgh
Walk across the Meadows and watch Edinburgh’s southside at
play. The spacious parkland accommodates games of shinty and
hurling (both are team sports played with sticks and a ball),
cricket and Australian Rules football, often simultaneously.
Accents from Galway, Lochaber, Brisbane and London merge.
Fringe Sunday takes over the Meadows for a day in August, when you
can go to see Fringe Festival acts for free.
Marchmont borders the Meadows and is popular with students
attracted by its proximity to Edinburgh and Napier universities. To
the west lie the areas of Bruntsfield and Morningside, elegant
neighbourhoods of substantial, Victorian tenements and seductive,
independent shops.
See a show at the Church Hill Theatre, the main venue for the
city’s flourishing, amateur theatrical scene or watch a film at the
Dominion Cinema, an art Deco treasure cherished by the local
community. The residential areas of Polwarth and Merchiston are
popular with Edinburgh’s writers. Ian Rankin, J.K. Rowling and
Alexander McCall-Smith all live here.
The University of Edinburgh is an enduring
presence in the Newington and St Leonard’s areas of the City.
The surrounding shops and bars reflect the optimism and
eccentricity of student life.
