Geograph - photograph every grid square

A rare surviving specimen of an image once seen all over Edinburgh. Up until the 1960s, many streets contained the public houses of rival breweries, the commonest signs being the cavalier of McEwan's Brewery (est.1856) and 'Father William' of Younger's Brewery. William Younger, who hailed from West Linton, became an exciseman and in 1749 bought a share in a brewery near the Kirkgate, Leith. In 1778, one of his sons established his own brewery at Croft-an-righ within the precincts of Holyrood Abbey (about half a mile from the pub pictured), because ale brewed there evaded the Town Council's tax of twopence on every pint brewed within the city boundaries. By 1800 the business had become one of Edinburgh's most profitable and began making inroads into the London market. By 1860 Younger's ales from the new Abbey Brewery at the foot of the Canongate were being exported to North and South America, India and Australia. In 1931, the company merged with McEwan's to become Edinburgh's biggest employer, Scottish Brewers Ltd., since submerged into other big brewing combines following further amalgamations. Link

"Scottish streets are given an atmosphere of their own simply by the number of drunk people that one encounters in them." -- Edwin Muir, Scottish Journey, 1935