A great time to visit Tollcross
Independent traders get together to ad festive sparkle to the area
Think of some of the best venues in Edinburgh – The King’s Theatre, The Usher Hall, the Filmhouse, the Cameo – and they can all be found in Tollcross.
But the area isn’t just about venues. There are also independent shops, cafés and restaurants, a student population and the grassy expanse that is the Meadows. And now the Tollcross Traders’ Association is helping local shops work together to keep the area vibrant and attractive.
Dougie Bell owns Lupe Pinto’s Chile and Spice Shop. What he likes about Tollcross is the “mixture of people you get here. There’s a big cross-section of society in Tollcross which really suits me and reminds me how varied we all are!”
Local trader John Saunderson is one of the founders of the newly relaunched traders’ association. “It was originally started up in 1967 but it had been lying dormant for around 12 years,” said John. “When the Council set up a viability improvement study, myself and other Tollcross traders went along to a meeting and decided to get the traders association started up again.”
John Saunderson Butchers has been a family business for more than 50 years. “I’m the third generation to run the butchers and my 16-year-old son now works in the shop on a Saturday,” said John. It’s businesses like his that add a real community vibe to the area.
“The advantage of the Traders’ Association is that everyone who owns a wee shop has the same common problems, so you can put your heads together and come up with solutions,” said Dougie. “We also worked together to spruce the area up. Everyone puts up a Christmas tree now, which looks great when you walk by at night.”
At this time of year, as you would expect, John has a huge number of orders for turkeys, along with more unusual requests. “What people are looking for over Christmas is often influenced by what the celebrity chefs have been using,” said John. “Venison and duck have been really popular and, as soon as Nigella mentioned goose fat, we were inundated with requests for it.”
In Lupe Pinto’s, Christmas hampers are the biggest sellers. “You can select what you want and we wrap it free of charge, so you could have a beer hamper, a chilli hamper…”
The shop also sells Turron, a nougat-style confection. “In Spain you wouldn’t go to someone’s house over Christmas without it,” said Dougie.
With the first part of a £225,000 improvement programme for Tollcross completed as part of the Council’s Urban Centre Programme and the second part to begin after Christmas, there has never been a better time to visit.