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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Iona Young

Edinburgh's most 'uninviting pub' with only one window where customers brawled daily

Edinburgh has seen many fondly-recalled pubs vanish down the years, but it's fair to say that some of these lost boozers definitely weren't for the faint of heart.

One infamous bar was the Clock Inn on Dalry Road. Run by publican Davie Hutchinson, the near-windowless watering hole would be bouncing on match days with rowdy Hearts fans and casuals packing out the pub before games at nearby Tynecastle.

Renowned for its tense atmosphere, the flat-roofed boozer was a far cry from the more family-friendly establishments we see today. With just one small window at the front and an almost total lack of ventilation, the uninviting pub very quickly filled up with cigarette and pipe smoke back in the days before the smoking ban came into effect.

READ MORE - New drone images show abandoned street near Edinburgh with a sad past

Locals have been sharing their colourful memories of the pub, which was demolished in the 2000s, on social media. A Lidl supermarket was later built on the site of the former inn, which some have likened to resembling the cantina scene from Star Wars.

There also seems to be a debate over whether the presence of Lidl is an improvement!

Tom Reid remembered living nearby and said: "Ah, The Clock Inn. I lived opposite there - above another pub - for many years, but never ventured in, though I think my next-door neighbour practically lived there.

"It was known as 'the Clock Inn and stagger out' and looked like a nuclear bunker to me. Not sure Lidl is an improvement though.

Ian McSherry commented: "They rarely needed Sky TV in The Clock to see live boxing. Every other time I passed at the weekend, there seemed to be someone getting belted ootside. Lidl was an improvement."

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A retired fireman told Edinburgh Live: "Possibly one of the toughest pubs in Edinburgh. It had no windows and the low ceilings meant the cigarette and pipe smoke was about waist level. It's now a Lidl I think."

One resident said: "I remember it well. One of those pubs that lacked windows so you had no idea what time of the day it was a bit like a Las Vegas casino."

Others recalled how punters at the Dalry pub would be getting plastered right through the night and into the early morning - suggesting that lock-ins at the Clock Inn were a regular occurrence.

"I mind doing a pub crawl in the area trying to find a local for my mate," recalled one local. "A postie was sitting asleep on a barstool covered in p**s. Wasn’t the worst pub but certainly no' the best."

Another added: "What a pub. Singing from the night before [would be] just finishing when we walked in at 10 in the morning."

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