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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
World
Lee Dalgetty

The notorious Edinburgh boozer where a 20-person strong brawl left punters in fear

Once known as the Westfield Bar, we're looking at a Gorgie venue that had its license ripped away after a 20 strong brawl.

With a strong reputation for violence, the Westfield was no stranger to a police presence. Eventually, Edinburgh Council got wind of it and increased their coverage.

In October 2009, they parked a CCTV vehicle across the road and captured 20 punters involved a fight that saw people punched, kicked and glassed. Prior to this, local residents had filed many complaints after match-day pints turned sour - with some even reporting drunks breaking into stairways.

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The licensing board ruled that licensee was no longer a 'fit and proper' person to run the watering hole. The spot was shut down, and reopened as the Murrayfield Sports Bar.

For some time, it seemed the days of breakouts were behind them - though in March 2012 three were hurt after another brawl that saw people using pool cues as weapons. Around a dozen drinkers were involved in the bust up, which saw emergency services rushing to the premises once again.

Three were arrested, though a number of people fled the scene before cops arrived. At the time, the owner agreed that the pub had a 'notorious' reputation but claimed he had turned it around since taking ownership.

He said: "That has been the first incident in the bar, there's been nothing else.

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"We have got proper security on the door but things unfortunately can happen. Its reputation was notorious and it got shut down because of fighting most weekends, but we have had nothing for a year and a half.

"For a notorious bar to have one fight in that time, I’d say that’s pretty good going. The guy that started the fight was a regular, but he is now banned for life. It seems his girlfriend went up to him and said, ‘There’s people at the bar making fun of your sister’.

"I didn’t know the other man and woman involved. It definitely wasn’t about football and when the bouncer saw the boy pick up a pool cue it was removed immediately. Glasses were broken, but that’s it.”

Fast forward to 2016, and police were back at the bar after a 43-year-old man was punched in the face. At around 5pm on an August Sunday, a 'shaved, muscular' man in his 30s took a dislike to another man and sent him to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with 'serious injuries'.

Since then, things have been pretty quiet at Murrayfield Sports Bar.

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