Morning tipples

Whatever the situation, there are always two sides to a story, a coin, and a city. There are most certainly a few well-hidden sides to Edinburgh life that are often forgotten and which go against the grain of the normal practice, and normal social hours. The hugely overlooked and—in our humble Bacchic opinion—sadly underrated 6am pub blurs the distinction between night revels and morning top-ups, festive drunkenness and serious boozing. Forming a sort of underground network reminiscent of the Prohibition era, drinkers enter a liminal space in which alcohol-related taboos are removed, or revelled in, and everyone present is in on one big secret. Penny Blacks has the ambience of a back room lounge, or small shabby sitting room, where nothing has been moved for the last decade. Under its old wooden beams, the room is awkwardly furnished with oak barrel tables and canteen-style plasticised tables, with a characterful head barman, the picture image of Springfield’s beloved bartender Moe, completing the bizarre tableux. There is a feeling of established routine as the pub opens its doors at six to a suprisingly sober queue that has gathered outside: it's quite clearly a daily stopping point for some of the clientele. The retro American jukebox starts up and a playlist of classic Aerosmith and AC/DC tunes contribute to an atmosphere that is both nostalgic and just plain incongruous. Having secured a barstool and ordered "the craziest damn cocktail you have," (when in Rome), our investigative team got to grips with out-in-the-open early morning drinking and, in doing so, discovered a sub-culture more respectable than anticipated.

According to barman Fraser, four types of people gravitate to Penny Blacks. Firstly those for whom the "after-party" cry still holds sway, long after student days have passed. In the wake of an evidently successful Ann Summer’s party, we encountered a particularly loquacious co-drinker and regular, seeing out the last hour of darkness with a celebratory WKD, whilst offering black market Viagra at the bargain price of £100 a pair and divulging her affections for the younger man. Similarly soaking up the dregs of an evening, a post-casino crowd unsuccessfully scouted for girls in a pub dominated by middle aged males. Then came the post-work drinkers, bouncers and bartenders enjoying a night cap after long shifts. The final two groups were made up of men appreciating a civilised pint with the morning paper and Guinness-swilling elderly gentlemen who, in Fraser’s morbid opinion, were simply "biding the time till death." What surprises, and perhaps disappoints the casual observer is that Penny Blacks does not live up to its legend. Often drunkenly suggested, but rarely visited, one expects to find a debauched den of vice, revelry and inebriation. In reality, the majority of punters were self-medicating with the early morning pint to either motivate for the day ahead or sedate for imminent sleep. Slurred professions of love, bar-top dancing and chants to the music were all unfortunately lacking.

Thankfully, Penny Blacks does ascribe to its image as underground, word-of-mouth, pseudo-illicit establishment. Helped by its proximity to the 1920s-esque Café Royal, there is something of the speakeasy about it. Researching this article started with a google-chase for early morning pubs that always culminated with just Blacks. In actual fact, once initiated into its drinking culture, we were furnished with a list of just under a dozen other pubs in Edinburgh catering for the same unusual timekeepers. Putting on a show of respectability, the bouncer at the door dutifully performs age and sobriety checks. However, this is somewhat undermined by a customer code that is careful enough not to alienate its potential crowds by distaining true drunkenness. As Fraser chucks the odd plastered punter out, he helpfully furnishes them with comprehensive details of where to find the next hovel.

From Cockburn Streets’s Scotsman’s Lounge to South Clark Street’s Quarter Gill, it seems that the 6am pub is simply the victim of bad publicity. In fact, Scotsman’s Lounge, with its good lighting and spacious ground-foor set up, is positively cheery. The recent transformation of Leith’s rather drab Old Salt into the gay bar Pricillas, which allegedly has a habit of welcoming punters at 5am on Fridays and Saturdays, shows that the morning boozer is adapting to survive in a more demanding, and perhaps more alcoholic, Edinburgh. Offering a counter leisure-culture for those in Edinburgh who function in a different time zone to most, the early morning pub seems relatively harmless. If anything, it could do with putting itself out there a bit more for a student population that resorts to necking whatever is at hand (cooking wine?...) in an attempt to prolong the party and delay the reality of academic commitments. However, asking a respectable-looking and coherent fellow drinker what the week held in store for him, we received a reply more suited to a hippy commune than inner city Edinburgh: "a roadtrip into oblivion." Whilst there are certainly some who drink to forget, the early morning pub is still a choice spot for drinking to remember just how carefree and rule-defying life as a student can be. Seriously, get involved.

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