Fountain Brewery, Edinburgh.

[Hulk]

Scottish & Newcastle Fountain Brewery, Edinburgh.

The original Fountain Brewery was built in 1856. Most of the original brewery has been replaced over time, with only a few external walls remaining. The current brewery resembled a modern chemical factory. A lot of equipment has been removed and sold on so there were many massive empty rooms. However there was still much to see, especially in the brew house and boiler house. Also the maze of tunnels and pipes is quite amazing, stretching under a public road to another part of the brewery!

In one of the offices we found a display of photographs and text proudly showing a newly constructed part of the brewery completed in 2002. The brewery closed in 2004 with the loss of 390 jobs!!!

As this is one of the last major industrial sites in Edinburgh we simply had to explore. Demolition will be in the near future and I’d like to share some of the photos before it is gone forever.

Sorry for getting in a couple of photos, we couldn't help ourselves! I have blurred out or faces to save you from further shock!


The exterior of the brew house

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Me by a malt case, just below the glass bit at the very top of the building

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My UE partner JX in one of the many maze like tunnels

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The underside of a massive brewing copper

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An electrical / liquid junction box

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Pumps in the boiler house, which were still pumping when we were in

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A massive boiler

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Chemical tanks

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Pumping equipment

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Control pannel

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We view doors like that as "invitations"

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A space where a tank would once have been in a brewing room

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A safety hat / mask still locked away

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A winch just hanging around

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I hope this is ok for a first post. We really did get a buzz from this one and I hope you have enjoyed looking.

-=HULK=-

 

[Bad wolf]

Nice one!,Looks great! Would love to have a look shame im down here in swansea .Ennit boyo!!.

 

[King Al]

Super pics hulk, love the "underside of a massive brewing copper" pic, and the hard hat

 

[Lightbuoy]

Excellent pics Hulk -thanks for sharing!

Lb

 

[smileysal]

Cheers, hulk, Theres a lot more inside the main part than at the old Mansfield Brewery. Love that control panel. You been round the rest of the brewery? Very nice, thanks for that.

Sal

 

[Foxylady]

Good report and pics, Hulk.
Btw, what is the waterway by the building in the first photo...canal, river? I see there are steps down into it. Was it anything to do with transportation do you know?

Cheers

 

[Ratters]

look's a great place

i like the 'invitation' comment

 

[wolfism]

Looks really interesting - quite a few of the surrounding buildings have been flattened, though?

 

[Hulk]

Thanks for the feedback!

I thought I better reply since some of you took the time to ask questions!

Looks really interesting - quite a few of the surrounding buildings have been flattened, though?

The kegging buildings are totally gone. It was the most modern part of the brewery. I watched as they demolished it and I was happy enough about missing it because it was just empty shells. To the foreground of the outside photo a few buildings have gone too. There was the company shop, a social club and a large car park. Missed out on them. However the main brew house and boiler house are still there (as the photos show!). Also across a road is the main part (no photos yet!). There is offices and more empty shells. Towards the far end there are loads more buildings but there's security kicking about so we left that end for another time. Also further on, across another road, there is a bottling plant which is not in use, but the yard is still used for distribution so that will have to wait too!

Btw, what is the waterway by the building in the first photo...canal, river? I see there are steps down into it. Was it anything to do with transportation do you know?

It is the Union Canal which links Edinburgh to the east coast at Grangemouth and the west coast on the River Clyde. Not sure if it was ever used for transportation but I remember years ago cycling along the footpath and there was a permanent green residue on the top of the canal. I assume they used the water for some sort of brewing purpose!

You been round the rest of the brewery?

Like I said there is still lots of bits to explore so I’m not ruling out a return, watch this space!!


There are some other photos I quite liked so here goes!


Inside of a huge tank

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A control thing covered in the stuff we love to hate (or just simply hate!)

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A view showing how big the boiler house is

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A testing thingy

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More stuff

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Right that's it for now. I will give you all peace!

-=Hulk=-

 

[Foxylady]

The kegging buildings are totally gone.

When I first read that I thought it was a euphemism for a swear word. Kegging right too!

Thanks for the extra info and photos Hulk. Nice to know about the canal. I'll have to look on the map for that...be interesting to see what the topography looks like.

Cheers

 

[wolfism]

Thanks for the info, Hulk - I'm intrigued by the service tunnels you mentioned - presumably they run under the road to join Fountain Brewery with what was Fountainbridge Brewery over the road? Anyhow ... it's all there - high stuff, big spaces still kitted out, tunnels: best site report I've seen for a while!

 

[Hulk]

When I first read that I thought it was a euphemism for a swear word.

LOL as they say!!!

I've been asked a couple of times about the site, so I nipped up in my chopper and took the following aerial photograph! It was even all marked out in colour and everything......

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We missed the orange bit. It had the social club, company shop and a large yard / car park. It is all gone and is basically the rubble mound that can be seen in the first photograph of the post.

The red bit is the brew house and boiler house where most of the photos are taken. There was a smart boardroom and control room but we bottled taking photos because of the big road facing windows! On ground level the two buildings are not joined but underground is a different story. The boiler house also goes about 3 levels underground.

The green bit is what I'd call the main brewery, including the brewery offices, other offices for the "pub enterprise" division, "ale yeast room" (which sticks in my head), and lots of other buildings. Most of which were empty shells with no roofs (obviously how they were able to remove equipment). Running between the red and green areas is a public road and there are two tunnels below it!

The blue bit is the canning and bottling plant. It is closed but the yard is used for distribution. The blue and the green areas are separated by another public road. I assume it will be linked with tunnels.

The brown area is the kegging plant. The large yard that can been seen used to be full of kegs back in the day! The brown area is separated from the rest of the brewery by a main road. There used to be a famous bridge linking the two sides.

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I therefore assume no tunnels. The area is demolished anyway and is now a construction site. Like I said I’m not too gutted about missing it because I watched as it was demolished and it was big modern warehouse shells.

Anyway maybe this is too much information, especially for a newbie!!

Sorry!

-=Hulk=-

 

[krela]

Nonono, we like information, information is good

Photos of buildings are just photos of buildings, to me they're pretty meaningless without the context of the detail

 

[Hulk]

Nonono, we like information, information is good

As you are the boss I will hold you to that quote when I get into trouble in the future for extra long posts!!

As I said Ive been doing this for years, but its great to be able to share with others and see what others have been up to! Makes it seem more worthwhile!

-=Hulk=-