Proper Edinburgh

I was invited to lunch in the New Club on Princes Street. The New Club is what is described by wikipedia as a 'traditional private social club' originally founded in 1787 and now housed in what I think are distinctive modernist quarters across from Princes Street Gardens that were built in 1969.

Aside from the modernist interior (which I would be hesitant about photographing, as the member I was with said his sisters had got into trouble for whipping out a camera in the lounge, when they were having difficulty taking the place properly seriously), the best bit about the New Club is the view across Princes Street. I was on the third floor balcony at the wrong time of day get a really good shot of the castle, but I did get a good view across the rooftop of the Royal Academy of the new ferris wheel, complete with closed in cubicles, being constructed for the winter festival.

The other story my friend who took me there told me was that he was with someone - a visiting American academic - recently at the New Club. The visitor had obediently put on a tie for the occasion, but had omitted to do up the top button of his shirt. My friend said that the steward asked him to ask his friend to do up his tie. Rather than marching out in high dudgeon as several people in my acquaintance would have done, I'm afraid my friend meekly complied and asked his friend to do up his top button...

However....their website tells me they were trialling a new dress code where gentlemen may dispense of jackets and ties - in August, at least. I'm not sure whether it has been continued. The ceiling might have collapsed under the strain of the informality. My friend also tells me that they have now abolished the arrangements whereby women could only have Associate Membership, and keeping women out of one dining room at lunchtime, and men out of the other. Wiki tells me that was in 2010. Hallelujah.