I know, I only did “My apartment in Glasgow!” the other day and now I’m already showing you around my room in Edinburgh.
For the last three visits, I’ve stayed in Euro Hostels. It’s based in Kincaid’s Court, which is a student block just off Cowgate. Last summer it was having work done and the hostel moved to Darroch Court, on the corner of Pleasance and Cowgate but it was back at Kincaid’s this year.
As far as both of them go, they’re pretty basic student accommodation. You get a rock-hard bed and a wardrobe and then there are shared bathrooms and kitchen-common rooms. There are five or ten rooms to each flat and three or four or five floors. If you’re looking for your own private room right in the city centre, I don’t think you can do it cheaper than Euro Hostel.
This is Kincaid’s Court from the outside:
And this is the central courtyard, which is quiet in August but according to student reviews, not during term time:
I was in Block B, which is in that far corner. I had a key which unlocked the downstairs door and the main apartment door and then a second key, with a splash of red paint on it, which unlocked only my room door.
Here are the stairs – no lift that I could see.
And here’s our corridor. The rooms are on the right. The first door on the left is the door out to the stairs. The other two doors on the left are to the bathroom and toilet and the door at the far end is the kitchen/common room.
And here’s my room! It’s a reasonable size, probably bigger than any of the student rooms I lived in myself. I have a desk, a wardrobe, a small bookshelf and a bed that’s partway between single and double. Is that what you call queen size? I had singles myself at university. It’s rock hard, of course, but I like that. I find that far more comfortable than a soft marshmallowy bed.
There’s heating in the room and the window opens either down like a folder or sideways like a door. I see that that’s useful but I’m always scared I’m going to pull the handle wrong, the window is going to end up attached to only one hinge and it’s then going to fall on me. I’d like to think that isn’t physically possible.
Now. This is on Cowgate. I’m looking out at a pop-up bar called Slangevar which only exists in August – otherwise, that patch of land is the courtyard belonging to the hostel next door. Well, Google Maps makes it look very much like a dead-end alley used as overflow parking. And this is what it sounds like until gone 3am every single night for a month.
So yes, it was cheap and convenient but by the love of all the gods, it’s noisy! Three years ago I stayed in one of the other wings of the place (possibly also in Block B, actually) and my view was over the back yard of the BrewDog bar or possibly even the Three Sisters, both of which are attached to various sides of the court. At the time, it annoyed me that I was woken at the crack of dawn, or possibly earlier, by thousands of glass bottles being thrown into a bin but at least it didn’t play deafening music all night.
Ok, so that downside dealt with, let’s go back inside. Here’s the bathroom.
This has definitely been renovated, it looks a lot more sleek than it did in 2015. From the point of view of a tourist visiting the Fringe rather than a student living there full time, it would be nice if there was a towel or anything to dry your hands on. Oh! They don’t provide towels here. Well, they do if you ask. I thought you had to pay for them but that didn’t seem to be in evidence this year. But you’re not going to remember to take your towel with you for every little visit and it would be nice to have something in there.
And finally, here’s the kitchen and common room. I’m not convinced there was anyone else in my apartment last weekend; I certainly didn’t see anyone. The washing-up lying around the kitchen was there when I arrived and it was untouched when I left. There are two big fridges with freezer compartments, there are plates and cups and cutlery and whatnot. There’s washing-up stuff and there are two electric oven/hobs. This kitchen is more than twice the size of the kitchen I had in my five-room student house (my uni’s catered rooms weren’t in halls, they were in little houses on the edge of campus, and then the houses were arranged in horseshoe-shapes called courts. Same theory as here but totally different shape and atmosphere.)
If you’re looking to live cheap and convenient at the Fringe, this is perfect. You can cook for yourself, you’ve got at least half the Fringe venues within a five minute walk and 90% of the rest within ten minutes and you try beating £60 a night for a private room in Edinburgh in August. No, it’s not luxurious. No, it’s not pretty. But other than the noise, it’s utterly fine. And reception is open twenty-four hours a day, with drinks and snacks and essentials on sale and they offer booking services for tours outside the city.
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