Oddfellows Edinburgh

Oddfellows interior shot

EDINBURGH

ODDFELLOWS

VENUES, MARCH 2007, COMMENTS

The licensed leisure sector in the Scottish capital is historically buoyant, finding enthusiastic customers from three main sectors: those who live in and around the country’s largest city; those who make up Edinburgh’s huge student population; and in the vast number of tourists that maintain a year round presence. In recent years, these factors coupled with Edinburgh’s prosperity (with average disposable income amongst the highest in the UK) have led to rising customer expectations – and a general demand for quality venues. And Scotland’s savvy independent operators have responded, with high end, highly popular venues defined by stylish interior design, cutting edge cocktails and exclusive guestlists cropping up with increasing frequency across the city.

So far, so fabulous. But what about the customers who don’t want to dress up to the nines for their night on the tiles? If you want a quiet pint or bite to eat in the middle of the day, or a fun social rather than a posing session at night, what are your options? Well, as of January, there was a new answer to that question. Oddfellows, the 22nd addition to the expanding portfolio of local company Festival Inns, is a quirky and welcoming addition to Edinburgh’s Old Town. Stylish it may be, but a style bar it is not.

The £4 million redevelopment project that resulted in Oddfellows’ opening on 26 January has seen a piece of Edinburgh’s architectural heritage plucked from boarded up obscurity and transformed into an attractive bar that, with its mix of old and new Scotland, its combination of architecture and technology and its out-there entertainment policy, is a thoroughly modern social space.

The venue takes its name from the old Oddfellows Hall in which it resides – an indicator of Festival Inns’s desire to respect the building’s heritage.

“It’s a traditional venue and I want to try and retain that,” said the company’s MD Kenneth Waugh, who owned the venue in the 80s before selling it on, and finally buying it back in 2006 from his cousin Billy Lowe of Saltaire Taverns, who had closed its doors for a refurb in 2005 (a refurb that ultimately lost out to Lowe’s £14m Le Monde on George Street which, under development at the same time, took priority)

But the venue’s history stretches way back before Waugh’s time. In fact, the Grade B listed Oddfellows Hall has been a Forrest Street fixture since 1873, when it was built by the local Order of Oddfellows to provide a gathering point for members.

The hall’s internal architecture has evolved through numerous incarnations since then. When it was built the building was divided into two galleried halls, retiring rooms for lecturers and committee meetings, function rooms and dormitories. Since then the emphasis has gone from sleeping to partying: the front gallery had been divided into two stores with only a small access corridor leading to the rear hall, which had been hidden by an unsympathetic fit-out and subsequent vandalism. But the intervention of local architects and designers Leeboyd has changed all that. They commissioned the removal of the shop units to return the building to its original configuration, allowing them to create a feature of the entrance, raising the building presence and transparency to the street through its impressive double height space. From the street things have charged markedly, garish green and yellow paint stripped back to reveal a striking, stately stone façade.

Leeboyd commissioned local artist Gregor Laird to design a double height artwork that would become a motif for the venue. His Garden of Eden piece - titled ‘Utopia’ – dominates the entrance bar and reflects the architects’ desire to mould classical and contemporary features with modern materials and a healthy dose of irony. His artwork informs the graphics through the rest of the venue, and other pieces are positioned throughout.

This mix of old and new was also achieved with main feature pieces like the gathering table in the main hall; placed in the centre of the main space, it is designed to encourage communal interaction. Its inspiration is drawn from the original friendly society ethos and banquets that would have taken place here long ago. This style of eating is perfectly suited to the student crowd that the venue is designed for. Festival Inns have installed well liked purveyors of classic British comfort food, Edinburgh-based Monster Mash, to dish out hearty dinners daily – typically to groups of students who relish the free-flowing social around this central table, as well as individuals and smaller groups enjoying a bit of respite in the peripheral booths.

Above the heads of diners in the main room is another of the venue’s striking features. The main hall was renovated to reveal the building’s fine detail and craftsmanship, which has been enhanced with detailed painting and a technologically advanced lighting scheme - devised and installed by Grum Anderson’s Dynamic Productions. A young and accomplished installer with a background in club promotion, his lighting schemes have been turning heads across Scotland and the North of England as more operators become aware of and commission him. Working closely with the architects and operators, in this case he created a design that uses individually addressed single source LEDs in fixtures custom designed and built in his Edinburgh HQ, set into polycarbonate baroque light fittings to uplight the points of the vaulted ceiling.

More fixtures positioned under the discretely positioned ventilation ducts around the balcony’s ceiling perimeter downlight the exposed brick wall. The lights slowly change colour to both draw attention to these striking architectural features and to create a sense of movement that’s appropriate to the style of the venue – no flashy disco lights here, instead the lights generate a subtle and gradual yet tangible sense of evolution as they to rotate from blue through red to pink, each revolution taking an hour.

This subtle sense of movement is explored further in quirky pseudo artworks on the walls: dark wood framed pictures that on closer inspection turn out to be 42inch plasma screens mounted portrait style on the walls around the balcony. Fixed, backlit Oddfellows-branded graphics remain constant, until every so often a silhouetted character will cartwheel or swing through the background – giving the impression that the artwork is alive. Sculptural plywood moose heads, playfully colourful fabrics and a wall full of reclaimed gilt framed mirrors add more fun whilst simultaneously referencing the past.

The quirky use of ‘Oddfellows’ characters is emphasised through the bar’s entertainment line-up: a programme of ‘odd’ or unique events targeting the local student and tourist markets which includes original live music in the Sunday Social; the ‘weirdest pub quiz in town‘ at the Oddfellows Quiz every Monday; weekly karaoke contest Oddfactor; and monthly Oddball on the last Thursday of every month – with prizes for the most weird and wonderful outfit. Afternoon sessions with free pool from 2pm - 6pm daily encourage students to use the venue as a hangout rather than a simply another addition to the evening drinking circuit. The audio is delivered through a KV2 sound system, again installed by Dynamic Productions, with inputs for DJ and live bands. A huge, retractable projection screen descends for sporting events – but would also be a great resource for film or VJ nights.

The combination of factors makes Oddfellows wacky without being cheesy; the rigorous planning and substantial investment paying off by creating a unique venue that’s atmosphere is relaxed, quirky and fun.

Words: Alex Eyre

Images: Jim Ellam

From: March 2007 Issue

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