CHALLENGE DAVE: FOOT OF THE WALK

The good news is he's still alive. The bad news is we've sent him to another one of Edinburgh's less salubrious drinking dens to give us a report. This week, our Dave braves the Foot of The Walk at, er the Foot of The Walk in Leith.

by David Hynes

SquareOne Booze

The Foot of the Walk is full of talk. Not because it is a chatty yet viable place to start the Leith pub crawl (which gets seriously tough the higher you ascend), but because it has no music licence. So, rather than some soothing background music all you get is the sound of chatter emanating across what must be the most spacious yet most soul-destroying pub in Leith. Actually, make that Scotland.

Pubs can be many different things to many different pub-goers; a haven to hide from the missus, a place to relax and of course a venue to get sloshed and pull. Unsure of what niche it wants to occupy in a city saturated with drinking holes, the Foot of the Walk seems to have gone for a simple approach of crap drinks, crap atmosphere and even worse food.

"It’s cheap though", a wee lassie informed me (she seemed to have benefited from the Foot’s lenient age restrictions policy). True, I couldn’t deny the cheapness of the drinks, but as I considered a reply, my new friend summed things up better than I ever could: "but it’s f__king shite!"

And she was right. What really struck me about the Foot’s potential as one of the worst pubs in Edinburgh was its design, or lack thereof. Table after table dominate the pub which gives it neither a focal point nor any place of seclusion to actually enjoy your drink. It’s like a weird wooden chess set with a bar along one side.

After all, the Foot is a Wetherspoon's establishment. We all know Wetherspoons are homogenous chains of chatter-filled retailing experiments in utter excretion. But even judged amongst its peers the Foot is at the very bottom of this chain’s anatomy.

SquareOne's top five bar snacks

1. Scampi Fries
2. Nobby's Chilli Nuts
3. Walker's Worcester Sauce Crisps
4. Pork Scratchings
5. KP Salt 'n' Vinegar Peanuts