Barony Bar, Edinburgh

There is much to admire in the Barony Bar – the tiled dado including 11 small paintings of Scottish scenes; the little-altered Victorian bar counter and gantry; two massive mirrors above the tiling; and two Victorian tiled fireplaces with fine mirrored over-mantels. It is situated in the base of a four-storey terrace tenement built in circa 1818. It is notable for its impressive Classical style decorative scheme by respected local architect, John M Forrester in 1898-9. The work was commissioned by the trustees of the estate of a Mr Sinclair, a deceased wine and spirit merchant. The pub wraps around a florists shop on the corner and has an attractive ground floor frontage of teak, and above a balustraded, ball-finialled parapet. On the front right-hand side note the wrought iron lifting mechanism used for beer barrels in the past. Now a L-shaped interior, it did originally have a couple of snugs at the rear, and the right-hand front door led to a jug and bottle. The doors on the left and right now lead to a single space with a bare wood floor. In the front bay window there is old fixed seating with leather cushioning, bench ends and a large oval shaped table.

The dado of the L-shaped interior has tiling around most of the walls. It includes 11 tiled paintings showing Scottish rural scenes, nine of them featuring lochs. Many were covered by benches but recently more have been revealed by replacing some benches with chairs so now only a few are hidden. Around the paintings are turquoise tiles, then two narrow strips of light brown and golden yellow embossed tiles separated by an even narrower strip of turquoise tiles. Then larger light brown tiles and full sized cream coloured ones. Among the cream tiles are some brown embossed tiles with a leaf pattern; also some narrow vertical panels of turquoise tiles – some three tile width, some one, with a narrow strip of golden yellow embossed tiling, another narrow one of brown, and a wider light brown tiles around them. At the bottom are rows of cream, a narrower one of dark brown, and a narrow one of claret. At the top are six vertical strips of tiles in claret, light blue, golden yellow and orange colours including two of embossed tiling topped off at dado rail height by a dark brown ceramic moulding. Above the dado on the left hand wall are two massive ornate mirrors which lean away / angled from the top – both have the wording ‘Finest Old Scotch Whiskies Wines & Brandies McLaughlan Bros Proprietors’ – the left hand one has the Scottish crest of a red lion on a yellow background in the centre and the right hand one has the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom. Around the corner on the wall in the far L-shaped section about the tiled dado is a ‘William Younger & Co’s India Pale Ale Edinburgh’ mirror.

The ornately timber panelled bar counter of oak from 1899 remains. It curves on both left and right sides with pilasters and quasi-consoles all along it. The ceiling-height 1899 seven bay back gantry of oak has four protruding bays whose top sections are held up by two square pillars at the front and two pilasters at the rear. Bay four is taller with a modern ‘The Barony Bar’ bevelled mirror in the top part. Bays three and five are topped with ornamental balustrades and ball finials. Bays one and seven are pedimented and have mirrors, ornamental balustrades and ball finials. Bays two and six have oval mirrors backing, detail in the spandrels, and topped with split pediments and ball finials. Good lower shelves intact on the left-hand and right-hand ends and only the central half has then replaced by fridges. On rear wall are two Victorian carved wood surround, cast iron & tiled grates. They both have ornately carved over- mantels with pediment, bevelled mirrors and topped with a ball finial. The compartmented ceiling has a decorative plaster cornice painted gold with egg & dart and foliate mouldings. Regularly spaced along the ceiling are pairs of decorative consoles painted gold.