Home brew saves Rose Street pub

Ex-Hibernian chairman Kenny Waugh, the new owner of Robertson’s, who also has the Great Grog pub and Hanover Hotel next door, has vowed to keep the premises as they are.

Robertson’s, which is also known as The 37 Bar, is one of the few remaining independently owned pubs on Rose Street.

The future of the bar was plunged into doubt when it went into liquidation in January this year.

Pub historians and real ale campaigners feared it would be snapped up by a major chain who would destroy its traditional character.

But Mr Waugh said: "We’re going to keep it very traditional. It’s a nice pub and lots of the locals have been coming here for as long as 30 years."

Douglas Kirk, area manager of the South East Scotland Licensed Traders Association, had said it would be "a real shame and big blow to Rose Street’s reputation" if Robertson’s had undergone a trendy revamp.

Mr Kirk today welcomed the news that the pub had been bought up by a private owner.

He said: "As an association, we’d always prefer to keep pubs in the hands of individuals, because they usually care more about them and take more interest in local issues.

"Nowadays, there are a lot more chains than there used to be and they’re pushing out smaller pubs, so we welcome someone local buying a pub."

Mr Waugh’s son, also called Kenny, is the major shareholder in Festival Inns, which runs several Edinburgh bars, including the popular Three Sisters, in the Cowgate, and the Beluga bar and restaurant on Chambers Street, as well as the Peppermint Lounge nightclub on Blair Street.

However, Mr Waugh snr said he and his wife Dorothy had bought Robertson’s and that the takeover was not connected at all to his son’s company.

He added: "Things are going to stay very much as they are. Robertson’s is particularly popular with whisky drinkers. There are over 100 different malts on the gantry and we’ll be keeping them there."

Mr Waugh added that there were plans to carry out some minor renovations after the summer, but insisted no major changes would be made.

"There are a few improvements we will be making after this year’s Festival, but nothing big. There were some rumours that we were going to knock through a wall to make a connection with the hotel next door, but that’s not going to happen."

Robertson’s, a popular haunt for rugby supporters over the years, is a relatively small, traditional pub measuring approximately 1500 sq ft. It went into liquidation after previous owner John Robertson failed to pay a VAT bill which dated back several years.

News of the liquidation led to neighbouring traders expressing concern that the cost of running a city centre pub could be prohibitive to private owners, but the agent for the sale today revealed that interest in the property had been high.

Alan Creevy said Robertson’s had attracted a huge amount of interest from both pub operating companies and private individuals.

"It’s very rare to get a freehold in Rose Street. This was quite an exceptional sale and we had 13 formal offers at our closing date in April.

"That is a record for me in my 14 years as a leisure property agent. All offers were above the asking price of offers over 300,000 and the top offers were considerably in excess of this figure."