Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh
Discover the well-being benefits of a world-class botanical garden beloved by locals and visitors alike
Go here if: you’re looking for a place of tranquility, an escape from the busyness of city life, and a way to be more mindful of nature
What is it: A renowned botanical garden, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is one of the world’s leading centers for plant research, conservation, and education. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden for medicinal plants, this world-class botanical institution now reaches across 70 acres and includes over 13,500 species in its living collection.
Why you’ll love it: While you wander through the Chinese Hillside, Rock Garden, or Alpine Houses, you’ll also be accessing the positive well-being benefits of such a stunning natural setting from reducing stress levels and improving mood and mental clarity, to increasing your sense of awe. To make the most of this soothing and meditative location, pay close attention to the different textures, smells, and sounds of the ever-evolving natural spaces around you.
And while here, access the other well-being Pathways: as you walk the grounds you’re body will be releasing endorphins, those feel-good hormones (mind-body connection); you can visit alone, or you could invite a friend, for the added benefits of social interaction; and follow your curiosity as you learn about the plant-life nurtured here.
We like how a place like the RBGE that could feel like just a tourist destination has woven itself into the lives of locals, who seek out moments of respite here. It’s very much become a part of the fabric of city life rather than only a momentary break from it.
How to bring this into your life: Beyond visiting the gardens, the RBGE offers a range of events like flower shows, art exhibitions in the stunning Inverleith House, and monthly behind the scenes.
It also hosts restorative programs designed to connect with well-being including Food Socials, dementia-friendly Garden socials, and skills share workshops.
For some seasonal joy, check out the winter illuminations and spring flower displays.
And if you can’t get there read The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan, the Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year set in the gardens.
In their own words: “When visiting Scotland, a trip to the world-famous Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is unmissable. Experience an extravaganza of plants from around the world, learn about the Garden's rich and diverse Living Collection and discover a history dating back to the 17th century.”
Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh
Edinburgh
EH3 5NZ
And did we mention the garden entry is free
Tribe Porty
Tribe Porty makes good things happen for its community and beyond. Find out how this Edinburgh coworking space thinks differently about how we gather together to work.
Located in a neighborhood known for its community, Portobello’s Tribe Porty is all about how we come together and what we can achieve when we do. An old warehouse has been converted into a hub for coworking, events and collaboration. We talk to community manager Alice Hudson about what sets Tribe Party apart from other coworking spaces.
What is Tribe Porty? We are a community coworking and creative events space based in Edinburgh's well-loved seaside town, Portobello.
Why did you open your space? Tribe Porty started because we know the power of connection and social capital. When we asked our community what they wanted, they told us a place to work, be creative, be active and connected. Tribe Porty provides more than just a desk for people to work at. We strive to make good things happen by connecting our network of members and helping people to reimagine their working life. Tribe Porty is more important now than ever; due to the circumstances of the pandemic many professionals work remotely and are seeking social human contact. That's what we're about, growing a community that enables us all to thrive.
What do you offer? Our coworking space is specifically designed to encourage creativity – the random collision of people and ideas that spur innovation, exchange and connectivity. Tribe Porty suits the evolving working styles of freelancers, start-ups and people who require a flexible workspace and opportunities to share, collaborate and develop our work.
We offer a whole range of social events for our lovely members such as coffee mornings, social lunches and Tribe Talks. Our Tribe Talks are a monthly series of events where we invite a Tribe member, or friend of the tribe, to host a talk all about a project they're working on, an interest or a hobby. These evenings have ranged from astrophysics to brand identity. Tribe Talks are a fantastic way for our members to not only network but even learn something new. They are always free and open to the general public as well as members.
In addition to our coworking members, Tribe Porty is home to an assortment of businesses such as The Pilates Studio Edinburgh, Portobello Natural Health, Glocast, Sodak and more. Velow Bikeworks rebuilds custom bikes to reduce bikes in landfills. Fellow social enterprises include The Edinburgh Tool Library, which promotes the circular economy by lending tools and providing workshops for woodworking skills, and Oi Musica, which works with young people through brass instruments. We often use our social media platforms to promote and share their projects. It’s important to us to support each other and coexist together.
What makes Tribe Porty different? The biggest thing that separates us from other coworking spaces is our true focus on community. We are committed to generosity and kindness and actions rooted in those qualities are contagious. We promote a culture of building community and believe that a nurturing environment that sparks creativity and collaboration is good for business, individuals and communities.
We want people to feel at home, or even better, feel Tribe is a more creative home away from home. We want our members to leave their egos at the door and form genuine and important connections. We also look out into the wider community and are always looking for ways to connect and support.
When people come into Tribe for a tour, a day pass or an event the general feedback is that they were pleasantly surprised and slightly taken back by how chatty and genuine people are. It's a beautiful thing to hear and always brings people back.
What do our readers need to know? We are open Monday-Friday, 8.30-17.30. You can book free tours on our website as well as day passes and monthly packages. You can keep up to date with what’s going on inside Tribe Porty by signing up for our newsletter and by following us on social media @tribeporty.
Tell us a little about your story: Founder, Dani Trudeau, believes that we want our work to contribute to our lives, not take away joy or valuable time from what we really want to do. Having started her first enterprise at the age of 14 and her first company at 25, Dani is infinitely curious about what makes a good business — and businesses for good. Dani’s working experience is in education, health and social care and she has worked throughout the UK and America in the field of behavioural science.
Dani founded Tribe Porty in 2015 and more recently in 2018, founded Tribe Women, now Keystone Women, a community for enterprising women who want to reimagine their working lives. More recent times have been challenging but the pandemic has really exemplified how strong our community really is. Members have supported Tribe and have also checked in on one another – a commitment that has genuinely demonstrated unconditional kindness by supporting the constant growth and improvement of ourselves, each other, and our wider environment. This level of showing up for one another is what it is all about and also drives the team and I to work hard for Tribe.
How can people be inspired by your space wherever they are? Our social media platforms open a window to our world and also offer an insight into Portobello living. You can follow our newsletter to keep up with our blog posts. Our Keystone Women programme is open to enterprising women from around the world.
Where inspires you? We’re always inspired by our Tribe members and the wider community. We love not only finding out what other members are up to but celebrating and supporting their accomplishments. We have had members start all kinds of communities — from men's groups to writing, sewing, art, walking, cycling groups and more. They are a continued lifeline for many. Outside of Tribe, the great outdoors; we’re spoiled for choice here in Scotland.
Anything we're missing? No matter where you are, it is important to feel connected and pursue something that feels meaningful to you. Take time to cultivate your connections and be thoughtful about who you spend time to invest in your future wellbeing. Read our full blog about Finding Purpose which Promotes Wellbeing.
Typewronger Bookshop & Typewriter Repair Shop
An indie bookstore, that offers typewriters repairs, origami animals and soup on Christmas Day. Founder Tom Hodges tells us whyTypewronger is far more than just a place to buy books.
“You can’t be lonely with a book - books transport you to other worlds, other places, they make you other people. Whilst immersed in a book you can only feel what’s in the pages.”
We knew we’d discovered somewhere special on a recent trip to Edinburgh when we stumbled into Typewronger on Christmas Eve and received the warmest welcome, an origami elephant, and a recommendation to read Insomniac City (subsequently stamped with their distinctive red logo and now one of our most cherished reads). Here founder Tom Hodges tells us about what makes Typewronger so distinct:
What is it? Typewronger Books is Edinburgh's smallest indie bookshop and Scotland's only typewriter repair shop! It's home to a community of readers, writers, artists & musicians and strongly advocates the written word in our daily lives.
Why do people need it? Typewronger is far more than just a place to buy books. Regulars stop in for a chat, people have built creative connections, made friends, been inspired, switched careers, written zines & started publishing companies all as a result of hanging out in this shop.
Advice & Assistance Obtainable Immediately, and there's even a Public Typewriter for those who want to just sit down and write - and don't worry about mistakes, this is TypeWRONGer where we embrace our flaws.
What do you offer? Book signings, author events, open mic nights, a YouTube channel, we flex on the 'gram & have a 1984 electric typewriter wired directly into our Twitter (yes, it types out your Tweets!)
We send books all over the world in our characteristic wrapping with hand-typed notes of your dictation, so we're perfect if you want to send a book as a gift - just drop us an email and we'll wrangle it.
We also organise the Edinburgh Zine Fair and advise new publishers on the nitty-gritty of the trade.
What makes it different? The energy is anarchic, the books hand-picked, and we're always ready and willing to engage with you on any topic. We stamp all the books with our shop stamp and give a little origami animal with each purchase. Even though we're a tiny wee store we stay open until 9 pm, we even open on Christmas Day with soup for those with nowhere else to be, and New Years Day handing out recovery Bloody Marys.
What do people need to know? Due to Covid we have a traffic light system to limit numbers and have paused our events program. We are hoping to change both of these in the coming months as cases dwindle.
Tell us a little about your story: Typewronger started when I moved back to Edinburgh in 2017 and began selling books in the street from The Leith Walk Police Box. Every Sunday a band of friends would humph all the bookshop stuff down from my flat - books, bookcases, a carpet, an armchair - the lot! In 2018 Typewronger moved into the old gallery space beside McNaughtan's, Scotland's oldest Antiquarian bookshop. In 2019 Elsa joined the team, and the shop opened 7 days a week, and in 2021 we were joined by Viv who works the day shift on a Saturday. Since opening, we've had thousands of conversations with people from all over the world.
How can people be inspired by your space wherever they are? We send books worldwide, so you can always get a bit of Typewronger sent to your doorstep. Also, we believe in physical correspondence - if you write us a letter and include your return address we will always write back to you on one of the shop's trusty typewriters.
Where inspires you? There's a wine bar upstairs.
You can't be lonely with a book - books transport you to other worlds, other places, they make you other people. Whilst immersed in a book you can only feel what's in the pages. And the feelings can be hard, but they're cathartic, and the feelings can be good, and there's all sorts of books perfect to all sorts of moods.
Anything we're missing? It's a matter of public record that the store's founder is Tom Hanks' "hero."
Discover more places for life in our Guidebook
Social Bite
A cafe with a cause in Edinburgh that became a movement to end homelessness.
What is it: A sandwich shop in Edinburgh that became a movement to end homelessness in Scotland (and has also captured the attention of Meghan Markle, George Clooney, and Helen Mirren)
What you need to know: The first café was opened in 2012 on Edinburgh’s Rose Street – amongst the Subways and Prets — by co-founders Josh Littlejohn MBE and Alice Thompson (who recently left to join motivational speaker agency Speaker Buzz). From the outset, Social Bite donated its profits to homeless causes and a pay-it-forward jar sat on the counter so that customers could donate a meal to people experiencing homelessness. Now Social Bite has grown into an award-winning social enterprise with five of its mission-driven cafes across three cities (now including Glasgow and Aberdeen), and one central kitchen.
But there’s also now this – a housing development Social Bite Village, the now international Sleep Out campaign, and an annual fundraising campaign to provide Christmas meals to the homeless (the cafés in Glasgow and Edinburgh this year opened to homeless people in Edinburgh and Glasgow and served 155,000 meals).
How to bring this into your life: One small ask: Buy a box of brownies. Each ethically sourced and handmade brownie box helps to fund jobs, housing, and support for people experiencing homelessness. Need more ideas? Social Bite has a ton of them for wherever you are, like using Amazon Smile, Sustainably, and Give as You Live.
Why we think it matters: At a moment when homelessness and food insecurity are becoming dire consequences of the Coronavirus epidemic, Social Bite's mission of tackling homelessness with compassion, support, and love is needed more than ever. One-third of the cafes’ workforce are people who have struggled with homelessness. Their high-end restaurant Vesta Bar + Kitchen sets aside Monday afternoons to feed people experiencing homelessness for free and with humanity – with a two-course menu of dishes typically offered to paying patrons during the week. And the business did a very quick pivot when the COVID crisis hit. They shifted their operations to feeding the hungry — still including the homeless, but also now those experiencing food poverty and vulnerable children and adults — with a weekly target of providing 5000 emergency food packs to partners in communities in Scotland, and 160 free meals distributed each day in the cafes in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In their own words: “We believe that now more than ever, there is a need to put aside our differences and come together to ensure that everyone has a safe space to call home.”
Inspired to: Volunteer to help the homeless and feed the hungry in your community. Pack food parcels at your local food bank (and donate items), support campaigns for free school lunches, and share food going to waste on the Olio app.
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Try also: London’s Luminary Bakery and Brigade Bar + Kitchen
Golden Hare Books
Edinburgh’s Golden Hare Books keeps the city’s literary tradition alive with its thoughtful curation.
What is it: An award-winning (Bookshop of the Year 2019 UK & Ireland) indie bookstore to warm your heart (and hands by its wood-burning stove) in Edinburgh’s village within the city, Stockbridge.
What you need to know: Founded in 2012 by Sir Mark Jones – previously the Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Museums of Scotland – this is a bookstore as curated space in both how it looks and what gets to be included. Covers face out and draw attention to great design, creating an immediate visual hook for potential readers and making objects of the books themselves.
The range of its small careful selection of books changes constantly –‘the idea is that you never visit the same bookshop twice.’ Golden Hare is known for bringing in a wide range of choices, including works in translation, books by women, and diverse children’s authors
How to bring this into your life: It’s all about the reading subscription, Postbooks, which sends a beautifully packaged fiction or non-fiction book(s) each month specially chosen for you, often around a theme, like Green Transformation, and with its own reading guide. The key difference though is that Golden Hare supports indie presses and small publishers in its choices such as Charco Press, Tilted Axis, or & Other Stories, widening your reading from the usual suspects and making sure more writers get attention from readers.
Golden Hare is also a bookstore where you can become a Member, and during usual times there is an active book club and Sunday Stories reading club for kids. Golden Hare has pivoted to the ways we now shop: click and collect, and Saturday bike deliveries.
Why it caught our attention: This is a bookstore that works hard. It does a lot. Not just in its active support of indie publishers but its reach within the local community and that of the city of Edinburgh. In 2019, Golden Hare hosted its first book festival with local partners and it co-hosts the Edinburgh Book Fringe with Lighthouse Books. Books are embedded in the cultural life of Edinburgh – a UNESCO City of Literature. It was famously here that J.K. Rowling wrote some of her Harry Potter series and Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes. Golden Hare keeps the tradition alive of supporting local voices and creating a place for the writing community.
In their own words: “We are a knowledgeable team of self-confessed reading addicts who have been selling beautiful and important books since 2012.
Our charming independent bookshop is situated in Edinburgh's Stockbridge, where you can find an ever-changing collection of fiction and non-fiction for readers of all ages. We hold close to 2000 titles covering all genres of writing from cookery to travel, from flower arranging to science fiction - and many more topics in between.”
Lost at home: It's winter where we are. Maybe there too. Cozy down with a book. Choose one of Golden Hare’s winter picks: Once Upon a River by Diana Settenfield, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, and The Changeling by Victor LaValle. While purchasing, make a resolution not to buy from internet giants (take this resolve into the rest of 2021).
While here: Seek out Golden Hare collaborators café Lovecrumbs and Smith & Gertrude, as well as If Lost favorites the Royal Botanic Gardens and Lifestory.
Shop Small Special | Lifestory
Meander slowly online or off this Holiday Season with Scandi inspired concept store Lifestory.
What is it: A slow Scandi-oriented lifestyle store in Edinburgh.
What you need to know: Lifestory was founded in 2014 by Susan Doherty (who also started the city’s Hula Juice Bars) as Edinburgh’s first concept store — bringing together coffee and design — after being inspired by similar stores on her travels in places like Melbourne and Copenhagen. An airy, warm space, Lifestory offers a thoughtful edit of the Scandinavian-based (like House Doctor, ferm LIVING and Hay) and the Scandinavian-inspired (like Woolf & Moon and Kinshipped) with some Japanese simplicity added in there. During "normal times”, there’s coffee and cake for browsing the latest issue of Cereal.
Why we’ve included it here: Each independent store makes a circle of support: within the local community in which it’s located (with Lifestory located amongst the indies of Broughton Street) and the wider community of makers that it gives a platform to (in this case candle makers, jewelry designers, potters, graphic designers, furniture crafters). We often overlook the human in how we shop, the people behind stores, behind products and, behind our neighborhoods, so its good to be reminded of this by Susan: “Ultimately, the unique quality of Lifestory, as with all shops of this kind, lies with the owner’s relationship with the products, with the space itself and with their customers". A living wage employer, Lifestory also supports the people who work there.
In their own words: “Independently-owned and constantly evolving, Lifestory is a destination for lovers of Scandinavian design and lifestyle, considered products that share the traits of beauty and function.”
Our Christmas gift edit: We’re coveting many of the wall-based pieces such as Soo Burnell’s prints and the We Haven’t Located Us Yet print.
Something to do: Browse your neighborhood, even if virtually. Many independents have had to scramble to put their wares online in the last few months, extending their business ethos of bricks and mortar into digital platforms. That’s a huge transition and a very different way of working for many people who started shopfronts for the community aspect. This season if you’re not allowed, or able, to go out, take a virtual shopping journey through a local town, and shop like you would if you were able to meander with carols in the background and snow falling (yes, we’re romanticizing as we huddle inside). For inspiration, read this piece about how our neighborhood stores are coming together online.
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Twitter
Topping and Company
A beloved independent bookstore to escape to, even from your sitting room when necessary.
What is it: One of those independent bookstores to wander, with floor to ceiling books (complete with signature bookshelf ladders), heaving tables of the latest reads, and approachable staff.
Why you’ll love it: More than books (but there are so, so many), Topping supports writers (and their readers), with supper talks, one-day literary festivals, book signings, and reading groups.
What you need to know: There are now four of them: In 2002, Robert and Louise Topping opened the first bookstore in Ely, Cambridgeshire, in 2007 the Bath branch followed, in 2014 St Andrews and in 2019 the 4000 sq foot Edinburgh store (run by their now grown-up kids).
What they offer during whatever situation we find ourselves in: Can’t get to the shop for any reason (pandemics, life, general fatigue) you can call or go online to order books or get recommendations. You could even holler from the doorstep! Join their Signed Fiction Club or Signed Non-Fiction Club with a book a month selected by their booksellers sent your way. Some of the author events head online when regulations shift.
Why we think it matters: After some years out (children, work, smartphones), we found ourselves returning to books over the lockdown months. This after studying English Literature and always having a book in our pocket into our early grown-up years. But when doomscrolling became too much, and the world became an even heavier burden than usual to carry, we escaped into stories, into time spent curled up with a good read, into the simple pleasures of holding something in our hands that didn’t send push notifications. Books are a way back to a version of life that had been edged out by phones, click-bait, and ‘being busy’; they are an antidote to that to-do list that keeps you scrambling.
And one crucial thing to add, yes Amazon is all convenience, but it’s not all community or connection. Indie bookstores are truly some of our neighborhood’s special places — where else can you lose yourself in worlds, be led by curiosity alone, wander while forgetting what time it is? The fact that as legendary a bookshop as Paris’ Shakespeare and Company, and one as popular as New York’s The Strand have had to embark on public campaigns to save themselves, means that an even larger hole has opened up to swallow up these beloved places and we need to stop that, one book purchase at a time (you are the superhero that can save them in this analogy). Think about what you want to remain when life returns. For us, bookstores need to stay with us. There are souls are our cities (yes, we really believe that).
In their own words: Quite simply: “Explore The Universe From Your Sitting Room.”