🥃 Edinburgh Distillery: A Distillery By Any Other Name
- Jun 21
- 3 min read
This isn’t just any wall.
This is a lost distillery’s wall.
Well, maybe.
I can’t be entirely sure.
But if we take a look at these maps from 1852 and 1908, you can see the layout of a distillery - a distillery that managed to change its name more often than Sean Combs. Well, maybe not that often.
At the time it closed, the distillery was owned by Scottish Malt Distillers - we came across these guys in a previous email. They had acquired the distillery in 1919 from a little known firm called Andrew Usher & Co.
I jest, of course. The Usher name is probably one of the most well-known in the distilling and brewing worlds. And guess what? A wee while ago, I visited their gravestones. You can find out more info HERE.
SMD closed the distillery in 1925. At this point, it was known as Edinburgh Distillery. I guess it did what it said on the tin. Because it had indeed been a distillery. And it had also been in Edinburgh. The distillery was put up for the sale the following year.
In September 1926, with reference to Auchtertool Distillery, James Risk - who featured in a previous email about James Ainslie - commented that “the consumption of Scotch whisky both at home and abroad is half what it was about 1913 and the result is that quite a considerable number of distilleries have got no orders, and on that account my own company has decided to close this distillery, the Grange distillery at Burntisland, and another in Edinburgh”.
Times were hard and it took a long time for the distillery to sell. The site is now the location of the student accommodation development, Meadow Court, which was built in the 1980s. Unfortunately, though, there’s a sixty year gap in information between then and the distillery’s closure that I’ve been unable to fill.
Andrew Usher Junior acquired the distillery in 1859. After the purchase, he renamed it the Edinburgh Distillery and implemented several improvements and expansions. Access to more details on these developments is available exclusively to paid subscribers - keep an eye out for a follow-up email.
But one of those improvements to the distillery was the Worthington Cooling Tower - the heated water from the worm tub was pumped through a pipe to the distributor on the top of the tower. As the water descended across the sheets of iron inside the tower, the water was cooled down. At least, that’s the most basic explanation. Why was this an important device? Well, it meant that the distillery could operate at full output regardless of any hot weather.
Interestingly, at the time this article appeared the distillery manager is named as Mr J Duncanson.
Here he is in the 1891 census record:
Prior to Usher & Co buying the distillery, it had been known as Glen Sciennes as well as Newington distillery by the previous owner, who had operated the distillery for just eight years. And the previous owner’s name? It was Thomas Duncanson.
So, were these Duncansons related?
The answer is yes.
John Duncanson had been the distillery manager from at least 1871. During the same period, his father - also called John - had been a distiller’s labourer as well as a brewer at the distillery before that.
Now, the elder John Duncanson’s brother was Thomas Duncanson - the distillery owner. And from this census report from 1851 - the year he took over the distillery - we can see that he employed 6 men:
He operated the distillery as Thomas Duncanson & Co and both he and his business were declared bankrupt in October 1859. Despite this, Thomas’ brother and nephew remained in employment at the distillery when it moved into Usher’s hands.
Prior to Thomas acquiring the distillery, it had been in the hands of an Alexander Pearson. He had bought the site when it was a brewery but then converted it into a distillery - which he named West Sciennes. A year later though, Alexander went bankrupt. Perhaps the cost of converting it had all been a bit too much?
So, could that wall be the wall of West Sciennes / Newington / Glen Sciennes / Edinburgh * Distillery. And, if so, if only that wall could talk. What do you reckon?
* delete as applicable
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Slàinte! Justine