MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Odd year and so eldest_oab is having to make decisions on who and where to live without being able to visit at the moment.
He's at Heriot Watt. Needs bike cleaning and storage space.
It seems most places now are flats, no outdoor space and/or in the throbbing heart of Haymarket.
There's three of them.
Suggestions of areas or tips about houses or good landlords.
Happy to have PM's from landlords who get bikes 😉
There’s been a huge increase in student housing blocks going up all over Edinburgh so I don’t know if this has impacted the private letting market. I’d assume they have secure bike storage etc. I suspect most shorter term lets are Air BnB now! Closest area to Herriot Watt would be Sighthill but I would avoid that at all costs!! Balerno and Currie are close by with access to the Pentlands for (boring) biking but on the right side of the city for quicker access to Peebles.
Basically follow the 25 bus route- because of HW and Napier and Edinburgh college there's absolutely tons of student friendly accomodation. Slateford still has pretty good bus links to the campus (though nothing like as good as the main 25 corridor) plus is on the water of leith path for good access to the hills. Shandon etc the same with the canal (which connects nicely to the WOL path) but further in and more inconvenient.
But yep, flats. Half because that's what most students want and half because that's basically what Edinburgh has lots of, big old well made tenements. House prices are crazy so there's way less on the student market. But that doesn't mean no outside space or practical bike washing.
Currie/Balerno used to have a fair amount of student lets but house prices are so high now that's pretty much a thing of the past.
Edinburgh is a real hotspot for bike theft. The only answer is keep the bikes in your room - so an old tenement with proper sized rooms might suit. Gorgie perhaps? Its also effing expensive for rentals ( the whole city)
Number 25, 35 or 40something. Or the canal.
You might strike lucky with a colony flat off slateford road.
I lived in Morningside in a flat in first year and kept my cleaned bike inside. I washed it in the back green.
I lived in post grad halls in my final year and kept my bikes in the bike shed.
They weren't expensive bikes.
That's all reflecting our investigation already - the issue is finding one with just *somewhere* outside to wash a bike combined with good sized room to store it.
Why not do as a 'worker' would do, and look for what they needed and could afford and accept a commute?
Good luck to him. You basically want to be somewhat close to Calder road since that is a straight line to heriot watt (in my opinion at least). Out of many cities that I lived in, I found Edinburgh to be the most restrictive to what students can rent, me(postgrad with big stipend) and partner(nurse), really struggled finding anywhere that would rent to us because I was a student. Unless we accepted the classic student housing.
In terms of washing the bike, if it’s a mountain bike and he has a car, buy a portable washer and do it at the end of a ride. After that out it in your room. Bike theft in Edinburgh is ridiculous.
Have a look at the Edinburgh ‘Innertube Map’. It’s a map of all the cycle paths. It might give you a good idea of cycle corridors for commuting.
Edit - As a guide I can get from North to South in just under an hour, all off road.
Not ideal but there's plenty of petrol stations with jet washes, that's what my friends that keep their bikes inside do. And the Pentlands aren't boring, just boring riders.
Polwarth has plenty of students living in tenements with gardens, as foes the area around Harrison Park. Gorgie and Dalry probably have something too. All close to the canal which, when Covid isn't around and it's less busy, makes for a very quick pedal out to Heriot Watt and into town.
Yeah, the canal is the best way to get to/from Heriot Watt by bike. That's how I cycled there when I was studying.
The issue with everywhere a student would live on the west side of Edinburgh city centre is that they are dumps. Gorgie/Dalry/Slateford/Calder/Sighthill/Longstone could just be any part of any city. Hell, they could be in Dundee!
What makes Edinburgh "Edinburgh" (at least when you're a student) is all round Marchmont/Brunstfield/Morningside, Southside, the old town, the new town, Stockbridge, Canonmills and Leith. Maybe Portobello, but that's really far from Heriot Watt unless you drive.
I'd just pick a popular part of town and get a flat there. Then cycle or get the bus to uni.
I'm seeing a lot more "to let" signs around town just now. I believe lots of AirbnBs are looking for longer term tenants at the moment.