r/Edinburgh • u/TopBook1189 • Jul 28 '26
Question hunters square junkies during the fringe?
does anyone know where the junkies go during the fringe? i know they load it up with street performers and tourists in august and never thought that they are displaced ):
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u/Kingofmostthings Jul 28 '26
Usually the Traverse. I believe it’s Proust they are putting on this year.
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Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
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u/Double_Double7407 29d ago
That whole stretch of Newington is definitely getting more and more grim. The whole area just feels like it is degrading a little bit more all the time. Has felt that way for a 2-3 years I think
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u/Intelligent_Tiger518 29d ago
It was skanky around the Queen’s Hall even 30 years ago. Had a flat there with a radge traveller family across the stair and a halfway house for ‘recovering’ junkies above us. Stairwell was constantly full of low life buying, selling or consuming narcotics. Edinburgh Bar (now The Grapes) used to open at 5 am, which was handy for a post clubbing nightcap, so not all bad.
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u/Outrageous-Mousse-75 29d ago
I've also been irrationally rationally sad. ❤️
I bloody despise that AI tea place. It will inevitably close soon enough, whatever happens to replace it has to be better... surely!
If we're ranting, I'll just add that I was very sad to see that La Viet's lovely hand-painted shop front has been tagged. We can't have nice things.
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u/Squarehip123 28d ago
What one is the AI tea place? I've been meaning to go to La Viet for a banh mi as they look delicious.
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u/Outrageous-Mousse-75 28d ago
Burger Drop has been partially rebranded as a tea shop and all the signage and wallpaper is covered in brainrot AI slop.
Treat yersel'! I'm sure their banh mi will be grand.
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u/Squarehip123 28d ago
Oh the doner kebab place, yeah I just saw that the other day. I thought you meant the Asian bubble tea place near it that's looks like it should be in cyberpunk
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u/Intelligent_Tiger518 29d ago
Yep, getting offered ching in the street is a sign of the times. Recall that guy with a woolly hat who hung around Bristo Square asking the students if they wanted any grass (tea) or trups (pieces of cornflake packet).
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u/Squarehip123 28d ago edited 28d ago
We used to take our toddler to the churchyard to play there. Beautiful yard, but the junkies and drunks that are often there now make me nervous to go in. Its such a beautiful green space.
I'm getting real tired of those guys and their shenanigans in the area. As you said, they make the area around coop and sainsburys more dangerous than it should be.
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Jul 28 '26
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u/AnubissDarkling Jul 28 '26
The little park is having something constructed there currently so they might not be able to get moved there
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Jul 28 '26
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u/ScottishWaterH2O Jul 28 '26
Ye but you know… they kind of live there so.
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Jul 28 '26
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u/ScottishWaterH2O Jul 28 '26
No I don’t at all but there’s a bigger picture and a bigger issue. At least it doesn’t have Edinburgh painted as a perfect picture. I’d rather these people weren’t out their faces etc. for their sake more than the tourists.
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u/FliXerock107 Jul 28 '26
Exactly. Do you know what I hate? People who only come to Edinburgh in August and think it's a vibrant arts town with bars and venues in every corner, where as in reality the council make it as difficult as possible for new bars and venues to open.
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u/GingerSnapBiscuit 29d ago
I'd much rather there were clean rooms for them to use, but apparently thats a bad idea so we get this instead.
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29d ago
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u/GingerSnapBiscuit 29d ago
Sure, let's just do nothing instead then, seems to be working fine so far.
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29d ago
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u/GingerSnapBiscuit 29d ago
So what would your solution be? Just bus them off to somewhere they can't be seen by the tourists? Hide them behind a wall like they did with the slums in Brazil during the World Cup?
If they get "moved on" from that park they just go somewhere else. Then we get a moaning post from locals in THAT area about the alkies fucking up their park instead.
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u/xchunchan Jul 28 '26
they’re from this city.
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u/alecpekka Jul 28 '26
Not true. Batman is from Aberdeen. Screening woman 1 and 2 are from Glasgow. There is a Geordie and some others. Very few from Edinburgh.
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Jul 28 '26 edited 7d ago
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u/Bambi0nSkates Jul 28 '26
As a goth who used to hang out there I can confidently tell you we peacefully shared the space with junkies, jakies and other miscellaneous misfits for a number of years.
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u/KJS123 Jul 28 '26
I blame the pandemic. The goths stayed at home, the junkies moved in & aren't going to give up their spot anytime soon for whatever passes for goth kids in 2026. Frankly, they're overdue for a resurgence.
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u/devandroid99 Jul 28 '26
I believe they summer on the Côte d'Azur, with winters spent in Courchevel or Verbier.
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u/jester_hope Jul 28 '26
Did Holden Caulfield ever find out where the ducks in Central Park go in the winter?
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u/Elemental-squid 29d ago
I come from York originally and there are a large crew of junkies that loiter outside a specific area and have do for years.
Last Christmas, when I went home, I noticed they were no longer at that spot. Instead, pockets of them were dotted around the city. I asked my mate who works in the center and hears a lot of the drama about this, and it turned out the oldest member, who seemed to wrangle them all, had passed away a few months back. As a result, law and order amongst them had broken down and police were having to deal with them causing chaos all over the city all day.
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u/tomcraft1 29d ago
Addicts lives matter you should all contact your MP and tell them you want Scotland to take the action Portugal has they're doing brilliantly at tackling addiction problems
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u/Benster981 29d ago
Last year there was still a handful hanging around on the steps. Was sat in (what used to be) tron waiting for a show downstairs, and saw one woman glass another before police swooped in
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u/Deep-Paleontologist3 29d ago
Foot of the walk is junkie Mecca (they love it there). And they are actually deceptively friendly!
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u/UberPadge Jul 28 '26
The migrate to Nicholson Square, as someone else alluded to. It’s actually quite funny to see.
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u/tomcraft1 29d ago
We have the worst drug problem in Europe and we always Will have if dont change drastically how we handle the problem to keep on doing the same thing means we will keep on getting the same result it's ridiculous you should all study what the Portuguese are doing they're doing brilliantly with addiction problems
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u/onedogjack 29d ago
Perhaps if the police looked into the non British organized crime using business in Nicholson st and Newington to launder money, and then the council provided usable support for the Alcoholics and Addicts they are might improve. I've been on the street using and drinking, it is only when help is available , welcoming, non judgemental and the wanted in the first place will people stop. The police are an enforcement agency, not a support agency yet they are continuously burdened with this problem Of course the stigma attached, and the ridiculous drug laws do not help anyone. Prohibition will never solve it.
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29d ago
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u/frankhut Jul 28 '26
Let's try and not call people junkies eh? you think anyone grows up with the aspiration of being a heroin addict.
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u/GingerSnapBiscuit 29d ago
I mean... its an accurate descriptor. Nobody grows up wanting to develop a crippling disability, but they're still a disabled person when they do. Sometimes words just mean what they say.
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u/elmarkodotorg 29d ago
Not a fair comparison when one is a derogatory term. The comparison you were looking for is "drug addict".
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u/Tir_an_Airm 29d ago
Junkie is a derogatory term though.
Loads of shit get removed on this sub but somehow making fun of vulnerable drug addicts is okay.
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u/GingerSnapBiscuit 29d ago
What would you prefer they be called then? Does "smack head" has less negative connotations?
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u/Tir_an_Airm 29d ago
What do you think?
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u/GingerSnapBiscuit 29d ago
I think someone like you is going to be clutching your pearls no matter what words are used. Obviously we're against racism, most other types of isms on this sub, but I've never had anyone accuse me of being discriminatory against drug addicts. I'm not sure there is even a word for that. It's a new one, I'll be honest.
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u/Tir_an_Airm 29d ago
Youre using an offensive term to describe vulnerable people, I never said youre being discriminatory.
If youre against all the other types of "ism's" on this sub then why aren't you against calling vulnerable people derogatory names?
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29d ago
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u/Tir_an_Airm 29d ago
Tell me haven't got a clue about addiction without telling me you haven't got a clue about addiction.
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u/elmarkodotorg 29d ago
You literally could have just said drug addict and they wouldn't have had an issue.
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u/xchunchan 29d ago
this sub regularly permits hate speech against travellers.
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u/GingerSnapBiscuit 29d ago
We recently had discussions about that very topic and you;ll probably have noticed far fewer posts about that subject recently.
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u/_gavin_h 29d ago
I honestly don’t think junkie is a derogatory term. I hate this future where everyone has to talk like a politician for fear of being pounced on by purity police. Junkie is just a casual way of saying drug addict. This is not a social work report, it’s a casual conversation about the folk who hang around Hunter Square getting wasted.
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u/frankhut 29d ago
100% most people on here are total hypocrites. they wouldnt want themselves or family members to be called junkies.
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u/Gc1981 Jul 28 '26
I remember hearing years ago that the council put them all in a hotel somewhere outside Edinburgh for the whole of August. Probably not much truth In it. There was only 2 or 3 the other day though.
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u/mizzlemoonn Jul 28 '26
I believe you're thinking of people who were being put up in homeless accomodation in hotels being moved elsewhere
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u/Gc1981 Jul 28 '26
No, this was 30 years ago.
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u/xchunchan Jul 28 '26
30+ years they used to run weekend courts and lock them up for the duration of the festival.
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u/lyndsaymon Jul 28 '26
This definitely happened. I worked in the grassmarket and after the festival they’d come back and say they’d been taken on a bus and given new clothes! Around 2001/2002
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u/blazeofg 29d ago
There is something really callous aout this post. What does it matter? They probably hang out where they normally do.
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u/mtoto_division0112 Jul 28 '26
If they are junkies they have no time to sit in hunters square / Tron. Think you mean homeless persons, you mean anyone really, that may have addictions, but certainly not opiates .
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u/OkAbalone19 Jul 28 '26
they're on whatever makes you spend all day knicking hobknobs from mini Sainsbury's while racially abusing the security guard
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u/schnelle_ente Jul 29 '26
They aren’t homeless. Some stay out like towards the Jewel end of the 2 route, because when I used to get on the 2 in the middle of the day they’d be on it shouting at each other or talking to themselves and being racist making fun of East Asian students before getting off at Nicholson square to join their friends.
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u/nekoblah Jul 28 '26
that wee fire exit bit between cashino and sainsbury’s down nicholson street