Jock's Lodge


Jock's Lodge is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It centres on the junction of London Road and Willowbrae Road, Portobello Road and Restalrig Road South and is an alternative name for the Meadowbank / Piershill area. Restalrig village lies to its north.
The origin of the name is uncertain, but it occurs as early as 1650. Jock is thought to be the name of a local shepherd in the early 17th century, with a small house near the junction of London Road and Restalrig Road South. A pub sharing the name of the area used to sit on the north-west corner of the junction but has been replaced by a modern blues bar..
The area is dominated by civil service office blocks, St Margaret's House and Meadowbank House, which were constructed in the early-1970s on the site of the St Margaret's railway locomotive depot, which was primarily for steam locomotives. From 2008, St Margaret's House has been leased to Edinburgh Palette, a registered charity which provides some 200 affordable studio spaces for designers, artists, small businesses and community organisations.
Meadowbank Stadium, immediately to the west was the location for the 1970 and 1986 Commonwealth Games. The East Coast Main Line railway also passes by here. Many of the houses in this area are Victorian tenements.
Both Royal HSFP and Lismore RFC were formerly based in the area; Lismore RFC taking its name from nearby Lismore Crescent.
The original "Jock's Lodge" was the first stop and change of the team horse's for the original horse drawn stage coach run on Edinburgh to London journey,
This journey began at the White Horse Close in the Canongate, technically then just outside Edinburgh. At the back of the Jock Lodge Inn was the Stables, which in the 1960/70s became a car sales and repair yard owned by Mr Hugh Gray JP.