The once rough pub in middle of Edinburgh scheme now transformed by proud locals

Wester Hailes is a tight knit community. To outsiders it's intimidating, impoverished and run down but those who stay in the area, it is a place where everyone backs one another no matter the issue.

Two constants have existed in the scheme, the Westside Plaza and the local boozer, The Westsider, formerly known as Whispers. Whispers had a wild and rowdy reputation - as many of the local attest to when we popped in for a pint and blether.

One story stood out from the pack, a tale of an outsider entering the bar with a shotgun hidden in their coat who started a fight with one of the local old boys, striking him in the face. Within minutes the intruder was about to be dropped off the bridge linking the walkway in front of the pub with the Plaza before police rushed to their rescue.

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But those days are in the past now, with a change of name and change of management coming in over the years. Despite falling on harder times during the pandemic, the fortunes of the pub are looking rosy, with the older regulars staying loyal and the younger generation returning in their droves.

A lot of this success has to do with Andy Hunter, 32, who now manages the boozer and remembers coming into the pub when he was a bright eyed and bushy tailed teenager. He has harnessed the power of social media and tapped into the desire for live music, events, fundraisers and even dominoes and bingo for the elders, turning the Westsider into a place where there is something for everyone.

Andy says it is his desire to make the pub the best in the area and he is fiercely defensive yet proud of his community that he feels is often tarnished unfairly with a negative stigma.

“I’ve drank in here since I was 18…well maybe 17,” Andy said. “I spent 14 or so years in the building and construction industry but it just didn’t click but then I found my calling here and have been managing for the past six months.

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“I think they first opened as Whispers in 1972 and it went through a few chains, belonging to a brewery before it became The Westsider about 10/15 years ago.

“I remember coming through that door for the first time and it was like a western. Everyone's head turned, it was a bit more wild 14 years ago but it is really timid now.

“You have people from all the neighbouring areas drinking together which you just would not have had back then. We still get our altercations but it is how you deal with it.

“I get respect from the young team because I’m from here. I’m a big believe in not s******g on your own doorstep, I’m firm but fair and try not to make it an authority thing. I know that if my back was against the wall then 95 per cent of the punters would back me.

“It really gets my back up when people speak badly of Wester Hailes. I’m so proud to be from Wester Hailes. I’ll not have anyone slag off this area because we rally around one another.

“My best mate, his partner has been through the toughest two years of her life with cancer, lost all her hair, but the pub raised over £10-12K for her. She is now in remission after undergoing some serious surgery but she has the all clear after a couple of years of hell.

“I would say to anyone that is critical to reach out, the community spirit is massive. There is an unfair stigma from 40 years ago and of course you still get the odd a***hole but you get them everywhere.

“I won’t have a bad word said about this community. We want to be the best boozer in Edinburgh and a fun place to work.”

Andy explains how the pub has changed over the years with Covid leading to the Hailes bar area downstairs closing and the ‘Parrot Cage’ area becoming a function room. He says that it was no longer viable to keep the different bars open with rising minimum alcohol pricing and the cost of living crisis hitting locals.

“Beforehand you would come here to watch Jeff and the boys at 3pm with your coupon but that gets boring after a while and with pints climbing above £4 and folk having Sky in their house,” he added. “The price of alcohol change that coming in was also difficult for us.

“We have our bread and butter like usual, about 10-20 in the morning and afternoons. I joke it is like Craiglang with the old boys from Still Game.

“My goal was to bring it back to life during the weekends and I’ve used social media as our weapon. Targeting folk my age and younger by putting on discos, live music, quizzes and that has brought a lot more people in.

“We have something for everyone, have pool tournaments and darts on during the week with Willie Bolland in our stable who hit a nine darter a couple years ago at the Ally Pally. And we have put on the bingo for the older folk on a Sunday night after the local hall closed down the road.

“We always try to focus our events around chosen charities so we can help out various causes. On July 27 we will be opening up the function suite and having a boxing match where I will be fighting my best mate. We hope to raise around £5,000 for Cash 4 Kids.

“We are always doing memorials for locals and families that are hard up on their luck. We try to give back to the community.

“I’m a happy go lucky guy and get on with everyone, I say to staff to be nice to everyone as folk are doing ten hour shifts, they want to be in a happy place. I feel I want to take this place up a level as I have a lot of pride in my community.

“If customers see you making an effort then they want to come back. I think it has helped me coming with a new perspective.

“I feel I understand the community and want to make sure that Wester Hailes has a good boozer as a lot of the younger crowd were going elsewhere but they are coming back now. “No one wants to go into town and spend £7 on a beer and stand in a queue not getting served.

“Folk up here want to be in their local listening to some live music.”

You can feel the sense of pride and belonging that Andy has for his local, he talks about going viral on TikTok with videos of punters having banter with staff and of the amazing achievement of the pub team, Westside, that just won the Scottish Cup. He introduces me to two older boys who agree for a chat - so long as one of them gets a top up on their Newcastle Brown Ale.

Alec Kilo, 59, and Gary Harrison, 48, have drank in the pub all of their adult lives and describe themselves as born and bred Wester Hailes locals. They say the pub has calmed down from when they first set foot in here, with Alec telling tall tales of when the boozer used to be known as Whispers and the Parrot Cage.

“I’ve been drinking here all my adult life, it is a good working class pub and could be quite rough back in the day,” he said. “I remember a guy came in with a shotgun once and he hit some old guy and everyone grabbed him.

“There is a wee bridge that goes into the centre and all the locals were about to throw him off of it before the police came and stopped them. It is a community pub here, we all look after one another.

“Back when the Parrot Cage was open you could get a lot of stabbings, nobody died like, but I used to say you’d get a free ticket to the cabaret. You’d see a fight down there quite often but then it was heaving.”

Gary chimes in and says that a lot of the older regulars have since passed away and that the old boys are now the minority but the generations all get on. He says you get your busy and your quiet periods but that he comes in every day with Alec now popping in once a week.

“It is a social hub, you come in here and everyone slags each other, it doesn’t matter what day, there will be folk you know sitting at the tables,” Gary said. “If somebody dies here then we all go to the funeral to support the family because that is the way we are.

“Down in the Cage back in the day, if someone died, we would all have a whip round for the flowers and that still happens. You of course still get a bit of trouble but that is mostly from the young team outside.

“We had a boy try and hide in here with a rifle a couple weeks back but the police ended up catching him.”

Alec and Gary both agreed that the pub has been the only real constant in the community alongside the shopping centre. Both say they love the friendships they have built over the years and the tight knit community that exists in the pub.

After getting Gary his Newcy, I searched the bar looking for another local to chat to, but many were a bit weary about ending up in the local news. That was until local legend Tucker, 59, walked in the door and pulled up a stool next to the bar with a fresh pint of Carling.

Tucker says that he has drank in the pub since he moved to the area in the 1990s and comments on how the boozer is full of ‘good people.’

“I’ve drank here for years and I’ve always said it is a great boozer with a good crowd and lots of laughs,” he said. “There’s a lot on with the darts and the pool, me and my mates meet on a Thursday for pool every week even though we are no good.

“Everybody is friendly and I never really see any trouble but if there is then we deal with it internally. I love coming in for the banter and the pub is getting a lot busier now after a wee quiet spell.

“This is where we socialise after work and with your pals. Town is too expensive.

“There is a great mixture of folk in here too, from Bosnia, Africa and they come from all over, no one is racist to them. I saw a guy standing outside and he was afraid to come in, so we invited him to play pool with us.

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“He didn’t know anyone and now he has a community. Wester Hailes has a bad name from over the years but so do a lot of places and it’s not fair.

“They do a lot here from discos, the bingo and the events. My daughters never used to come in and even though they stay further away, they have started to pop in when something is on.

“The nights are good here and you get no bother.”

To follow the events at the Westsider and to keep up with the changes being brought in by Andy and his team, follow their Facebook page here.