Mathers West End.

Mathers West End

The water engine that pushed beer up these lines on air pressure is still in the cellar, and CAMRA says staff will show it to you when the bar is quiet.1

Why go

Sydney Mitchell & Wilson designed this building in 1900 for the National Commercial Bank of Scotland, with the Caledonian United Services Club above. A wine merchant named Hugh Mather took the ground floor and put a licence in it two years later.1 CAMRA's branch survey dates that to 1903 and its heritage record to 1902, so the pub is either 123 or 124 years old depending on which of CAMRA's own texts you read.2

What went in has mostly stayed. The porch is tiled floor to ceiling. The gantry runs to the ceiling with Ionic columns, a split pediment at the centre and arched mirrors between, and only the two winged sections at either end are late, added in the 1980s by a local firm. The counter is original with a replacement top, and a working brass water tap sits at each end of it. Overhead, a compartmented ceiling carries a plaster frieze of birds and swags of fruit picked out in cream against claret, and old brewery mirrors from Campbell's, Mackay's, McEwan's and Wm Younger hang on the walls.1 CAMRA grades the interior Three star, its top grade, in a category B listed building.

The mechanical survival is the part worth the walk. Above the stairs down to the toilets, boxed in behind panelling, is the water tank that generated the pressure for the Scottish dispense system. The engine that ran off it is still in the cellar.1

The beer is one permanent cask, Caledonian Deuchars IPA, and three that change.2

Order this / avoid

• Order: a dram, at the end of the counter. Both original water taps still run, and CAMRA's own note on why they are there is a fair summary of the whole point: whisky is the only spirit that can benefit from a little added water.1
• Order: Deuchars if you want the house pour, and check the three changing lines if you do not.2
• Ask, do not order: to see the water engine. CAMRA's record says staff may allow an inspection at quiet times, which is their courtesy and not a published policy.1
• Avoid: bringing anyone under 18. Children are not admitted.2

What locals & experts say

• CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors grades the room Three star - A pub interior of outstanding national historic importance and sums it up in one sentence: This high-ceilinged, single-room pub with a magnificent gantry has changed little in over 100 years.1
• On the dispense machinery the same record is careful and so is this entry: The old water engine part of the system (one of the last remaining examples) is still in situ in the cellar and staff may allow you to inspect it at quiet times.1 It says the engine survives. It does not say beer runs through it, and neither does this page.
• No bylined critic has written about this pub in any source this project accepts. Time Out's twenty-four best Edinburgh pubs of 9 February 2024 and The Skinny's twenty-pub Edinburgh guide in its 2026 edition were both read in full on 11 August 2026, and neither includes it.

Good to know

• Hours: Monday to Thursday 11am to 11pm, Friday and Saturday 11am to midnight, Sunday 11am to 11pm.2
• Booking: nothing published. Walk in. CAMRA calls it mainly a stand-up drinking shop with seating available, so expect to be on your feet at busy hours.2
• Getting there: number 1 Queensferry Street stands at the West End junction, a minute from the far end of Princes Street and two from Shandwick Place.
• Two pubs, one name. A second Edinburgh pub called Mather's trades at 25 Broughton Street under its own food-hygiene record. This entry is the Queensferry Street door and nothing here describes the other one.4
• Food and price: nobody publishes either. Both are unknown here.
• Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme result for 1 Queensferry Street is a Pass inspected 21 March 2024, with nothing pending. That is about 29 months old.3

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: Not one of my saves. The case for it rests on CAMRA's grading of the interior and on the surviving water engine in the cellar.

Verdict

could-visit — A water engine sits in this pub's cellar, and CAMRA calls it one of the last remaining examples of the machinery that pushed Scottish beer up the lines on air pressure. The tank that made the pressure is still above the stairs, panelled over. That is a piece of working brewing history a drinks person can go and look at, and CAMRA's record says staff may show it when the bar is quiet. The room around it is a 1900 banking hall by Sydney Mitchell & Wilson that a wine merchant called Hugh Mather turned into a pub in 1902, and CAMRA grades the interior Three star, its top grade, in a category B listed building. The ceiling-height carved gantry is largely original, the counter is original with a new top, and the brass water taps at each end of it still run, which is a small courtesy to anybody drinking cask-strength whisky. What holds it at could-visit is the drinking itself: one permanent Deuchars and three changing casks, no published food, no published prices, no confirmable website, and not one bylined critic anywhere. Nothing here says beer is poured through that engine, because nothing published says so.