Why you should be living in Marchmont
New Town isn’t the same
Marchmont is better than New Town. Fact.
It’s time to explain why choosing this side of town is better than the other.
Practicality
You can (power) walk to uni in eight minutes – that’s some serious advantage to a 25 minute trek over when you’re hanging like nothing else but you’ve got a 9am tutorial.
It’s beauts
Wouldn’t you rather walk through the Meadows every morning (read: multiple opportunities for that perfect Meadows shot for your Instagram) than fight your way down South Bridge or face the grim setting that is Lothian Road?
Keep your mates close
If you think living in New Town means you’ll necessarily be near the rest of those who label themselves ‘New-Towners’, think again: there’s more chance you’ll actually do the background reading for your classes than make the journey from east side to west side.
In Marchmont on the other hand, we’re all pretty much five minutes away from each other (this is also particularly handy for walks of shame, which are kept mercifully brief), which makes walking over for a quick cuppa totally viable: if you’re looking for a community, Marchmont is the place for you.
The shops
And on that walk over to your mates’, you’ll probably have to pass Margiotta: the heart of the Marchmont community.
Unlike any other corner shop, Margiotta is a paradise of calm and sophistication – walking in to pick up some milk on your way back from uni has never been a more spiritual experience than when Classic FM is playing.
It’s just one of a host of Marchmont haunts, but probably the most universally loved: expect to see students shopping in any state of (un)dress (pyjamas particularly common).
Once you’re living here, there are a whole host of inside jokes no one else will understand but everyone here will get. Like how you’ll tell yourself that this weekend will be the weekend you all make it to brunch at Toast, but it never happens.
You get to see your neighbours naked
The way flats line every street means that you’re probably going to be seen naked more times than is socially acceptable (some things from Pollock never change) – particularly disconcerting if you find out in Week 10 that they’re actually friends of friends and have been calling you ‘the naked girl’ all semester.
Some things about New Town and Marchmont are probably the same. You’ll hope for hot, single members of the opposite sex living above you (this has never happened in the history of student flats, sorry) and there are nice and nasty flats in both parts of the city.
But if you’ve got any sense, you’ll move to Marchmont: it’s clearly the place to be.