The Leith Collective Edinburgh
Design and art shop
Here's another reason to visit Leith. Specifically, a shopping mall called Ocean Terminal. Royal Yacht Britannia is moored here and that's won best Scottish attraction for 11 straight years, but that's not really my cup of tea (even if I did the advertising back in the day to launch it as an attraction).
No, hidden away on the top floor of the mall is this little treasure - The Leith Collective.
The Leith Collective is described as a unique retail space of 300+ artists all working together to promote their work, sustainability and support for our local community and features a wide variety of art, design and fashion with a strong Leith feel about it.
Really it's amazing; there's some really great photography on show, you can buy textiles, fashion, furniture, gift cards, small artworks, glassware, jewellery even chocolate and it has a really punchy, vibrant, young and entirely uncommercial feel about it.
Think of the best of the best degree shows in art colleges all collected under one roof and that's pretty much the mood of this place. It's not high-concept work, it's things you'd actually like to buy and it's reasonably priced. And yet, it also feels like a gallery with constantly rotating stock.
It's a great finishing point for a walking tour of Leith and afterwards you should jump onto the number 22 bus (known affectionately round here as 'Leith on Wheels') and keep your ears open for local banter as you return to the city centre.
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