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Outdoor tables sit before Milk cafe's brick kiosk beneath a stepped Edinburgh tenement terrace.
Edinburgh

Milk at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

A licensed café between the two buildings of Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in Newhaven, on the cycle path, with tables inside and out.

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Welcome

Just off the Newhaven cycle path, below a row of sandstone tenements, a low building of brick and glass carries the name in plain white letters.

Visited and photographed by Simon Hird

Bikes lean against the rail outside, and in good weather the tables in front fill up with cyclists and walkers.

It sits between the two buildings of Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, with a stepped path climbing past it to the street and a tall, angular brick tower rising alongside. Through the big windows the café is bright and simple. The food is breakfast, brunch and lunch: Turkish eggs, granola with compote, haggis fritters, flatbreads, cakes baked in the kitchen and a glass of organic wine. Stop on a ride along the path, and look round the courtyard for whatever the artists are making.

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Before you go

Breakfast, brunch and lunch, with cakes, coffee and organic wine.

Open every day from nine, until three from Monday to Thursday and until four from Friday to Sunday.

Where
Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Hawthornvale, Newhaven, on the cycle path.
Getting there
The tram stops at the foot of Hawthornvale. There are bike racks outside the café.
Access
Level access from the cycle path; a lift and an accessible toilet at café level.

Opening hours

Their website
Monday
9am–3pm
Tuesday
9am–3pm
Wednesday
9am–3pm
Thursday
9am–3pm
Friday
9am–4pm
Saturday
9am–4pm
Sunday
9am–4pm

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Did you know

Milk cafe's sign is framed between a dark building and glass extension in Edinburgh.
Did you know

Founded by graduates.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop was set up in 1986 by a group of sculpture graduates from Edinburgh College of Art, and was run by artists for many years.

Milk cafe's sign sits below a tenement building and steps in Edinburgh, customers visible inside.
Did you know

Out of the railway shed.

For years the Workshop was housed in an old railway shed. Its new building, opened in 2012, sits in a disused railway cutting.

A tall angular brick monument rises beside Milk cafe and Edinburgh tenements.
Did you know

A bell tower with no bell.

The 28-metre brick tower beside the café is modelled on a campanile. It is there to make a hidden building visible, and it is lit from within at night.

Milk cafe's brick kiosk sits below a tall angular monument and Edinburgh tenements.
Did you know

A gallery in a tower.

Artists are invited to make work for the tower itself. The first piece was a sound installation of recordings about the site's past, played through speakers inside it.

Cyclists' bikes lean outside Milk cafe beneath a row of Edinburgh tenement windows.
Did you know

Thirty studios.

The main building holds 30 artists' studios, and workshops for wood, metal, plaster and mixed media round a covered yard.

Outdoor tables sit before Milk cafe's brick kiosk beneath a stepped Edinburgh tenement terrace.
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Where it is

In Newhaven, on Hawthornvale and the cycle path, a few minutes from the tram.

Close byThe places nearest Milk, in Newhaven and Leith.
  1. Inside Norah in Newhaven: a round wooden table laid for lunch under a pleated paper lamp, with the coffee machine and shelves of cups behind.NorahUnder a mile as the crow flies
  2. The Forth from Newhaven, the hills of Fife beyond.NewhavenA former fishing village on the Firth of Forth, between Leith and Granton.Under a mile 2 min by road
  3. Alby'sAlby'sBig hot sandwiches on focaccia, in what was once the Snax Cafe.Under a mile 2 min by road
  4. Royal Yacht BritanniaRoyal Yacht BritanniaThe royal family's floating home for 44 years, berthed at Leith.Under a mile 3 min by road
  5. Water of Leith winding through Dean Village's stone tenements and old mill buildingsWater of LeithA walkway along the river through the quieter corners of the city.Under a mile 3 min by road
  6. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society - The VaultsThe Scotch Malt Whisky Society - The VaultsThe Society's members' rooms in a bonded warehouse of 1787.1 mile 5 min by road
Directions
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The room at Ardfern in Leith in afternoon light, with a wall of wine bottles behind the bar, leather banquettes and wooden tables.RestaurantsArdfern0.7 miles
The dining room of The Little Chartroom on Bonnington Road by candlelight, with chefs at work in the open kitchen beyond the tables.RestaurantsThe Little Chartroom0.7 miles
The dining room at The Kitchin, with grey stone walls, dark beams and blue-green chairs at tables laid for dinner.RestaurantsThe Kitchin0.7 miles
The dark painted front of DogStar on Portland Place in the evening, its name on the lit window.RestaurantsDogStar0.7 miles
Tartan and check wool scarves hang on a white shop railShoppingTBCo0.8 miles

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Check datesPlaces to stayEvery stay in EdinburghAll our places to stay nearby, to search by date and by who is coming.See them all
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