An ongoing series exploring Edinburgh via Just Eat Cycle’s bikes. Andrew White continues his exploration from Castle Terrace.
Before we get stuck into the second in our series of posts exploring Just Eat Hire Stations I wanted to tell you all about the brilliant Just Eat Cycles offer. Between 5 and 11 May the bikes were free!
It was an excellent opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ that many seem to be taking full advantage of!
During this month’s inaugural Open Streets event – more on that fantastic initiative in a future post – Just Eat Cycles recorded their highest number of trips in a single day at over 1000 rides!
High demand for these bikes is encouraging, and the hire scheme seems to be going from strength to strength. Recently I found myself excited (and a little envious of the active travel commuters) to see my usual post-work hire point bereft of bikes! That station is at Castle Terrace and is also the focus of this week’s post.
The Castle Terrace Station is located at the T-junction of Castle Terrace and Lady Lawson Street. In the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, this station is neatly positioned against the West corner of Argyle House, a coarse grey looking building from the late 60s with appropriate levels of granite brutalist vibes.
The former site of a number of government departments, Argyle House has been considered by some to be one of Edinburgh’s ugliest buildings and was even under threat of demolition back in 2008. Fortunately for my colleagues and me, it survived and is now home to a host of companies making up a part of the UK’s fastest growing tech incubator CodeBase.
Like the ugly duckling of Edinburgh’s bevvy of multi-story office buildings, Argyle House has transformed thanks to the CodeBase team. It’s a wonderfully vibrant, welcoming, and trendy place to work. The community is fantastic and always looking for ways to keep the site thriving.
Back in 2018, several CodeBase residents shot a volley of tweets at Just Eat Cycle’s Twitter account requesting a station be installed nearby, and it worked! On a crisp day in late November on my way back from grabbing lunch, I was delighted to find two men hard at work installing a brand spanking new Just Eat Cycle Station.
I’ve used this station a lot since then, and in many ways consider it the epicentre where my active/adaptive travel journey began.
From this station, I can easily make my way home via Lothian Road and Princes Street. On Fridays I can pedal up the slight hill of Lady Lawson Street towards The Meadows and make my way South to Mayfield Salisbury Church where I volunteer as a Scout Leader.
I can venture west and go to the movies at Cineworld. Or pop just across the road and get into Princes Street Gardens. The Castle Terrace station is a gateway station, it’s a quiet corner that leads to many areas of the city with minimal effort.
If I’m feeling eager for a workout though, I can power on up Johnstone Terrace following the steep South edge of Castle Rock to Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
You can read more about my active travel journey on my blog by clicking here.
