The Polwarth Tavern in Edinburgh is making preparations for what could be one of its biggest nights so far this year.
The boozer in the West of Edinburgh, popular with students, locals, and football fans alike, is well-known as a Hearts pub, but also caters to Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, and Real Betis supporters.
With the newly-crowned English champions in the Champions League final for just the second time in club history this Saturday, the pub is expected to be packed to the rafters with Edinburgh Gooners – who anxiously wait to find out if their club can make history and win their first European crown.
The pub’s reputation as the nexus point for Arsenal in Edinburgh has been acknowledged by celebrity Gooners like Jack Whitehall and Will Poulter, who visited the pub, and Arsenal icon Freddie Ljungberg, who namedropped the tavern in a message to Arsenal fans in Scotland.
Arsenal fans began turning up to the Polwarth Tavern regularly around four years ago, and, after a period of hesitancy from regulars, the supporters’ club formalized the relationship and have become part of the pub’s culture.
It has become the official Mecca for the thousands of Arsenal fans who live in Edinburgh.
Of Arsenal’s title day celebrations on Sunday, the pub’s owners said the atmosphere was “absolutely bouncing” and “days like this are exactly why we love being a supporters pub”.
On the mood around the pub over the last few weeks, Ben Prowse, who has owned the tavern for 20 years, said:
“We’re obviously quite close to Tynecastle, so we’ve had Hearts doing really well, and also Arsenal doing really well, so the immediate reaction after last week was Hearts heartbreak.
“To then follow on from that with the joy of Arsenal winning the title, it was just wonderful to see.
“As the season’s gone on, [the two teams] have had very similar kinds of scenarios, where neither set of fans really believed that it was going to happen until it happened. There was a very nervous atmosphere.”
Once Arsenal were confirmed as Premier League champions after Manchester City’s draw to Bournemouth on Tuesday, some of the regular Arsenal fans turned up to celebrate.
And there were wild scenes of jubilation in Polwarth when Arsenal lifted the title after defeating Crystal Palace away on the final day of the season.
“Full time of that Arsenal game [vs Crystal Palace on the weekend], that North London song came on – I wasn’t familiar with it up until the last two games – and it was brilliant.
“I’m not an Arsenal fan as such – I’ve got soft spot for them because of the pub – but it’s hard not to get a wee bit emotional on their behalf.
“You’ve got guys who have tears in their eyes, and you just think ‘I wish it was my team’.”
Ben said that, although many of the regulars were initially hesitant about the Arsenal fans, the supporters’ group have quickly become embedded in the pub’s culture.
And he added that there is a sense of camaraderie between supporters of different clubs that patronize the pub, and that he has never had issues with rowdy or violent football fans.
He is expecting another busy shift this Saturday and is making special preparations: “It’s a Champions League final, which in itself will bring a lot of people, but the very fact is one of our teams, will make it even busier.
“We’re just trying to gauge it: If we’ve got to do something whereby we say our usual guys get in on some kind of concession, we’ll do that, but we’ve got to manage that as people come in.”
Although the pub sees a sharp increase to traffic on days that Arsenal are playing, this boost can only really be felt for around 20 days a year. Ben says that the real draw of hosting Arsenal and the other clubs is the sense of community it engenders.
He said: “I’ve got a Brazilian guy that lives next door to me, and he said to me: ‘you know what you’ve got right here? You’ve got the Spanish guys, you’ve got these guys, I’ve seen you have German guys – we used to have St Pauli come in – you’ve got the Arsenal guys, you’ve got the Hearts guys, the Scotland guys. It’s just brilliant that you welcome everybody’.
“I suppose that says it better than I could. As much as I was saying we’re a sports pub, I would like to think we’re just a community pub.”
He explained: “We do a golf outing, and we get 50 or 60 people along to that, which is brilliant for a wee pub like ours, we’ve shown 120 people how to use a defibrillator outside. I’m really proud of that kind of stuff.”
Arsenal will face Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the Champions League final on Saturday, 30 May.
Arsenal go into the final as marginal underdogs, with many believing that the reigning French and European champions will have too much for Arsenal going forward.
PSG defeated Inter Milan 5-0 in last year’s Champions League final.
