Edinburgh City

Edinburgh City FC are a Scottish non league football club based in the east of the city. The current incarnation of the club were formed in 1966 under the name of Postal United FC.

The original club was formed back in 1928 and were a totally amateur outfit, gaining them the title of 'The Queen's Park of the East'. In 1931 City were elected to the Scottish League, where they joined city neighbours Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, St Bernard's and Leith Athletic. City struggled during their time in Division Two, finishing bottom in six out of eight seasons between 1931 and 1939, moving into City Park in 1935. They did pull off one huge shock when knocking Hibernian out of the Scottish Cup 3-2 at Easter Road during the 1937-38 season.

At the end of World War Two, City were placed in Division C of the League, but after another three seasons of struggle they departed to join the Edinburgh & District Junior League. The local council refused to renew their lease at City Park in 1955, so the club ceased to exist.

The Edinburgh City Football Club Ltd (Social Club) continued to trade from their headquarters near to the junction of London Road and Leith Walk and in 1986 Postal United asked permission to use the name of Edinburgh City, which was approved. The club started out playing at Saughton Enclosure in the west of the city and then Paties Road, which would later become the home of Edinburgh United. After spells at City Park and then Fernieside City moved into Meadowbank Stadium when Meadowbank Thistle were uprooted and became Livingston FC in 1996.

The club continued playing in the East of Scotland League and in the 1997-98 season City defeated East Stirlingshire in the Scottish Cup before going down 7-2 to Dunfermline Athletic. The club continued to make regular appearences in the Cup after performing well in the Qualifying competition until it was scrapped in 2007.

In 2002 and 2008, City applied for a place in the Scottish League, but they lost out in the votes as first Gretna and then Annan Athletic were elected. In between those disappointments the club lifted the East of Scotland title at the end of the 2005-06 season. City continued to develop their youth and womens sections in the hope of progression in the future.

Edinburgh City will play in the East of Scotland League Premier Division in the 2013-14 season.


My visit

Tuesday 29th January 2013

I was in Edinburgh for a three night break to be joined by my Dad on the Tuesday evening. This meant I had a day to fill and I could think of no better way to walk off a splendid pub crawl than to fulill another great love of mine and visit some football clubs and their grounds. Our hotel was on Windsor Road, just off London Road and a goal kick away from City's scial club, so Meadowbank Stadium was an obvious starting point.

It took around fifteen minutes to walk down the start of the A1 to the stadium. I was delighted to see signposts to show that City had some presence at the stadium, unlike some multi purpose venues I'd visited in the past. I continued past the Main Stand and Sports Centre and around the far end where I found an open gate to snap away.

The stadium had been built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games and was now showing signs of age. The Main Stand was a fine cantilevered 7,500 seater construction down one side. Around ten rows of open terrace and bench seating curved around the track round the rest of the arena. A huge scoreboard dominated the far end behind the goal.

Walking behind the far end up Wishaw Terrace afterwards gave me the opportunity for extra photos through the metal railings before I headed to Sainsbury's for some much needed liquid and bananas to bring me round as I embarked on the walk up the hill to Easter Road.