TRADITIONAL TAVERN PHOTOGRAPHYMERCHANT TAVERN

SCOTLAND · 2026

MY WORK WITH MERCHANT TAVERN

Merchant Tavern is a traditional pub in Edinburgh with a dark, candlelit character all of its own: wood-panelled walls, Chesterfield leather snugs beneath oil portraits, library-lined back rooms and the tavern monogram set in stained glass. It belongs to the same group of Edinburgh venues as Newsroom, Jackson The Tailor and The Pipers Rest, and I photograph it with a look built around that old-tavern atmosphere: warm light, deep shadows and rich texture.

Across recent shoots I covered the venue's food menu of Scottish pub classics, from haggis, neeps and tatties to beer-battered fish and chips, steak pie, cullen skink served in a bread bowl and sticky toffee pudding, alongside the cocktail list, the team at work behind the copper taps and the interiors that give the pub its identity.

The images are used by the group's marketing team across social media and promotional material, and working with several venues in the same family means giving each one a clearly distinct visual identity: at Merchant Tavern, that identity is moody, historic and unmistakably Scottish.

Candlelight, copper taps and cullen skink in a bread bowl: pub photography that leans into what makes a room unmistakable. What makes yours? Tell me.