The name is a sailor's joke about the cold, the brass plate that held cannonballs contracting until the stack toppled. The bar keeps the phrase and adds its own twist: a back room where you drink lying down.
Brass Monkey sits at 14 Drummond Street, a short walk from Edinburgh University's Old College, on a street most visitors never turn down. The front is an ordinary good pub. The reason to come is through the doorway at the back.
The room
The back room is a mound of mattresses and cushions arranged in front of a wall-sized film screen, with low tables placed so a pint can rest within reach of a horizontal drinker. According to Time Out, the walls are papered with film posters, real and invented, and the bar runs screenings every day. The front bar keeps a normal pub footing, dark wood and a good tap line, but the lounging room is the signature, and it pulls a steady crowd of students, theatre-goers and locals. Few rooms among Edinburgh's hidden gems ask so little and reward so much.
The lounging room reworks an old idea. Edinburgh has a long habit of pairing a pint with a screen, from festival pop-ups to basement film clubs, and Brass Monkey simply removed the chairs. Lying down to watch a film with a drink in reach is closer to a friend's flat than a cinema, which is exactly the register the bar wants.
The location does quiet work too. Drummond Street sits between the university and the Festival Theatre, so the room fills with students mid-week and theatre crowds at the weekend, two sets that both want somewhere unhurried after a long sitting. The film is the excuse and the comfort is the draw.
What to order
This is a pub, so drink like the regulars do. A cold pint from the tap line is the first move, priced for a student street rather than a tourist one, which is why a long afternoon here stays cheap. The second round belongs to whisky if the film has turned to something slow, since a dram suits a darkened room better than a fresh lager. There is no cocktail theatre and no kitchen of note, which keeps the focus where the bar wants it, on the screen and the company. Ask at the bar for the day's screening, then claim a mattress before the good ones go. The crowd is loyal and the screenings are free, which is part of why the back room has outlasted flashier bars a few streets over.
Who it is for
Brass Monkey is for the unhurried drinker, the student on a budget, and anyone who treats a film as a reason to settle in rather than sit up. It is a low-effort, high-comfort room, ideal after a play at the nearby Festival Theatre or a long day in the library. For two more easy Southside and Old Town rooms, the cask line at The Bow Bar and the late hours at Sneaky Pete's carry the night on.
Best time to go
The bar runs noon to 1am every day, so the back room is open from early afternoon. Weekday afternoons are the calmest window to claim a mattress and catch a screening in something close to quiet. Weekend evenings fill fast, and the good spots go to those who arrive before the crowd. Plan the wider night with our Edinburgh guide or the global hidden gems collection.
Sources
Reporting for this profile draws on the bar's official website, its Time Out listing, and its Tripadvisor profile.
