Morten Andersen does not romanticise the chains, but he will defend a Wetherspoon that keeps a great building alive and pours a cheap, well-kept pint. The Standing Order on George Street does both, which is why it is one of the most useful rooms in Edinburgh's New Town.
The pub occupies 62 to 66 George Street, in the heart of the New Town, and the address is part of the draw. It takes its name and its grandeur from its former life as the Union Bank of Scotland, designed by David and John Bryce and built between 1874 and 1878 as the bank's head Edinburgh office (JD Wetherspoon). The grade-A listed interior is the reason to walk in: a vast main hall under ornate plasterwork, with the old banking volume left intact rather than carved into booths.
This is a big pub that wears its scale well. The main room runs wide and high, with side rooms and quieter corners off the floor, so a place this size rarely feels packed even at a weekend peak. The Edinburgh Evening News reported it had been named Britain's most loved pub by Google Maps, a soft accolade but a fair signal of how many people pass through and rate it kindly (Edinburgh Evening News).
The drinks are exactly what the format promises. Expect a rotating range of cask ales at prices the George Street cocktail bars cannot touch, listed and kept to the chain's reliable standard, alongside the usual lagers, wines and spirits. Order a cask pint and the breakfast if you arrive early, because the kitchen runs all day from open. Skip the expectation of craft theatre or table service. What you get instead is value, a real ale choice and one of the finest rooms in the city to drink it in.
Who it is for is the value drinker who refuses to pay New Town cocktail prices, the early starter who wants a coffee or a breakfast pint before the shops, and the architecture watcher who wants to stand inside a Bryce banking hall. It is not for anyone after a quiet date or a curated list with a bartender's patter. For those, our guide to the best sports bars in Edinburgh and the wider Edinburgh bar guide point to better-suited rooms.
Best time to go is early, soon after the 8am open, when the hall is calm and the light fills the banking room, or a midweek afternoon for the same reason. The pub runs to 1am daily, and Friday and Saturday nights fill with a young George Street crowd, so go earlier if the building rather than the buzz is the appeal.
The cask range is the reason to put a Wetherspoon in a serious bar guide at all. The chain stocks rotating guest ales at festival time and keeps the lines turning over, which on a busy George Street means the beer is fresher than the price suggests. CAMRA lists the pub on its national database, a fair signal that the ale is taken more seriously here than the format's reputation implies (CAMRA pub listing). The trade-off is the format itself, order at the bar, no table service, and a young crowd late at the weekend. Go for the building and the value, not the polish, and the Standing Order rarely disappoints.
The Standing Order earns its place in this guide as Edinburgh's grandest budget pub, a grade-A listed bank hall that serves a well-kept, low-priced pint to anyone who walks in. For more of the city's classic rooms, keep reading our Edinburgh pubs guide.
Sources: JD Wetherspoon official page; Edinburgh Evening News; CAMRA pub listing.
