Leith has never needed a theme. It has the docks, the sailors, the merchants and generations of stories that walked in off the water. The brief for The Keelson was simple to say and hard to do: build a new pub on The Shore that feels like it was always there.

So we left the nostalgia at the door. Brass, timber panelling, deep leather banquettes, knot studies and navigation artefacts do the storytelling quietly, layered in rather than laid on. The lighting sets the pace: warm, low and close, the kind that turns a quick pint into a long evening.

Behind the atmosphere sits the engine. Clear sightlines, easy circulation and a mix of booths and tables let the team move fast on a Friday night while the room stays calm over a Tuesday lunch.

The result is a local with nothing to prove. Familiar on the first visit. Part of Leith by the second.