Fat Sams Edinburgh Club, Fountainbridge burger and steak restaurant building, Property design, former meat market project images

Fat Sams, Edinburgh : Architecture

Corner of Semple Street, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland

post updated 5 November 2023

Semple Street property photo © Adrian Welch, September 2006, taken with a lumix camera

Date of original meat market’s iconic arches: 1884

Fat Sams Edinburgh

This site is understood to be subject to development plans, originally by jm architects in 2005.

was an inspired choice.

Fat Sam’s opening in 1986 inside Edinburgh’s former meat market building in Fountainbridge. It stayed open for 14 years.

The opening used an inventive marketing campaign that involved actors going about Edinburgh in a Godfather-style car, dressed in pin stripe suits and fedoras. The venue was a popular burger and steak joint.

The restaurant closed in 2000. The old building was demolished 7 years later to make way for a new office and retail development.

Buildings adjacent to Fat Sams nightclub include Scottish Widows, aerial view below showing location of Fat Sams club at top of image above Scottish Widows building:
Scottish Widows Edinburgh near Fat Sams Edinburgh
Scottish Widows building image from BDP Architects

The name Fat Sam’s is understood to have been derived from the 1976 gangster musical comedy Bugsy Malone, which starred child actors.

Views of Semple Street, looking north:

Semple St images © Adrian Welch

Exchange Place on the left, and the Scottish Widows offices to the right:

Exchange Place property photograph © Adrian Welch

Proposal for a building opposite Fat Sams on Semple Street:

Semple Street property image from Michael Laird Architects
Premier Property: Semple St building