This week, after successfully avoiding the abomination that would have been the dubbed German version, I saw Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist. The heroin use of Adrian Brody’s László Tóth and his wife Erzsébet, played by Felicity Jones, alongside the brutalism that runs central to Corbet’s gargantuan accomplishment, reminded me of the cult-classic Trainspotting, and so of the oft-forgotten, undervalued brutalist architecture of Edinburgh, yes, that even includes the main lib.
I am currently on my year abroad in Leipzig; having traded in high ceilings and the quaint facades of Bruntsfield, I’m now the proud resident in a university-owned Plattenbau. Watching The Brutalist in a city full of socialist-era concrete blocks has made me reflect on how it is often easier to admire brutalism from a distance.
The Brutalist and Trainspotting might seem worlds apart, but both use brutalist architecture as a defining backdrop. Corbet’s film transforms concrete into high art, framing it with an almost mythical grandeur. Trainspotting, on the other hand, gave us Cables Wynd House (aka the Banana Flats) – not so much as an aesthetic marvel – but as a bleak setting for heroin use, violence, and disillusionment as the home of Simon “Sick Boy” Williamson.
Beyond the Banana Flats, Leith has been transformed. With the highest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants outside London, Cables Wynd House now exists in a neighbourhood where some people dish out more for one meal than others pay for a month’s rent. In “up and coming” Leith, 29 years after Trainspotting was released, and five since Edinburgh Council listed the building Grade A, the same status afforded to Edinburgh Castle, residents of the Banana Flats continue to battle with housing that is far from glamorously cinematic.
The Cables Wynd Residents Group launched their human rights monitoring report on 30 January to Edinburgh City Chambers. Based on research carried out over the past three years, including surveys conducted with residents in 2022 and 2024, the group’s report shines light on significant issues with mould, pests, anti-social behaviour, broken lifts, delayed repairs, and poor communication. The Grade A listing of the development has, according to some residents, delayed much needed repairs even further.
Perhaps the real question is less about the beauty of brutalism, rather about why celebrating these buildings needn’t rule out taking proper care of them and those who call them home.
“Cables Wynd House” by itmpa is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.