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 Jekyll & Hyde and Hanover Street |
You find the Jekyll and Hyde on the stretch of Hanover Street that descends from George Street towards Queen Street. On a good day the views from outside the front door extend down to Leith and across the Forth Estuary to distant Fife.
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The imagery outside the pub is dark and gothic, all the way down to the real flame lamps that light the frontage. The name is pure Edinburgh and comes, of course, from the title of the Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novel: "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". The book was about good and evil, light and dark. The pub tends to focus on the darker side of its theme.
 The Bar |
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 Rear Room |
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 Looking Towards the Front Door |
One result is that if you go in on a bright sunny day, you are very unlikely to see much beyond the first couple of yards until your eyes have adjusted. Edinburgh is home to many dark pubs, but the Jekyll and Hyde probably takes the award for being the darkest.
Once you eyes have adjusted you make your way past the bar and up sets of stairs to successive levels of the pub: the further towards the rear you go, the further you have to climb. Until you get to the back, anyway, for here you find yourself looking down into a rear room that comes complete with windows and natural light. One of the levels you ascend through appears to be home to a library. Your eyes have to be especially well adjusted to realise that parts of the bookshelves form the doors to the loos.
Address: 112 Hanover
Street, EH2 1DR 
