Edinburgh City (Scotland)

Edinburgh City FC is a semi-professional football club from the Scottish capital. The current incarnation of the club were formed in 1966 under the name of Postal United FC.

The original club was formed back in 1928 and were a totally amateur outfit, gaining them the title of 'The Queen's Park of the East'. In 1931 City were elected to the Scottish League, where they joined city neighbours Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, St Bernard's and Leith Athletic. 

City struggled during their time in Division Two, finishing bottom in six out of eight seasons between 1931 and 1939, moving into City Park in 1935. They did pull off one huge shock when knocking Hibernian out of the Scottish Cup 3-2 at Easter Road during the 1937-38 season.

At the end of World War Two, City were placed in Division C of the League, but after another three seasons of struggle they departed to join the Edinburgh & District Junior League. The local council refused to renew their lease at City Park in 1955, so the club ceased to exist.

A long abandoned City Park on my visit in January 2013

The Edinburgh City Football Club Ltd (Social Club) continued to trade from their headquarters near to the junction of London Road and Leith Walk and in 1986 Postal United asked permission to use the name of Edinburgh City, which was approved. 

The club started out playing at Saughton Enclosure in the west of the city and then Paties Road, which would later become the home of Edinburgh United. After spells at City Park and then Fernieside City moved into Meadowbank Stadium when Meadowbank Thistle were uprooted and became Livingston FC in 1996.

The club continued playing in the East of Scotland League and in the 1997-98 season City defeated East Stirlingshire in the Scottish Cup before going down 7-2 to Dunfermline Athletic. The club continued to make regular appearences in the Cup after performing well in the Qualifying competition until it was scrapped in 2007.

In 2002 and 2008, City applied for a place in the Scottish League, but they lost out in the votes as first Gretna and then Annan Athletic were elected. In between those disappointments the club lifted the East of Scotland title at the end of the 2005-06 season. City continued to develop their youth and women's sections in the hope of progression in the future.

The Citizens became founder members of the Lowland League in 2013, going on to lift the league title in 2014-15 and 2015-16. The second of the triumphs saw the side defeat Highland League champions Cove Rangers and then East Stirlingshire to become members of the Scottish League under manager Gary Jardine.

From the start of the 2017-18 campaign the team decamped to Ainslie Park, home of Spartans, as Meadowbank was due to be demolished and rebuilt with the stadium on a far smaller scale. James McDonaugh took over as manager in September 2017.

Meadowbank Stadium in 2013

After a couple of lowly finishes, City ended in the play-offs in 2018-19 as Blair Henderson top scored. Clyde proved too strong in the semi-final prior to the following season’s second place offering no return as there were no play-offs owing to the outbreak of Covid-19.

McDonaugh moved upstairs to be replaced by Gary Naysmith in March 2021 as the side again ended as league runners-up. On this occasion Elgin City were dispatched before Dumbarton won the final, leaving the club just short of promotion once again. 

Meadowbank Stadium in 2013

Alan Maybury was chosen as interim manager in March 2022, carrying out a tremendous job, taking the team to promotion after Dumbarton and then Annan Athletic were defeated in the play-offs. City was dropped from the club title in the summer of 2022, as Edinburgh FC returned to Meadowbank and finished the season in sixth place with John Robertson scoring regularly.

The City moniker was restored in the summer of 2023 following the sale of the club, while Michael McIndoe replaced Maybury within a few months of the rebranding with the side bottom of the League One table.

Edinburgh City will play in the Scottish League One in the 2023-24 season.

My visits

Tuesday 29th January 2013

I was in Edinburgh for a three night break to be joined by my Dad on the Tuesday evening. This meant I had a day to fill and I could think of no better way to walk off a splendid pub crawl than to fulfil another great love of mine and visit some football clubs and their grounds. 

Our hotel was on Windsor Road, just off London Road and a goal kick away from City's social club on Baxters Place, so Meadowbank Stadium was an obvious starting point. It took around fifteen minutes to walk down the start of the A1 to the stadium. I was struggling and relieved to stumble across the customer facilities in Meadowbank Shopping Park nearby.

I was delighted to see signposts to show that City had some presence at the stadium, unlike some multi purpose venues I'd visited in the past. I continued past the Main Stand and Sports Centre and around the far end where I found an open gate to snap away.

The stadium had been built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games and was now showing signs of age. The Main Stand was a fine cantilevered 7,500 seater construction down one side. Around ten rows of open terrace and bench seating curved around the track round the rest of the arena. A huge scoreboard dominated the far end behind the goal.

Walking behind the far end up Wishaw Terrace afterwards gave me the opportunity for extra photos through the metal railings before I headed back to Sainsbury's for some much needed liquid and bananas to bring me round as I embarked on the walk up the hill to Easter Road.

I was quickly learning that Edinburgh was a large and hilly city!

Thursday 29^th July 2021

Click here for a full description of a wonderful day out in Edinburgh, which included a walk to Meadowbank on my way between Easter Road and Arthurs Seat.

Basically, it was impossible to see inside the stadium, which was a long way from being completed. Fences all the way around blocked the view, while construction workers went about their tasks. 

I know from reading reviews from those who’ve attended games since, that they have made a poor job of it, with a low long stand down one side offering poor views, while the club hope to construct something else across the far side of the pitch in the future.

The images of the new Meadowbank Stadium have been sourced from the internet.