Hunter square

Resting place to eat your lunch or take a break from your day out and about in Edinburgh. Shoehorned in between the Bridges, Cowgate and the Royal Mile, you’re not in the least bit likely to get any peace doing so but it is a resting place all the same.
Hunters Square is home of the Tron Kirk and some of the scariest alt kids you have ever seen. I don’t like to use «goth» as I had long hair, trench coat, baggy trousers and huge boots as a teen and one of my favourite groups was still the Bee Gees but this square is the home to some very scary children.
Grab a seat, enjoy.

Plain, nothing special…
Is in the centre of town…
Teens favourite hangout…

This square is not a particularly interesting square. I’ve sat here for the sole purpose of being able to eat my baked potato (from the Baked Potato Shop) in peace. But it’s loud, sandwiched between the Royal Mile, North Bridge and the Cowgate. It’s the meeting point of many organised protests (that I’ve been to anyway), and is the home of the Tron Kirk.
Hunter Square is also the home of the kids we call the Cockburn kids. Because they hang out between Hunter Square and Cockburn Street. They’re young 15 year old goths, who rebel on the kirk’s steps. Because. Because they can. Fag’s hanging out the side of their mouths, black make-​up lining their eyes, they should have a review unto themselves.

Hunter Square is a weird mix; the square itself is nice, the businesses around it varied, and the people that frequent it are normally loud and annoying. You will inevitably find a sulk (the collective noun) of teenage emo and metal kids, with the corresponding Slipknot hoodies and androgynous fringes. That I do no mind in itself, I’m sure I looked remarkably similar a few years ago, but they are really loud and irritating. Whether you are standing outside the Tron having a cig, or enjoying the outside area of Le Sept for a lunch break they are obnoxious and full of that teenage ‘I’m badass and don’t give a damn about everyone else, they’re all just conformists’.
However during school hours and on some evenings if you are lucky, they are not there and the square is much quieter. If you’re looking for a restaurant, Le Sept is a brilliant French one, one of the best in Edinburgh, selling an exceptional rack of lamb. Creelers, just down from it is a good seafood restaurant. As well as that you have Chocolate Soup, on the corner of Hunter Square and the Mile, a great little café, the Thai red curry soup is awesome.
On the other side you have the Tron, a Scream pub and a good laugh too, with pretty cheap drinks. Just across the road is the easily missable Whistle Binkies, one of the few live music venues in Edinburgh. It is pricey and a bit hot in summer, but you generally get good music and the atmosphere is great.
To cap it off you have the Tron Kirk, an old, and quite imposing church on the mile. THe square has a little bit for everyone

Tucked behind the Royal Mile, and connecting it to Soutbridge and Blair St, is Hunter Square, one of the more interesting squares in Edinburgh.
As Fiona already mentioned, here you can see the Tron Kirk, an interesting church built by rebelling clergymen after Charles I made the High St Kirk into St Giles in effort to impose Anglican church structures. Its named after weighing scales (called a tron) which used to be housed here. The kirk is now used as a tourist information centre.
Just off of Hunter Square is another interesting building, Marlin’s Wynd, which sounds a bit rude. Actually this building contains, at least in part, and old 16^th century cellar which is now used for functions.
On the more pedestrian front, Hunter Square also houses Le Sept restaurant, the well known Tron bar, Chocolate soup, and, who could guess, a Starbucks. Yes even next to centuries old historic houses, a very important church and on one of the most culturally significant streets, you will find Starbucks, turning the extraordinary into the mundane.
For some reason Hunter Square is a popular site for angsty teenagers to brood. This only becomes irritating when there is a whole crowd, particularly during the Festival period.
An interesting historic square that you need only stroll through to appreciate.

Not quite as big a hub of activity as you’d expect from a square in the middle of Edinburgh’s main tourist district, Hunter Square is still bustling enough and has a few decent cafes and pubs surrounding it’s sides. There’s also a modern hotel, whose name I forget but I think it might be The Ibis.
As mentioned below, Chocolate Soup is perhaps it’s main attraction, a café that has a fairly polarising effect where some love it’s creamy, cocoa laden goodness and others find it disgusting. I’m one of the latter.
There’s also some unintentional comedy that stems from a couple of large sculptures that are meant to look like baskets of fruit. In truth, rather than oranges and pears, they just look like baskets of amputated testicles. Funny if a bit low-​brow.

If it weren’t for the pigeons and the hordes of 14 year old Emo kids that clutter up this square in equally irritating measure, this would definitely be a 5 star review.
It houses the oldest church in the city, The Tron Kirk, so it immediately has plenty to offer in terms of culture and heritage. On the opposite side of the square is the cheap and cheerful Tron pub (part of the Scream chain), but it’s the side that links these two which is my favourite.
Le Sept is an okay french restaurant, although it does do a good value 2 Course lunch menu for £9 which is excellent value for money given the location. But as you move along this side of the square it gets even better: Creelers is one of my favourite restaurants in the city. If you don’t like seafood, you’d have problems here, but if you do then this place is almost on a par with Fishers. They also offer a similarly priced set lunch menu, and although theirs offers fewer options to choose from I’d say the quality is much better. But the best is next door, in the form of the lovely, if a little bikini unfriendly, Chocolate Soup. Part café, part patisserie, part heaven, you can’t come to Edinburgh and not sample this place.
Most tourists will have visited this square without realising what it’s called, as you can’t miss it: it’s right on the crossroads of the Royal Mile and North Bridge.

It is really square, but a small square of a radius of 2 metres if we don’t count the steps and the toilets at the back. It is located next to a tower on the corner of High Street, or Royal mile, and South bridge. Popular meeting spot surrounded with one of the best and most visited pubs and cafes like the Chocolate soup, Le Sept, Ibis hotel, Tron restaurant, Cabaret Voltaire music club. There is a weird monument in its centre which is pretty unidentifiable. On mornings, around 11 am, there are big crowds of tourists ready to run after a guide for a 3 hour free walking tour around the city or in the evening waiting to join any of the multiple ghost tours still a luring tourist attraction.