Edinburgh street food: First look at new Granton Pitt Market set to open at the end of summer

The new site will be nearly three times larger than the original Pitt Street venue and include a 700-capacity events space. In addition to food, retail and music stalls, the West Shore Road location will act as a community hub for a range of organisations, with local youth groups already on board to provide art installations at the coastal location. 

The former Pitt Street venue closed in October 2022, after developers made plans to demolish the premises to make way for housing.  

The Pitt in Granton is expected to open by the end of summer. Photo: Zaynah Galbraith | Zaynah Galbraith

Speaking to the Evening News, co-founder of The Pitt, Hal Prescott said: “We want to be a place where people can come and taste amazing food and traders can try out their business ideas and take their first steps to being self-employed. We’ll offer our traders mentorship, but the most important thing is that we create a community where traders can support each other.”

The new site will host a planned year-round indoor market in addition to a permanent outdoor street food market with around 15 stalls - more than twice the amount of the former Leith location. The premises will also have a coffee shop and bar and aims to be a ‘collaborative space for the whole community, providing significant economic and social benefits’.

Established in 2015, the team at The Pitt have supported local businesses since the beginning - mentoring traders to shape their business model and achieve success, with popular Edinburgh companies Pizza Geeks and Choola both having started at The Pitt.

The new site is three times larger than the Pitt Street venue and will be open five days a week. Photo: Zaynah Galbraith | Zaynah Galbraith

Hal said: “It’s super humbling to see people start their business, develop it and then go on to be successful and have multiple outlets. But it’s also a place where people can come to fail, where it’s not going to be as suffering as if they had got a ten-year lease on a shop for example.

“Street food is grassroots catering and hospitality and it’s great to be able to give people an opportunity to try something they always wanted to do - The Pitt is really a test bed for that.”

In recent weeks, hundreds of people were able to get a glimpse of the Granton venue when owners launched a pop-up event for Scotland’s Euro 2024 campaign - with more than 500 people attending the opening night when the national team took on hosts Germany.

With the official opening now just months away, Hal said excitement is building amongst the team, who first identified the new site more than two years ago. He said: “We looked at a lot of different places and when we found this site we knew it was the one. You’ve got the views, the regeneration project, it really felt right.

“It was great seeing people using the space during the Euro matches and the atmosphere was great. We’re looking to open at the end of the summer and we’ll shouting about our launch date when it comes around.”

For more information about The Pitt you can visit the company website.