*Excerpt from ‘Unfiltered’ magazine (September 2020)
“Back then it was a very different place.” Those may be the kindest words founder Pip Hills uses to describe Leith in the late 1970s, from his book The Founder’s Tale. But with property prices in the centre of Edinburgh already making that part of the city impracticable, he ventured down Leith Walk to the run-down warehouses and whisky bonds around the Water of Leith in search of a more affordable option for the headquarters of the newly formed Scotch Malt Whisky Society. That’s where he discovered The Vaults.
“Some of the warehouses were very, very old and a few of them were still handsome,” he says. “Probably the finest was a four-storey building whose whinstone rubble walls were set behind a high perimeter and a gate. It was called The Vaults, the definite article indicating some pretension to uniqueness. The Vaults: not just any old vaults in a port stiff with vaulted chambers.”
Pip popped into the first-floor office of JG Thomson & Co, Scotland’s oldest wine merchants and a leading independent whisky blender, who owned the building at the time. His timing was propitious – the firm happened to be planning a move to new premises and would look favourably on any reasonable offer to buy The Vaults. “I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stiffen, in the way that they do when the zeitgeist seems to be taking command of the ship,” says Pip. “I was just delighted with it – and I’m delighted to see that it hasn’t changed.”
Much of The Vaults’ history may be lost in time, but the vaulted cellars that still exist underneath the Members’ Room are thought to date back to before 1200. Within the cellars is a rare fungus, known only in the oldest wine cellars of Europe, and brought over with the claret from Bordeaux stored here in exchange for dried fish and coal. Over the centuries, The Vaults has survived and thrived and is now an amalgamation, culminating with the most recent addition, a fourth storey that was added relatively recently – in 1785. Wine merchant James Thomson leased the building in 1753, and it subsequently became home to JG Thomson & Co – and then to The Scotch Malt Whisky Society in 1983.
Restoring and renovating The Vaults is another story in itself, as the ancient building’s bones turned out to be creakier than the surveyors had initially predicted. “I won’t go into the detail of the building’s restoration,” says Pip. “Five of us put up the cash to buy it. One of the five, Ben Tindall, undertook to act as the architect – and an excellent job he made of a horribly difficult project.”
We can be grateful to Pip and his fellow investors that whatever difficulties they encountered, the building was eventually reincarnated as the home of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and it remains so to the present day.
We call it our ‘spiritual home’, and with good reason – it’s where we now hold our Gathering at The Vaults every September, and whether you can be there in person this year or not, we hope you’ll be raising a glass to the building that still takes pride of place on our bottles and at the centre of our SMWS badge.
Everyone knows unexpected things can happen at parties. However, when a few friends got together at a home in Edinburgh's Scotland Street in 1983 it wasn't the neighbours who ended up being disturbed, but the entire Scotch whisky industry.
The afternoon's events led to the setting up of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Hosting the party was Pip Hills, and among the friends was Ben Tindall.
He had just started up his own architectural practice and had appointed Pip as his accountant. “I interviewed various people and Pip was by far the most human and entertaining,” says Ben. “He wasn't a chartered accountant, but he gave me some really sensible advice. We first met in 1982 and quickly became good friends.”
Pip had a keen interest in Scotch and was unfailingly adventurous. Following a debate with other friends on the merits of filtered and unfiltered whisky he headed off to Speyside to purchase a barrel of unfiltered single malt from the Glenfarclas distillery.
To recoup his expenses, he hosted that momentous bash. “Everyone brought along a demijohn and filled it up. It turned into one hell of a party,” says Ben.
Business in a barrel
It was during that fun-filled afternoon that the idea of buying another barrel and establishing a business first arose. “I thought it was an excellent commercial idea, but I also believe one of our aims was to continue the party. We all thought we would have lazy afternoons putting the world to right, and possibly make a little money.
“However, it wasn’t until a second, equally enjoyable, party that things became serious – that’s when we decided to do it.” 'It' was the establishment of the SMWS. There were five original members: Pip, the writer/playwright W Gordon Smith, actor Russell Hunter, Glasgow-based developer David Allison, and Ben. Pip was the glue who brought everyone together and he soon found The Vaults in Leith for sale at a price of £50,000. “The other four put in £10,000 each and I put in £10,000 worth of time and architectural expertise,” added Ben. Although it was a substantial investment, all five were confident they would succeed.
Ben took on the complicated task of getting The Vaults in order. A variety of planned uses in a listed building, which included flats and a museum of whisky, meant that an exceptional amount of complex regulations had to be met. Fired with enthusiasm, all five had a hands-on role, with David Allison's development expertise also coming in particularly useful. “Just as the first flats were ready for sale, the whole project went bankrupt,” says Ben. However, since a separate company had been created to undertake the development the SMWS was unaffected. Eventually, the work was completed by another developer. Ben explains: “When we opened the doors of the SMWS it was an instant success. Membership grew very quickly. I put that down to the quality of the product!”
He remained a director of the company with a particular responsibility for design matters. Among other things, he took on creation of the logo and labels, while early share certificates were written out in his own hand. “I enjoyed that role very much. Initially, it was very exciting. The only drawback was that we didn't have time to while away the afternoons as planned.”
Publication: Unfiltered Sep 2020
