Many years ago SPOKES had a bike workshop in a basement in Drummond Street. The idea was to provide somewhere for people to fix their own bikes. The reality was that a few people did, but more were hoping to get their bikes fixed for them!
A few years later a second bike workshop in Tollcross turned into a depressing (well it was a low ceilinged, windowless, basement) repository for unwanted junk bicycles.

Since then there has always been a feeling that a Bicycle Workshop would be a 'good idea'. But nothing has emerged until now.

The Recent Past
About six years ago SPOKES began heavily promoting "Safe Routes to School" (SR2S) following the lead of Sustrans (mainly in England). This led to the creation of Lothian Safe Routes (LSR). One school that became heavily involved in SR2S in general, and encouraging cycling in particular, was Sciennes.
Sciennes was the first school in Edinburgh to put Cycle Training on the curriculum for ALL pupils. Inevitably a few didn't have bikes, and some children didn't have safe bikes.
So began the collection and refurbishment of bikes. Bikes were lent to parents and teachers.

This led to the development of Castlecliff Bicycle Workshop on Johnston Terrace, the precursor to The Bike Station. Have a look at the website to see our previous incarnation.

We were moved out of the Johnston Terrace workshop as the building was to be converted into a hostel for homeless people. During the summer of 2002 we moved to a basement workshop directly underneath the main concourse in Waverley train Station.

In September 2006 we moved from Waverley Station to 250 Causewayside, on the south side of the city. We are deeply indebted to Network Rail and the other station staff who have been so generous in their support towards us whilst we were in the station.