Oxford Bar Window. The public house situated on Young Street, in the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. Rebus's local

. Oxford Bar Window. The public house situated on Young Street, in the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. Rebus's local. Photographed on 26 August 2013. The recorded location is The Oxford Bar, 8 Young Street, Edinburgh EH2 4JB. The modest Oxford Bar is a public house situated on Young Street, in the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. Inspector Rebus's local from the Ian rankin books. A super secret tourist attraction for first time visitors to the city. The Oxford Bar in Edinburgh's New Town is a small, traditional public house with a long history on Young Street and a Category B listed interior. It became internationally known through Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels, in which the fictional detective drinks there. The literary association has made an otherwise understated local pub part of Edinburgh's crime-fiction tourism, while the surviving compartmentalised bar layout preserves an older form of Scottish pub interior. In historical terms, public houses form a distinctive part of British social history, combining licensed drinking, hospitality and community life; Older pubs can reveal changing fashions in brewing, tied houses, coaching routes, urban development and leisure, while modern bars show how the licensed trade continues to adapt. The historical context is that city-centre photography documents both designed space and informal use; Architecture, signage, traffic, public art and pedestrian movement together reveal how people experience a place, often providing a more useful record of urban change than landmark images alone. During 2026, pub survival is a live issue, with government support including a 15% business-rates relief for eligible pubs and live-music venues in England during 2026/27, alongside wider debate about closures, property costs and the value of pubs as community assets. Closely associated editorial terms include licensed premises, alehouse, hostelry, bar trade, real ale, cask ale, beer culture, historic pub, and nightlife.