Fixing the Portobello Police Station Clock

Written on 11th April 2026

I got a message from a friend today which read along the lines of “I know we were going to meet in Edinburgh today, but do you fancy meeting in Portobello instead and trying to fix the clock in the old police station with me?”

I don’t know about you, but clambering around the dusty nineteenth century clock tower of an abandoned police station sounds an ideal way to spend a Saturday afternoon to me, so I jumped at the chance.

The rather grand Portobello Police Station building.

This was in response to a message from Action Porty:

“Can you help keep Portobello on time? Action Porty has recently bought the Police Station for the community, but we can’t work out how to change the time on the clock tower! We wondered if there was anyone in the community with expertise that could advise us of the details for changing the time? Or who best to contact for help?”

The bit I hadn’t figured out was that clocks are high up. If we were to fix the clock we would be next to it and so we would also be high up. And being high up involves heights, and steep long ladders are needed to get up high.

I suppressed my whimpers at climbing up the rather high, steep ladder into the likely spider-infested darkness and was rewarded with an explore of the attic, which lead to another set of steps which went to the clock tower itself.

Once there we were rewarded with the magnificent sight of the clock mechanism and its three clock faces:

Construction of the building apparently started in 1877 and it seems quite feasible that this was an original mechanism. Modifications had been made – electric motors powered the mechanism and a control box allowed the clock chime to be turned off overnight.

The building was built to house meeting, administration and courts for Portobello burgh council. After Portobello was absorbed into Edinburgh the building became a library, and then a police station.

The Scottish Land Fund has since enabled it to be purchased for community ownership and when I went there many volunteeers were removing the 1970s polystyrene ceiling tiles and wood-chip wallpaper to reveal the original grandeur of the building.