Man making miniatures of every pub in Edinburgh has his work cut out for him
The Scottish city has hundreds of pubs, many of which are, architecturally speaking, ‘higgledy-piggledey'
Artist Keith Crawley's goal is to make tiny replicas of every pub in Edinburgh.
That's a tall order for a Scottish city that boasts, according to some local tourism sites, at least 385 of them.
"This isn't going to end anytime soon," Crawley, 55, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "I hope I live long enough."
The sheer volume of drinking holes isn't the reason Crawley has his work cut out for him. These pubs aren't exactly known for their sleek and simple modern architecture.
"A lot of the old buildings, they're higgledy-piggledey. That's the only way to describe them," Crawley said, meaning disorganized and random. "They tend to have things extended, added on over the years, over the centuries."
Not really a pub guy
Since he started last summer, Crawley has created 12 miniature pubs, including The Conan Doyle and Greyfriars Bobby's Bar, and he has two more in the works. Each one, he says, takes anywhere from three days to a week to create.
It's a labour of love, he says, albeit an odd one for a man who, until recently, was uninterested in architecture and "not a big frequenter of the pubs at all."
So how does a man with no particular affinity for either pints or pillars end up on a mission to craft intricately detailed versions of his city's myriad of drinking establishments?
For Crawley, it's all about the creative process.
First, he says, he made a miniature version of his own house. It was a big hit on social media, so he started making miniatures of other people's houses, upon request.
"It was at that point I realized this is quite good fun," he said. "But I'd like to make something that a lot of people can recognize. So from that point on, I thought about pubs."
In Edinburgh, he says, you can't give someone directions without telling them which pubs are on the way.
"Everyone knows pubs," he said. "Pubs are local landmarks."
While he may not have been much of a pub-goer before, he is now.
He starts every project by looking at Google Street View images to get the general shape of the building. Then he follows up with an in-person visit to take reams of photographs, capturing every last detail of the space, no matter how seemingly insignificant.
He then uses computer software and a 3D printer to make the basic shapes out of polylactic acid, or PLA, filaments, then glues them together by hand and paints in the details.
In doing this work, he says, he's grown to understand the art of architecture.
"I'm starting to appreciate the different building styles and also the different influences of those buildings," he said.
Even, he says, the "higgledy-piggledey" ones.
Crawley says there's just something special about miniatures that draws people in.
"I remember back to when I was visiting museums and they would always have, you know, the miniature displays of things like trains or there's little Stone Age villages or things like that, and you're getting to see a whole world in one go," he said.
"You get lost in it. I can spend ages looking at them. That's the thing."
Interview produced by Leslie Amminson
