Custom Lane
Leith's design-driven coworking, café, and event space where creativity meets community.
Photos
About
If you're wandering along the Shore in Leith, keep an eye out for Custom Lane's stone façade and arched windows — it's the neighbourhood's creative powerhouse. Inside, the ground floor buzzes with freelancers at custom cork-lined desks, the café pours some of the best in-house-roasted coffee in town, and the light-filled exhibition space hosts ever-changing design shows. Grab a hot desk for a tenner, book the meeting room for a brainstorm, or drop in for weekly yoga — just check their events calendar because the Architecture Fringe and other collaborations pop up regularly. Free on-street parking and EV chargers make it easy to visit, and the whole place is wheelchair accessible.
Facilities
Community Venue
Custom Lane is a collaborative centre for design and making, offering coworking spaces, an exhibition space, event space, café, and community workshop, and hosting various activities such as yoga classes, exhibitions, and workshops.
Coworking Space
Custom Lane is a collaborative centre for design and making, offering a ground floor coworking space adjacent to an exhibition space and café, with custom desks for focused work in a welcoming, creative environment.
Creative Hub
Custom Lane is a collaborative centre for design and making, offering coworking spaces, exhibition and event areas, a café, and a community workshop, all within a thriving local creative community in Leith, Edinburgh.
Dining
An artisan coffee shop/cafe is available on site.
Fitness Classes
Custom Lane offers weekly yoga classes with Cecilia, providing an opportunity to unwind and reconnect.
Work & Study Spaces
High-speed WiFi is available for seamless communication and collaboration.
Custom Lane provides a coworking space with custom desks and high-speed WiFi in a creative, collaborative environment.
Full Description
Custom Lane is a collaborative centre for design and making, located at 1 Customs Wharf, Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 6AL, United Kingdom. It is operated by POD Point (UK) and was designed by the award-winning Scottish design studio GRAS, who used natural raw materials to create a light, open, inspiring space. The venue is wheelchair accessible, has WiFi, heating, air conditioning, a lounge area, kitchen, personal lockers, free drinking water, free coffee, and a café. Parking is available (free on-street) and there are EV charging points (15x Type 2 sockets, 7 kW each, Level 2). The business is operational with a Google rating of 4.5 from 41 reviews and a 4.83 rating on coworker.com from 7 reviews. The multi-functional building encompasses coworking desks (hot desks and dedicated desks), an exhibition space, an event space, a meeting room, an artisan café, a designer retailer, and a community workshop. The ground floor coworking area is open Monday to Friday 8am-5pm (studio opening times) and Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 9am-4pm. Hot-desking costs £5 per half day or £10 per day. Dedicated desks are available on a month-to-month rolling contract for £175-£200/month, offering 24/7 access to key-holding residents, a lockable desk with cork-lined interior, and access to studio kitchen, meeting room, WiFi, and print facilities. Coworking space amenities include WiFi, heating, air conditioning, lounge area, kitchen, personal lockers, free drinking water, free coffee, and an on-site café. The space accepts credit cards, debit cards, and NFC payments. The event spaces can be hired separately: the Event Space (up to 60 seated, 80 standing, from £297 hire fee) features natural light, a flatscreen TV, projector, and is suitable for fabrication projects, talks, networking, performances, workshops, and social events. The Exhibition Space (up to 60 seated/standing, from £214 hire fee) is a gallery space for design-focused exhibitions, retail pop-ups, product launches, and photoshoots. The Meeting Room (up to 8 seated, 20 standing, from £111 hire fee) is ideal for meetings, presentations, workshops, and photo shoots. Each space has WiFi and a projector; the Meeting Room also has conference call facilities. Catering is available in-house or external catering is allowed (all waste must be removed). Cancellation policy: full refund for cancellations 60+ days in advance, 50% refund for 30-60 days, non-refundable within 30 days. Custom Lane hosts a regular programme of events. These include weekly yoga classes (Yoga with Cecilia, register via channel22.co.uk), exhibitions such as 'Communal Infrastructures' by Architecture Fringe (17-26 April 2026) with an opening preview and a Communal Synergies Workshop, 'Made by Land & Sea' by Daniel Freytag (8 May-29 April 2026), and a closing party for 'Dōr x Custom Lane' (1 May 2026). The space also offers a newsletter subscription and online booking via optixapp. The venue is a collaborative platform created to identify, support, and celebrate emerging world-class design in Scotland. It has an artisan coffee shop (coffee roasted in-house), a designer retailer, and a community workshop. The building was designed by GRAS and photography is by ZAC and ZAC, who retain image copyright. The community is described as thriving, with residents taking ownership of the concept and space, creating a productive culture. Reviews highlight the amazing community, great coffee, decent studio spaces, and excellent communication from the venue manager (Dieny Itoe). Custom Lane is a Trusted Tagvenue Partner with a record of successful bookings. It is located near public transport (Kirkgate Centre and Duke Street bus stops), parking at Shore Car Park and Aldi Leith, and nearby hotels such as Ocean Mist, Malmaison Edinburgh, The Shore View Apartment, and Fingal. It is popular for parties, meetings, conferences, function rooms, corporate events, photo studios, filming locations, rehearsal studios, and performances.