The Graham Brown House (GBH) is the spiritual home of the Mountaineering Club; it's where the Dempster Wallace Memorial Library is housed, where guidebooks and maps can be hired, and often where socials and talks occur or end up.

Every year six club members move into GBH as the new custodians of the club's home. GBH annually hosts two fancy dress parties and the occasional other social, often including potlucks, movie nights and sock wrestling.

To find GBH, go to 5/1 Nicolson Street. Google Maps might try and direct you to the original Graham Brown House - this is very much not where we currently reside!

History

The mountaineering club flat first came about when the accomplished alpinist and university academic Thomas Graham Brown allowed club members to live on the first floor of his Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh's West End, while he resided in the dark and dusty ground floor, apparently only emerging to get stuck into some legendary Yummickry.  After Graham Brown's death, he left the flat to the University as student accommodation, with the stated preference that it be occupied by future members of the EUMC, and so GBH was borne. That flat was later sold and replaced by a large house to the south of Edinburgh (Be careful not to end up here on your first venture to GBH, but if you do, please pick up some of our lost mail!)  In the 1990s,  the University decided to sell the house, the club was evicted from GBH, and Yummicks spent a worrisome few years lost and homeless. The Dempster Wallace memorial library was divided among members to carry with them to whichever street corner they chose to occupy... Finally, after much campaigning and help from alumni the club was rehomed to where it now finds itself 5/1 Nicolsoin Street! Please treat our beloved home with respect, there are many important artefacts and historical documents housed here and, despite its somewhat grotty appearance, we are very comfortable here and would very much like to keep our agreement with the University on good terms.

Graham Brown was an eminent neurophysiologist and prolific mountaineer, who pioneered several first ascents on the Brenva face of Mont Blanc, as well as first ascents of Mount Foraker in Alaska and was part of the team involved in the first ascent Nanda Devi in the Himalaya, although he did not summit the mountain himself.

For more information on Graham Brown, check out this PDF.