Steve Small is nonplussed. The theatre director and producer has been working with young people in Scotland’s Capital for 25 years, using the power of drama and language to help them navigate the complex problems they face in their lives.

In particular, he fears that in the fight against Edinburgh’s growing knife crime problem and youth violence there is a danger that the ongoing funding crisis is costing society one of the most powerful and effective weapons in its arsenal.

Edinburgh Integration Joint Board – the city council and NHS Lothian organisation which delivers the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership – has seen its acute funding crisis force delivery of extensive cuts.

These cuts have often fallen on organisations that the EIJB has previously worked with extensively and valued greatly.

Among the smallest, but perhaps deepest, of these cuts has been the complete de-funding of the previously agreed work of Leith-based charity Strange Town Theatre, which Steven heads, within our schools. It was entitled “The Future is Unwritten” and already three plays have been toured and seen by thousands of pupils, and also through public performances.

One of the key components of that work was specially commissioned play, Balisong, designed to raise awareness of the danger of knife carrying and crime amongst school pupils in the city, and this had been earmarked for the next round of the programme. Now cancelled.

“Some even handed weapons in”

But in its previous performances in schools in 2017 and then in 2018/19 it struck home after being toured to schools in the Capital and beyond, where it was seen by around 40,000 young people who then opened up to teachers, and engaged in meaningful dialogue about the part knives play in their lives. Steven said: “Some even handed weapons in.”

During its first run, it received the official Scottish Government stamp or approval after then Justice Secretary Michael Matheson attended a performance of The Balisong at Ardrossan Academy, then said: “Some young people previously indicated they would not tell anyone if someone they knew was in possession of a knife. What I witnessed, and what I’m told is taking place in other schools, is the instant behaviour change The Balisong delivers.”

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Reform UK candidate runs diversity training courses which her party wants scrapped

Reform UK’s top candidate in the Lothians runs courses promoting diversity in the workplace despite her party promising to scrap such work in councils and the NHS.

Angela Ross is in line to become an MSP as Reform UK’s top candidate on the Lothians regional list - given the party’s consistent high polling - and is the party’s candidate for Edinburgh Eastern, Musselburgh and Tranent in the Scottish Parliament election on 7 May.

She is the co-founder of Sub 10 Ltd, a company providing employers with compliance training, including diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) courses.

The company ran diversity training for Northumbria Police in 2020, and Ms Ross delivered a talk promoting National Inclusion Week in 2022, including a section on “unconscious bias” and how to identify protected characteristics.

Details of her diversity work were reported in The Daily Telegraph and have been independently verified by The Inquirer.

Nigel Farage has said he would scrap diversity training on public bodies, claiming it would save £7bn a year. Official figures suggest the UK Government spent just £27m on DEI work in 2022-23.

Reform UK now says Ms Ross “shares our view that many diversity, equity and inclusion programmes have gone too far, becoming bureaucratic, divisive and often ineffective. Having seen these initiatives from the inside, she is well placed to understand their shortcomings. Reform UK’s position is clear: We support equality under the law and merit-based opportunity, but we oppose costly, box-ticking exercises that do not deliver real results.”

Ms Ross declined to comment when contacted by The Inquirer.

With widespread calls for tactical voting to stop Reform UK, there is no consistent advice for how to do this in the Lothians. Reform are not expected to challenge for any constituency seats here, but are seen as likely to win one or two seats on the regional list, which is designed to reward parties who attract significant numbers of votes without winning any first-past-the-post constituency seats. Some suggest, therefore, avoiding giving your list vote to parties that are already dominant locally, and instead voting for ‘smaller’ parties who best align with your views. However, this can be hard to predict. Forward Democracy, the grassroots campaign that supported tactical voting against Reform UK in the Gorton byelection in Manchester, are yet to offer advice for seats in Edinburgh on their campaign site StopReformUK.vote.

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

CLOONEY SPOTTING: Keep your eyes peeled for celebrities on Thursday when George Clooney, Sir Bob Geldof and Rob Brydon are in town for the British Business Awards. Last year’s awards raised £1.2m for the homelessness charity Social Bite. The awards night is once again being held at the EICC. Guest stars to have appeared in previous years include Leonardo DiCaprio and Sting.

ROBOT (FUNDING) WARS: The chief executive of the National Robotarium, based at Heriot-Watt University’s campus at Riccarton, has dramatically quit in a funding row. Stewart Miller, who was previously chief technology officer at the UK Government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, announced his resignation on LinkedIn, over the university’s failure to back a bid for up to £7.5m funding from his previous employer. He accused the university of “(undermining) all of my efforts over five years to establish and grow the National Robotarium to the position of respect and prominence it now has in the UK and in Europe”. Heriot-Watt said it was “fully committed to the continued success of the National Robotarium” and the decision was taken after “careful consideration to ensure alignment with requirements and compliance with funding regulations”.

FUTURE OF THE TRUTH: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is to address the subject of the future of the truth at an event in Edinburgh. The Internet entrepreneur will be the star speaker at DataFest 2026 at the Assembly Rooms on 27-28 May.

LADS’ INSTITUTE LISTED: The former Lads’ Institute at Ratcliffe Terrace, Causewayside, has been awarded Category C listed status. The distinctive Arts and Crafts building was built between 1906 and 1907 as a recreational club. Proposals to demolish it to make way for student housing were rejected by the city council last year.

24HR GAMBLING PEOPLE: A former Pizza Hut premises on Hanover Street would be turned into a 24-hour-a-day casino under plans submitted to the city council. The applicants Luxury Leisure already operate a round-the-clock Admiral Casino on Shandwick Place.

CANNES DO: Film Edinburgh - the office which helps filmmakers find locations, crews and facilities in southeast Scotland - has been nominated for a global award for its work supporting the shooting of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein in Edinburgh and East Lothian. The winner of the Film Commission of the Year will be announced at the Screen's Global Production Awards 2026 during the Cannes Film Festival next month.

TRAM AD BANS: One of the UK’s biggest engineering firms has told MPs how it has been blocked from advertising on the city’s trams due to its work with military defence systems. Giving evidence to the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee, Mark Stead, senior vice-president for radar and advanced targeting at Leonardo, said the city council had stopped the trams from carrying ads for apprentices at its base at the city’s Crewe Toll. “The term defence sometimes carries a stigma,” he said. “As we said earlier, a national resilience conversation has to happen and it’s starting, I think, but it’s going to gather pace and needs to because people, at the individual, local and societal level, need to feel and understand what resilience really means.”

HERITAGE HERO: Tributes have been paid to city conservationist Oliver Barratt following his death at the age of 84. The Cockburn Association described him as “one of the most influential figures in the conservation of Edinburgh’s historic environment during the late twentieth century.” Among his achievements, he is credited with resisting large-scale demolition in the Southside between the early-1970s and early-1990s, and giving communities a stronger voice in the planning process.

Pic of the week

THE BUSINESS

Capital flights facing disruption within weeks

Edinburgh Airport Chief Executive Gordon Dewar’s warning of the growing risk of travel disruption due to the war in Iran, and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has highlighted a vicious circle of supply chain circumstances.

The UK depends heavily on imported jet fuel, with around a quarter sourced from Kuwait alone with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also major suppliers. This concentration leaves the UK as the most exposed nation in Europe, exacerbated by our closure of the Grangemouth refinery which once refined the bulk of jet fuel for our airports.

Scotland must now depend on four refineries in England, which in turn provides a lower capacity than most competitor nations.

Gordon Dewar said disruption was almost certain from June unless a solution was found quickly: “Obviously everyone’s trying to work out what’s going on and as it stands, with the strait still being closed, then that disruption is growing. It’s not getting any less. I wouldn’t tell people to not book or cancel at the moment. I think that would be an overreaction.”

Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, confirmed the over-reliance on exports from Kuwait and the wider Gulf and warned that even a modest disruption, affecting 10% to 20% of supply, could force airlines to reduce capacity. He is quoted by the Guardian as saying: “Nobody is willing to give us any assurances into June or July. But if there’s a risk to 10% or 20% of the fuel supply in June, July or August, then we and all other airlines would have to start looking at cancelling some flights or taking some capacity out.”

Industry website Supply Chain Digital said: “If disruption to fuel flows continues into the summer, the question may shift from when UK flights could start being cancelled to how widespread those cancellations become.”

Edinburgh Airport flies to 155 destinations around the world, through 37 airlines which carry almost 16 million passengers a year. Long haul destinations – such as flights to USA and Asia – are likely to see least disruption while domestic flights are most at risk. Flights within Europe with high frequency, such as flights to Paris or Amsterdam, are more likely to see some cancellations, given the alternatives provides by the frequency of the service.

The Airport announced that it delivered £2.7 billion in economic value last year, supporting some 44,000 jobs in Scotland.

FIRST BID: Edinburgh’s Business Improvement District company, Essential Edinburgh, has become the first BID in Scotland to complete the rigorous evaluation process to become a Certified B Corporation™ based on social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. It already enjoys both British BIDs and Scotland’s Improvement Districts Accreditation. Emily Campbell Johnston, Senior Manager for Marketing & Communications at Essential Edinburgh said the company has always put our members and city centre community at the heart of all decision making. We were established to be a collaborative organisation, driven forward through meaningful partnerships for the benefit and betterment of Edinburgh City Centre for employers, workers, residents and visitors.”

HAMPDEN SOAR: Edinburgh-based Hampden Bank broke through £1 billion of client deposits during 2025, up 13% to £1.12 billion. Loans and advances also an increase, up almost ten per cent to £640 million. The Bank made a pre-tax profit of £7 million, down from a little over £8 million the previous year. CEO Tracey Davidson maintained the bank remained on course to achieve its strategic target of £20 million pre-tax profit by 2030.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

FIRE FEST: If you are quick, you can still grab tickets for this year’s Beltane Fire Festival on Calton Hill on Thursday from 7.30pm. Welcome the arrival of summer with fire, dramatic storytelling and ancient ritual.

BEHIND THE DOOR: The city’s grassroots arts festival, Hidden Door, has announced its lineup for its “last shift” at the abandoned Paper Factory on the west of the city on 3-7 June. More than 100 creatives will present live music, immersive art installations, dance performances, poetry and unique collaborations over the weekend.

BRIGHT LEGACY: The Dovecot is to mark five years since the death of one of Scotland’s greatest modern painters with a special exhibition Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in Colour from 20 June to 14 November. As well as showcasing her fascination with colour, a central focus will be her collaborations with Dovecot Studios across more than 50 years which produced more than 30 tapestries and hand-tufted rugs.

QUICK BITES

PIZZA THE ACTION: A New York inspired pizza kitchen has opened at Bonnie & Wild at the St James Quarter. Flùr is the brainchild of Ivan Stein, co-founder of The Gannet, who took inspiration from the pizzerias of the Big Apple, and has consulted global pizza consultant Anthony Falco for his support in developing the pizza recipe and flavours.

OTTOLENGHI FIRST: Renowned chef Yotam Ottolenghi is to open his first Scottish restaurant on George Street this autumn, overseen by Scottish-born executive head chef Neil John Campbell.

CAFÉ CRÈME: The Boardwalk Beach Club at Marine Drive in Silverknowes, next to the Cramond foreshore, was named Best Café at the recent Scotland’s Business Show Awards.

“It’s about us having somewhere we can call our own, where we can open our doors, and it feels like we have a bit more agency.”

Kim McAleese is tired of borrowing space. Since its inception in 2004, the Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) has operated as a glamorous squatter, reliant on partner galleries and temporary leases to carve out room during the August madness. For years, the festival’s nerve centre has been a modest administrative office tucked inside the French Institute of Scotland on West Parliament Square, writes Will Quinn.

That model ends this August. As the UK’s largest annual visual art festival prepares to launch its 2026 iteration, McAleese is leading the organisation to a less nomadic existence. The EAF is putting down permanent roots with a new public-facing headquarters at 92 Constitution Street in Leith.

“Currently, in the building we’re in, we just have an office space,” McAleese explains. “EAF tends to operate in lots of different parts of the city in spaces that we can borrow, whereas this new headquarters gives us an event space and an exhibition space to do work all year round.”

Leaving the Old Town for Leith’s creative grit

Taking up residence on The Shore, and not the New Town, isn’t (just) an ideological pivot. As any Edinburgh resident knows, the property market is rather broken, and the cultural sector is not immune.

“Everything costs money!” McAleese notes with the candour of a director who has stared down one too many venue invoices. However, it’s amazing what an ample supply of ‘Can-Do’ spirit can achieve. It was a highly successful trial run that, at least in part, sparked the move. “Last year, we had a pavilion space at the top of Leith Walk, and it was amazing,” she recalls. “I think that put it in our minds.”

“If we had the flexibility,” they thought, “of being able to open our doors to put on an exhibition for a week, to have an archive people could visit, or run events without always paying rental fees for other spaces…”

In the end, it was simple: “It’s about us having somewhere we can call our own.”

Decamping from the Palladian splendour of The French Institute matches McAleese’s curatorial compass, though she admits it is the formalisation of an existing geographical drift. “We do things everywhere, but in the past couple of years, there’s been an increasing presence within Leith,” she points out. “For example, our closing performance was by a movement and dance artist called Les Walker, and that was at First Stage Studios on the docks in Leith.”

“There’s a really interesting, young, and quite entrepreneurial community of people doing amazing things in Leith,” she observes. “If you look at its historical roots as a working-class place where people were self-organised, it has its own identity. There’s just something about the spirit of that place that felt very in line with the artists we want to work with and the work we want to present - thinking about overlooked histories or giving a platform to people who have historically been marginalised.”

Anchoring the festival on Constitution Street isn’t about retreating from the wider capital; it is about establishing a base camp that mirrors this ethos. “You see a lot of that in Leith, and it felt very in line with what EAF is trying to do at the minute,” McAleese adds, “whilst also maintaining connections across all our partners throughout the city.”

To further strip away the intimidating white-cube image, which can easily alienate wider audiences, this physical anchor will be flanked by a new welcome hub at Brown’s of Leith. “At Brown’s of Leith, you can go in, speak to people about the festival, buy merch and artists’ editions, and have a cocktail, a glass of wine, or a pizza,” she points out. It is a clear effort to establish the EAF as a neighbourhood fixture rather than a temporary imposition.

Queer archives and alternative histories

When a cohort of frustrated gallery directors banded together to launch the EAF twenty-two years ago, their strategy was essentially defensive. Visual arts had been quietly severed from the official Edinburgh International Festival programme in the 1960s, leaving major summer exhibitions to be routinely drowned out by the deafening, profitable churn of the Fringe. The EAF was built to reclaim August.

Under McAleese’s directorship, that fight for visibility may be coming to an end. The festival has pivoted away from acting as a temporary summer megaphone toward a model of sustained, year-round civic intervention. The programming slated for the new Leith venues firmly backs up her assertion that “everything we do definitely has a social justice lens.”

At the new Constitution Street headquarters, the festival will mount Love Bites Back, a show by photographer Del LaGrace Volcano drawn from the Queer Archive of Resistance.

“They are presenting work that has never been seen from a time when they lived in Edinburgh with their then lover, Sylvia,” McAleese says, her enthusiasm palpable. “They’ve unearthed an archive of gorgeous photos and scanned all the negatives of them out and about in Edinburgh. I can’t wait for people to see that.”

Down the road at Custom Lane, audiences will encounter Carnal Desires, a rare UK exhibition by Sadao Hasegawa, the post-war Japanese gay fetish artist whose hypermasculine paintings have long remained virtually inaccessible outside his home country. In the same venue, Ellis Jackson Kroese of Trans Masc Studies will present History is a Home, an interactive trans masculine archive designed as a functional workspace for visitors.

This compulsion to drag buried narratives into the light extends across the city’s twenty-five partner galleries. At the City Art Centre, Start from the Level will be the largest-ever presentation of photography by the late Sandra George, a community worker who spent 30 years intimately documenting social-action projects across Edinburgh.

“To think about what we’re showcasing this summer, we’re showing work by queer photographers that are 50 years old - amazing lesbian photographers that have never really had their moment,” McAleese notes.

Radical acts in colonial settings

Art festivals are notorious for parachuting into working-class postcodes, throwing a launch party, and vanishing. McAleese has no interest in hit-and-run curation. She points to a landmark 2022 project as proof of the festival’s commitment to slow activism.

“When I first joined the festival in 2022, there was a landmark project we were doing in a shopping centre in Wester Hailes called the Community Wellbeing Collective,” she recalls. “They now have a long-term residence and a building that they manage themselves, and we still have very strong and tight relationships with them.”

This willingness to tackle fraught political realities seems hardwired into McAleese’s history. “I love Scotland,” she says. “I was born and bred in Belfast, and I did a lot of work in public space because, for a long time, public space was really contested - and arguably still is - in the North of Ireland. We were going through a civil war.”

That lived experience informs her approach to programming within Edinburgh’s highly curated, colonial-era architecture. Take the festival’s collaboration with Brazilian artist Davi Pontes. Placing a queer, Black artist in the historically loaded environment of the Royal Botanic Garden to interrogate physical endurance and climate justice is an undeniably subversive move.

“We’re co-commissioning a performance with a beautiful, energetic queer dance artist who will be in residence here in Edinburgh, making a performance in the Botanic Gardens,” McAleese details. “A lot of their work is about their identity as a Black person within the Global South and how that relates to the body.”

This appetite for disruption isn’t confined to satellite spaces. “We’ve got sculptors who are going to be intervening in public spaces with big landmark projects popping up in the middle of the city,” McAleese teases, pointing to a desire to force visual art into the daily commute.

This global dialogue expands further towards the end of August, when the EAF formally partners with the Falastin Film Festival for a dedicated final-weekend focus on Palestinian and Lebanese artists.

But the EAF’s commitment to these narratives will actually extend across the entire month. “One thing I’m really proud of this year is that we’re working with the newly formed Palestine Museum on Dundas Street to co-present a programme,” McAleese states.

That collaboration manifests in the Majazz Project, a festival-long installation by artist Mo’min Swaitat. Through a series of listening parties, audiences will be given access to an extraordinary archive of Palestinian records - spanning everything from Bedouin field recordings to revolutionary albums from the Intifadas.

“I think it’s amazing that we have that in our city,” she adds, “and their director, Faisal and I have been chatting for a long time about what we could do together.”

Surviving the Scottish arts funding crisis

Championing diasporic artists and feminist histories is only half the equation; the other is ensuring creatives can actually afford to pay their rent.

The visual arts sector in Scotland hasn’t so much been battered by funding crises as put through a financial meat grinder. McAleese is confronting this economic reality directly through the festival’s restructured PLATFORM initiative. Moving away from the short-term burst of an August show, it now operates as a sustained eighteen-month residency model designed to offer genuine financial security.

“This year, we’ve rethought it so that over an 18-month period, two artists will be supported with a £10,000 fee, plus production money and an exhibition,” McAleese details. “That’s really thinking about long-term support. Those artists are Olivia Priya Foster and Moira Salt. They will be with us over the next 18 months, doing a small in-conversation event this year, and next year they’ll have a big solo show.”

Structural support cannot stop at isolated festival grants. The conversation inevitably turns to national policy and the fragile economics of a creative life in the UK.

“Thinking about artists’ living and working conditions is vital,” she stresses. “It’s interesting you bring that up because I know the SNP have been toying with introducing a basic universal income for artists, similar to what Ireland has. I was just fresh from a meeting with someone who works for the Irish government, and we were chatting about the successes of the Irish universal basic income. I would love to see something like that rolled out here.”

Relying on shifting governmental policy for survival is, of course, a precarious waiting game. “We’ll see what happens with the elections!” she adds, with a dry, pragmatic edge.

The 2026 EAF Programme

Despite the intense local focus on the new Leith headquarters and Scottish arts funding, the sheer scale of the EAF’s August footprint remains formidable. The original 2004 mandate of unifying the visual arts sector has simply been sharpened, drawing together twenty-five distinct partner institutions under a single curatorial banner.

“As a network, we’re very interconnected, personally and professionally,” McAleese says of this sprawling, pan-city coalition. “Seeing all those different institutional structures, the pace at which people operate, and the opportunities for us to work together is fantastic. EAF is uniquely placed in that way; you don’t get it in many different cities. I think it’s a real strength and in the foundations of who we are.”

Indeed, I don’t think enthusiasts for the city’s art-scene come any more motivated…

“There’s such a vast range of things to see here,” she notes. “I’m sitting in the National Galleries right now and I’ve just come from the RSA show, which is a showcase of 60 emerging artists who have just graduated. There’s going to be a beautiful photography show by an artist I adore called Catherine Opie. The Fruitmarket is presenting an Eva Rothschild show, an amazing Irish sculptor who I really love. The partners bring a lot to EAF.”

That collaborative energy extends outward to the city’s fringes, where Sgàire Wood will take over the Jupiter Rising mini-festival at Jupiter Artland, and up the hill to Collective, where Katie Paterson is installing nearly two hundred amulets crafted from endangered ecosystems. Managing this beast of an itinerary is an administrative titan, but it is friction that the director clearly relishes.

“I also get really excited by the pace of an annual festival,” she admits. “It can be tough going for some, but I get a lot of energy from it, and I know the partners do too.”

The festival officially launches on August 14th at the Biscuit Factory, just around the corner from the new office. It will feature “an amazing artist from Orkney called Magnus Westwell,” McAleese notes. Crucially, this isn’t just a gig booked to fill an opening night slot. “They’re going to launch the festival with a snippet of a new performance that we’re working on over the next 18 months.” It perfectly encapsulates the festival’s shifting rhythm: long-term cultivation replacing short-term spectacle.

It feels, I suggest to her, like an organisation finally moving out of a borrowed bedroom and into its own home.

“I hope so,” she warmly agrees. This year, that energy is firmly anchored in Leith. As the August rush approaches, the festival is finally unlocking the doors to a space that belongs to them, ready to welcome the city inside. “In August,” McAleese promises, “I’ll invite everyone for a housewarming.”

But once the doors are open, the real work begins. The EAF is no longer content to simply hang pictures on historic walls for three weeks; it exists to question the foundations entirely. It is a politically charged, historically conscious project that looks ready to permanently alter Edinburgh’s cultural geography.

“We’re so interconnected in the world, and whenever I move around a city, I’m always thinking about the colonial histories, the intangible histories, and how the city was built,” McAleese reflects. “In a city like Edinburgh, which is undeniably stunning, there are so many different layers you can interrogate.”

Ultimately, that is what this new era of the festival is built to do.

“Hopefully, you find that within our festival programme,” she concludes. “We’re quite bold in trying to ask questions about difficult histories or the difficult present.” Housewarming? Kim McAleese and the newly Leith-centred Edinburgh Art Festival sound as if they are lighting a fire.

We don’t normally think of innovators as using technology that was invented before Queen Victoria was on the throne. That is exactly what events worker turned entrepreneur Callum Ross has done.

Faced with massive city centre congestion at the height of the tourist season, his solution was as simple as it has proved effective. Sarah McArthur met the Cycling Gardeners to find out more for today’s long read.

More on that below, but first your regular midweek news roundup and your cultural highlights for the week ahead.

Your Edinburgh Briefing

OBSERVATORY ‘AT RISK’: Union leaders are warning the future of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh on Blackford Hill is “at risk” as a result of a UK Government funding review. The Prospect union says it may face cuts of 5% in its national laboratory funding and 30% in project grants. The Science and Technology Facilities Council says its funding review is ongoing has yet to reach conclusions.

MARKING BOYCOTT: University staff are to stage a marking and assessment boycott from 1 May in their ongoing protest against £140 million cuts and an estimated at 1800 job losses. University Principal Sir Peter Mathieson said he was “profoundly disappointed, disheartened and frustrated that UCU (the University College Union) Edinburgh members have again voted in favour of purposefully targeting our students”.

STOTT OF THE POPS: Grant Stott, Edinburgh’s favourite DJ cum panto villain, is to return as presenter of Radio Scotland’s prestigious Afternoons show on Mondays to Thursdays. He will replace the current presenting line-up of Michelle McManus, Len Pennie, and Nicola Meighan, after May 29.

BRIBERY BANKER JAILED: A former relationships manager with RBS has been jailed for 21 months. Stuart Holloway, 49, who worked at the bank’s St Andrew Square office from 2010 until being suspended in 2016, admitted seeking payments to the tune of £275,000 in exchange for releasing customers from personal guarantees or otherwise treating them more favourably.

NEW TOWN HOTEL: Plans for a 143-bedroom Dakota Hotel on the corner of Dundas Street and Fettes Row have been lodged with the city council. The boutique hotel would replace two 7-storey 1980s office blocks, Centrum House and Bupa House.

LEAKS SHUT VENUE: Bannerman’s Bar, the award-winning music venue in the Cowgate, has had to change plans for more than 40 gigs due to ongoing problems with water leaking into the venue. It will close for at least two months from 26 April for major work to tackle the problem. The gigs affected are being rescheduled or moved to alternative venues where possible.

ROWERS’ APPEAL: The Edinburgh-based rowing club the St Andrews Boat Club has launched a fundraiser to help replace five boats and a trailer worth £100,000 destroyed in a serious motorway crash. The club, based on the Union Canal, at Meggetland, were returning from a training camp in Chester when the crash took place. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops

Greetings, Pop Pickers!

As April barrels towards its conclusion, the volume of arts programming in Edinburgh is starting to mount up. You’d be forgiven for thinking we were already knee-deep in August festival madness. This week’s countdown is a wonderously mixed bag, swinging from psychoanalytical intrigue at Summerhall to cutting-edge contemporary dance, with a healthy dose of country music legends and classical mastery thrown in for good measure, writes Will Quinn.

Let’s count them down…

Honourable Mentions: Tim Key, GUSH & A Play, A Pie and a Pint.

It’s a packed week for our near-misses! Tim Key’s Loganberry (Monkey Barrel Comedy) was so popular at last year’s Fringe that I couldn’t even squeeze in for a review. It may be brilliant, but not every Fringe smash survives the transfer to the year-round circuit, so Tim must settle for just shy of the Top 5. Dropping down the chart is Jess Brodie’s playwriting debut, GUSH (Traverse Theatre). As my recent review notes, this tale of a mother-to-be’s sexually charged identity crisis is elevated by a commanding Jessica Hardwick, and if the ending drags, it’s still a highly competent one-woman show. Finally, Scotland’s premier hotbed of new writing expands beyond its usual Traverse home: from the 29th, pick up hot food, a cold drink, and (probably) a cracking new play with A Play, A Pie and a Pint: Off The Rails at the Assembly Roxy!

New in at Number 5 is... Jackals (Summerhall, Friday and Saturday).

Scissor Kick and HissyFit are practically single-handedly bringing drama back to Summerhall outside of the Fringe - a rare treat since the McDowell family sold the venue out from under its founder. Jackals offers a dark, surreal exploration of the troubling historical relationship between a young Emma Eckstein and a fledgling Sigmund Freud. Scissor Kick earned my trust by bringing the cracking Pickled Republic to the stage; if they back Jackals, I’m minded to believe them. Get to Summerhall while you can, before developers AMA Homes enshrine the site’s artistic mission with the same dedication with which they’ve delivered Cramond’s promised sports complex (22 years and counting...).

New in at Number 4 is... The Ballad of Johnny and June (Festival Theatre, April 28th – May 2nd)

Despite a stellar cast, director Des McAnuff, and development input from John Carter Cash, this production probably expected warmer critical acclaim since hitting the road. However, audiences are absolutely loving it, and there’s no doubting the sheer talent or earnest dedication to its legendary inspirations. At the very least, the music is bound to be good, and with Christina Bianco and Christopher Ryan Grant in the title roles, they are going to get some Rolls-Royce delivery. Ultimately, some of my favourite shows ever are solid 3-star productions, and this looks to be a textbook example of a 3-star hit that is super, smashing, and — you guessed it — great.

New in at Number 3 is... Triptych (The Studio, Friday and Saturday)

Since its dazzling 2024 Fringe debut, rising star Lewis Major and his mentor Russell Maliphant BE’s show has enjoyed global critical and commercial success. For critics like me, this return is a welcome chance to catch the production outside the August madness. Dance simply does not find such demand when it’s anything less than superlative. If you seek outstanding work at the bleeding edge of contemporary dance, this is undoubtedly your ticket.

New in at Number 2 is... Karine Polwart: Windblown (Royal Lyceum Theatre, April 28th – 30th)

The return of this magnificent show easily secures the runner-up spot. In fact, if the peak of our chart wasn’t occupied by a pianist considered among the greatest to ever draw breath, Windblown would take Number 1 with absolute majesty. It remains a breathtaking piece of theatrical, melodious, and heartwarmingly personal storytelling. The chances are you won’t ever have seen anything quite like it before.

Staying at Number 1 is... Sir Stephen Hough Plays Rachmaninov (Usher Hall, Friday)

It takes a truly historic concert to block Karine Polwart from the top spot. But when BBC Music Magazine‘s 7th greatest pianist of all time comes to town, the crown is unconditionally his. Sir Stephen Hough brings his effortless brilliance to the sweeping romanticism of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Supported by conductor John Wilson and the mighty Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the evening is beautifully rounded out by Ravel’s La valse and Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 2 (A London Symphony). Anything less than perfect musical magic is impossible to imagine.

And that’s your Top 5!

Go forth, secure your seats, and don’t forget to let the box office know who sent you. Drop a comment below with your own verdicts - I’m always ready to be proven right, or to politely disagree with your dissent otherwise!

Don’t miss Saturday’s Inquirer to find out why the Edinburgh International Aer Festival has set up home in Leith and what that means for its future.

‘We’re the only gardeners that go to the Royal Mile for one-hour maintenance visits during the Fringe’

How the seed of an idea helped the cycling gardeners grow a new business model for our congested city centre

by Sarah McArthur

You might have seen them popping up over the last few years. Cargo bikes. These big, boxy bikes can carry food supplies, deliveries, and even children. The maximum haulage goes all the way up to 200kg these days. But they still can’t be used for more than daily cafe deliveries and the school run… right?

Wrong, according to Callum Ross. The events worker turned entrepreneur has been running a growing gardening business for six years now - and for the last four of those, the only vehicles he has owned are bicycles. Like a number of small businesses and charities, you could say they’re environmentally driven…

Edinburgh’s first fully electric gardening business

Tucked away in a triangular yard, sandwiched between high tenement walls, Callum and operations manager Heather unpack a gardening bike for me. The crate on the front contains all of the tools needed for a standard gardening job; longer tools like rakes and strimmers break down into detachable parts to fit length-ways in the box. In the middle, one chunky battery-powered motor can be connected to any of the motor tools in the kit. There doesn’t seem to be a tetris game required to make this all fit either; if anything the crate is roomy. Once the crate is closed up, a lightweight (and also electric) lawnmower sits sturdily on top.

With this setup, and an occasional spare battery pack thrown in for long days, the Cycling Gardeners can get everywhere they need to go, and do everything they need to, without using any fossil fuels.

And they don’t just do standard gardening jobs either- the Cycling Gardeners can take on larger landscaping projects (if they’ve got enough free time left over from all their other clients, that is). In the quieter winter months, the Cycling Gardeners work on bigger projects exactly as other gardening companies do- the only adjustment required is to order materials to the site rather than bringing them with gardeners. And while the gardeners generally encourage their clients to compost, and will build and manage compost bins for them, a weekly run around town with a hired electric van deals with any leftover garden waste for disposal.

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“Data centres are environmental disasters,” they’re “not sustainable”, “consume excessive water.” “Data centres are responsible for local water shortages”

These are the accusations thrown at a new public enemy number one, data centres. Some of it is true. But a lot of it is misconception, and data centres have become the latest villain in the existential climate fight.

Either way, they are going to be built. Whether you like it or not. Economies, industries, services and day to day life are charging towards AI, which could make us more productive, more innovative, and richer. If the tech bubble bursts and this momentum stalls, the jolt to the world economy would be enormous, and in our already volatile 2026, it would be ugly.

If data centres are coming anyway, shouldn’t we build them where the negatives can be reduced, and the benefits maximised? They are resource-hungry, no question. Despite global internet traffic exploding 25-fold since 2010, efficiency gains mean data centres and networks only account for around 1-1.5% of global electricity and 1% of energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Our built-in advantages

Scotland has two built-in advantages when it comes to data centres: a cooler climate, which cuts cooling demand, and a grid that was 91.5% low-carbon in 2024 (renewables + nuclear + pumped storage), the highest in the UK.

And we are not short of power. Scotland generates around 40% more electricity than it consumes, yet some potential is still lost through curtailment when the system cannot absorb or move the surplus.

Curtailment is when wind farms are paid to turn down or switch off because the grid cannot move the power to where it is needed. In Scotland that is often driven by physical bottlenecks, especially at the boundary transmission areas, and across the Scotland to England interconnector.

The worst hit is northern Scotland. As more wind has come online, curtailment has reached almost 50% of available output in some months. In the first half of 2025 alone, more than 4 terrawatt-hours (TWh) - a terrawatt-hour is a unit of energy representing one trillion watt-hours - of wind power in northern Scotland was switched off at a cost of over £116m. That’s around 37% of the wind energy that could have been used over that period.

Zooming out, just over 10 TWh of clean power in the UK was curtailed in 2025, with 98% of it in Scotland. This would have powered every Scottish household during the same period.

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SNP manifesto pledge shows there could be light rail at end of the tunnel

Opened in 1884. Closed to passengers in 1962. And in 2026, there’s another promise to bring it back, but this time there might be light-rail at the end of the tunnel for Edinburgh’s South Suburban Railway.

The SNP, currently projected to form the next Scottish Government, has committed in its Scottish Parliament election manifesto to a full feasibility study into reopening the South Sub using Tram-Trains. The idea has already received cross-party support in the Capital.

This builds on a conceptual metro map recently published by the City of Edinburgh Council, which incorporates the South Sub as part of a wider expanded Edinburgh tram network.

What is the South Sub?

It’s an east-west railway running across the southern arc of Edinburgh, broadly mirroring the alignment of the Edinburgh Bypass. That relationship is not incidental. The line was originally built to relieve pressure on the core rail network and provide an alternative route for freight and suburban movement, easing congestion between Portobello, Waverley and Haymarket.

It remains an intact double-tracked orbital line, still used for freight and diversions, passing through dense residential, employment and leisure destinations, including some of Edinburgh’s most deprived communities.

Why back it now?

In one of the most congested cities in the UK, that congestion-busting function remains critical. Drivers in Edinburgh spend around 40% of their travel time in traffic, with congestion estimated to cost around £700 per driver each year, adding up to approximately £177 million annually across the city.

The city’s transport reality sharpens the question. Around 37% of Edinburgh households do not have access to a car, higher than the Scottish average of 26% and the UK average of 22%. For many residents, particularly in lower-income areas along the corridor, there is a clear need for reliable, affordable alternatives to car-based travel.

What’s different this time?

The last South Sub feasibility study in 2008 focused on reopening the line as a heavy rail service into Haymarket and Waverley. It concluded that costs were prohibitive, largely due to capacity constraints at both stations. The key difference this time is Tram-Trains.

While Tram-Train options were considered in 2008, the Edinburgh tram network did not yet exist and would not open until 2011. This is the real game changer.

What are Tram-Trains?

Light rail vehicles designed to operate on both street tram infrastructure and heavy rail lines. They are built to meet mainline safety standards and equipped with signalling and communication systems that allow them to run on both the Edinburgh tram network and Network Rail infrastructure.

Tram-Trains have been used across Europe since 1992, for over 40 years, particularly in Germany. In the UK, Tram-Trains have been running in Sheffield since 2018, with the aforementioned Cardiff scheme now being introduced, and Manchester recently announced plans in late 2025 to follow.

So, when could it happen?

While there’s no doubting the SNP’s commitment to a feasibility study is a significant step forward, there remain a number of barriers, including unknown costs which have been estimated at £1bn-plus. The reopening of the South Sub could be incorporated into the Scottish Government’s often restated priority, outlined in its Sestransit plans, for a mass transit system for the whole of South East Scotland. Like the city council’s proposed £2bn North-South Tram extension, it will need to compete for funding alongside proposals to tackle severe peak-time congestion in and out of the city from Midlothian and West Lothian.

A people-led effort

A Heriot-Watt University student group helped reignite interest in the South Sub by exploring proposals to reopen the line last year. That work built on decades of sustained effort by campaign groups, researchers and ongoing policy development.

They proposed reopening the South Sub as a direct extension of the Edinburgh tram network, serving 11 stations along the route: Gorgie, Craiglockhart, Morningside, Blackford Hill, Newington, Cameron Toll, Duddingston & Craigmillar, Bingham-Niddrie, Fort Kinnaird, Brunstane and Portobello.

But it has the potential to form the backbone of a regional Lothians-wide Tram-Train network, with future extensions via the Borders Railway to Musselburgh, Queen Margaret University, Dalkeith and Penicuik, and westwards along the Caledonian Railway line towards Slateford, Wester Hailes, Heriot-Watt University, Livingston and beyond.

Following on from this work,Tram Trains for Edinburgh (TTfE), a volunteer-led campaign group, is holding a series of public meetings along the proposed route, with the latest being on Thursday, 23 April, at King’s Buildings in Newington. Among the speakers will be Inquirer contributor Corey Boyle, a graduate civil engineer at Sweco in Active Travel, who was the recipient of the Princess Royal Award for Emerging Engineers from the Institution of Civil Engineers for 2025. Around 300 tickets have already been taken.

(Don’t miss tomorrow’s newsletter for Corey Boyle’s in-depth look at the Capital’s data centres conundrum)

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

SPERM WHALES: A rare sighting believed to be of sperm whales has been made in the Firth of Forth from Kinghorn in Fife over the weekend. Humpback whales are increasingly frequent visitors to the Forth, but sperm whales are rare visitors as they prefer deeper water.

HOSPITAL HOMES: Developer Ryden has submitted plans to the city council for an “urban neighbourhood” on land just south of the Royal Infirmary. The BioQuarter development will see homes, labs, student flats and shops built on land owned by Scottish Enterprise. The developers estimate 20,000 people would live, study or work on the site once work is complete.

WHISKY A GO GO: The Johnnie Walker Experience on Princes Street is offering a personalised whisky blending session for two for £50,000 to attract wealthy tourists. The premium offering includes two nights at Gleneagles and Michelin-starred meals and culminates in the private blending session in a former RBS vault within the Princes Street visitor attraction, journalist and author Ian Fraser reports.

CHURCH SALE: The gothic-style Holy Trinity Church at Dean Bridge has been put up for sale for offers over £750,000. It is being advertised by Graham & Sibbald as a potential homes, office or leisure development opportunity.

STAR SCIENTIST: An astronomer who played a key role in developing the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been awarded one of Europe’s top space science honours. Professor Gillian Wright, the former director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory, has been presented with the prestigious Tycho Brahe Medal by the European Astronomical Society. The JWST is the largest and most powerful infrared space observatory ever launched.

PALACE AIRBNB: It has served as a police station and an Armenian restaurant, but now plans have been submitted to turn an empty building opposite Holyrood Palace into a luxury short-term let. The B-listed red sandstone building at Abbeyhill would be converted into a 6-bedroom rental property, with a hot tub, sauna and library, under plans submitted by McTaggart Ltd.

STONEWALL CHIEF: Former Scottish Labour leader and Lothian MSP Kezia Dugdale has been appointed chairwoman of LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall. Currently chair of Shelter in Scotland, she will take up her new UK-wide role in September. In 2004, she warned progress on LGBT rights in Scotland was “fragile”, saying she always checked her surroundings before holding her wife’s hand in public.

Pic of the week

THE BUSINESS

ALMOST DONE: Edinburgh’s OMNi centre is nearing completion of a £5 million refurbishment which has delivered enhanced public realm, new flooring throughout the centre, an upgraded main entrance, modern LED lighting, new seating zones, and extensive internal structural improvements.

CHEERS: Jump Ship Brewing, the alcohol-free brewery founded by Sonja Mitchell, has received an undisclosed sum in investment from Mint Ventures. The funds are planned to scale production as demand for alcohol-free drinks rises. The Pathhead-based brewer has won multiple awards for its products, which include its flagship Yardarm lager.

PARTNERSHIP BLOSSOMS: Midlothian-based Dobbies Garden Centres has raised £235,000 in the first year of its national charity partnership with Alzheimer’s Research UK, which is more than triple the original fundraising target.

STORE SALE: Seafield Retail Park in the east of Edinburgh has been sold by Rankeilour Properties to Crown Estate Scotland for £5.7 million. The Park has a number of units, notably Halfords and food outlets including Greggs and Subway.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

SCI-FI FEST: Scotland’s Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Writing, Cymera, returns in June for its eight edition. The festival will take over the Pleasance with a packed programmed of live performances, author talks, book signings, bookish quizzes, and more, on 5-7 June.

BY THE SEASIDE: Porty Festival is back bigger and better on Saturday and Sunday, 2 and 3 May, with live music, a local makers’ markets, street food, tours and the return of its popular dog competition. As well as taking over Portobello Town Hall, there will be activities on the beach across the weekend, as well as a vintage clothes pop-up at the festival hub, Unity Hair Studio, on the High Street.

PORT OF ART: The Edinburgh Arts Festival has announced it is moving its headquarters to Leith as it unveiled a full programme of city-wide exhibitions on 14-30 August. Highlights include Gwen John and Catherine Opie at the National Galleries of Scotland; Katie Paterson at the Collective Gallery; a sculptural commission from Sgàire Wood at Jupiter Artland; and Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop at Dovecot.

QUICK BITES

GOOD NEIGHBOURS: Craft brewer Cold Town Beer – owned by Edinburgh-based hospitality company Signature Group – is supporting the “Neighbourgood” outdoor summer food and drink market in Stockbridge from 1 May to 2 August, involving beer tastings, live World Cup screenings on a giant outdoor screen, and other entertainment.

STARRY NIGHTS: Renowned Edinburgh pub the Starbank Inn has been rated one of the UK’s top Greene King pubs through research carried out into customer reviews. The Newhaven bar, nicknamed The Starry, came out second top in Scotland and ninth in the UK.

There are some 3,500 books, all catalogued, mainly rare titles now out of print. Alongside them in St Margaret’s House, the towering 1970s former NHS offices at Meadowbank, are nearly 200 magazines, ten folders of badges, four films, one board game, and eight boxes containing “various ephemera”. And the collection continues to grow, writes Emma Newlands.

It has the feeling of being a lifetime’s work, and has been accumulated over the course of half a century. The founders of the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive are Sigrid Nielsen and Bob Orr, who founded the original bookshop of the same name. Opening in 1982, in Forth Street, on the edge of the New Town close to the city’s so-called Pink Triangle of pubs and clubs, it aimed to be not just a resource of lesbian and gay literature, but also a safe space for anyone who wanted to use it.

One supporter wondered if there were enough books to stock Scotland’s first lesbian and gay bookshop. They needn’t have worried. Sigrid and Bob managed to fill the shelves and Lavender Menace would go on to flourish.

“There was a time when being any sort of queer in Edinburgh was an existence where you could not be out and proud, but Lavender Menace bookshop was part of changing that,” Edinburgh tour guide Fraser Horn, who runs Street Historians, told The Inquirer.

“It let people share themselves and their stories, and feel less alone. The archive has then become a place which helps the community stay connected, while furthering original research into what it means to be on the fringes of society. Basically it’s of incalculable value.”

Keeping the doors open

Scotland’s only queer book archive now faces an uncertain future.

Its home, a brightly coloured space in creative hub Scot ART in the labyrinthine structure that is St Margaret’s House, not only preserves the past, it also provides a present-day backdrop for events and meet-ups.

With £150,000 in National Lottery funding set to run out within weeks, Lavender Menace is looking to safeguard its future. It has launched a crowdfunder to raise the thousands of pounds required to pursue its “vital work preserving LGBTQ+ literary history”, and continue to keep its doors open as long as possible.

The crowdfunder states: “We’re now facing closure due to the funding landscape. We’ve been applying for money to keep going and have had no successful bids - it is now harder than ever to request funding from large-scale donors.”

Among those to support the fundraiser so far are Scottish writing stars poet Jackie Kay and crime author Val McDermid, as well as fellow Auld Reekie booksellers The Portobello Bookshop and The Cookbook Shop Edinburgh, and hundreds of individual donors. Fraser has vowed to donate some of the proceeds of his tours.

From a cloakroom in a nightclub

The pioneering bookshop originally grew out of years of LGBT+ bookselling in the Scottish capital ignited in 1976 by Open Gaze bookstall founded by Orr as part of the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group’s Gay Information Centre on Broughton Street.

Lavender Menace was bankrolled by a bookstall Nielsen and Orr ran in the cloakroom of Fire Island, which was claimed to be “Edinburgh’s first fully-fledged gay disco”, located on Princes Street and now a branch of Waterstone’s.

Later, Lavender Menace became West & Wilde Bookshop on Dundas Street, which welcomed key writers from the community across the globe, including Armistead Maupin, David Leavitt and Edmund White. Among their notable guests was Karla Jay, one of the original New York Lavender Menaces, a group of radical lesbians who reclaimed what was originally a derogatory term used against homosexual women in the feminist movement. West & Wilde closed in 1997.

Lavender Menace returned about two decades later, inspired by the play Love Song to Lavender Menace by James Ley about the early days of the bookshop. It was initially a project created by Nielsen and Orr to celebrate the 50th anniversary in 2019 of the Stonewall Riots.

‘You opened up my world’

The total has already more than tripled its initial £5,000 target to keep the lights on for three months while it works on securing longer-term funding.

The hope is to raise the £22,500 required to stay operational with staff for six more months, which “crucially, would show funders that the community is engaged with our work and willing to support us”. The ideal scenario is to ultimately bring in double this amount to run the archive for a year.

Some donors to the crowdfunder have shared their own stories of support from the bookshops.

One, known as Ann, said: “Thank you for being my safe space over 40 years ago. You opened up my world.” Another, called Andrew, credited the original bookshop with being “a place of safety and wonder when I was a teenager”.

The current funding appeal was launched in a joint event with Edinburgh Art Festival, which welcomed “queer literary icon” Sarah Schulman - who was among the authors and activists to visit West & Wilde back in the day - to promote her new book The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity.

She said: “All over the world queer people are losing ground… Lavender Menace Queer Book Archive is one of many grassroots knowledge bases that are threatened, and now is the time to support them with gratitude.”

Mairi Oliver, owner of Lighthouse Bookshop, which bills itself as Edinburgh’s radical bookshop and originally stored the archive, said: “Lavender Menace is such a vital, living piece of Scotland’s queer and literary heritage. We know the archive is beloved and valued and relevant but those things don’t guarantee its survival, so we’ll always be ready to support and champion its future.”

Archive co-founder Nielsen said: “We are facing major challenges as a community… meanwhile, funding is becoming scarcer for all queer or progressive groups. We want to survive and preserve the resources and the knowledge we’ve collected over 40 years, and so we are calling on the community for your support.”

The archive has been in its current premises since 2022, and says those donating to the crowdfunder are supporting the only regularly accessible public space in Scotland dedicated to LGBTQI+ cultural heritage. It has also seen the number of visitors (who “come to research LGBTQI+ history, develop creative work, and build connections across generations ) jump by 56 per cent year on year in 2024-25.

Both Nielsen and Orr now welcome the progress to date of the crowdfunder, with the latter telling the Edinburgh Inquirer that it “gives us the space to achieve further funding towards a more sustainable future”.

Neilsen added: “Our books, queer ephemera, oral history interviews and meeting space are there to say ‘you belong’ - and with the public’s help, we’ll keep broadcasting that message.”

For today’s long read David Forsyth has been talking to first-time buyers about an extra barrier they are facing trying to get on the property ladder in Edinburgh. It’s a taxing problem, one that bites harder in the Capital as a result of inflated property prices here.

David has been looking into the impact of LBTT, otherwise known as Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, and how it could be reformed to remove a formidable barrier to prospective buyers in property hotspots such as Edinburgh.

More on that below, but first your regular midweek news roundup and your cultural highlights for the week ahead.

Your Edinburgh Briefing

NOT SO STANDARD LIFE: Standard Life is buying Aegon UK in a deal valued at £2 billion which will create the UK’s largest retirement savings and income business. The new combined business, headquartered in Edinburgh’s Lothian Road, will have £480 billion in assets under administration and 16 million customers. There are concerns, however, the takeover could lead to job cuts.

CREATIVE SPARK: An all-women shortlist has been drawn up to create a statue of Dame Muriel Spark in Princes Street Gardens. Works by two of the four are on permanent display at Jupiter Artland - Laura Ford (who created Weeping Girls) and Tania Kovats (creator of Rivers) - while Louise Gibson has worked with the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and author Jenni Fagen, and Jacqueline Donachie with the Fruitmarket Gallery.

SIGNS OF UNREST: Plans to install another huge illuminated advertisement on Princes Street have been submitted to the city council. The 14-metre tall ad would cover scaffolding on the building on the corner with Hanover Street. The application comes after complaints about a huge KFC ad wrapping around the corner of the former Forsyth’s and Top Shop store at 30-31 Princes Street.

ARTISTS’ PAY: A trial scheme offering artists a guaranteed minimum income in Scotland looks increasingly likely following a campaign by the actors’ union Equity. The SNP have backed the idea of a trial while Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has promised £30m to a scheme.

CUP BIN: It’s now easier to recycle your takeaway cups in the city centre thanks to a trial of dedicated cup bins on Market Street, Waverley Bridge and outside Haymarket Station. The initiative by Keep Scotland Beautiful and the city council aims to raise the recycling rate for single-use cups - which currently sits at a measly 4% across Scotland.

Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops

Greetings, Pop Pickers!

As the Easter eggs vanish from the supermarket shelves (do treats come any better than a cut-price egg?!) and the famous Edinburgh wind tries its absolute best to knock us off our feet, it’s time to take shelter in the city’s finest auditoriums. We have a brilliantly varied chart for you this Thursday, bringing together high culture, high camp, and high-octane rock. From cinematic ballet to symphonic perfection, here are — according to me — the hottest tickets in town, writes Will Quinn.

Let’s count them down...

Honourable Mentions: One Day & RSA New Contemporaries

It is your last chance to catch these two heavy-hitters before they bow out! You only have a few days left to see the Lyceum’s mammoth musical adaptation of One Day (a staging full of engaging drama, even if the soundtrack is forgettable) before it officially closes on April 19th. You also only have until April 22nd to browse the graduating artistic talent on display at the RSA New Contemporaries 2026 (an eclectic, highly recommended must-see where everything is brilliantly up for sale!).

New at Number 5 is... The Red Shoes (Festival Theatre, Spring 2026)

Matthew Bourne’s cinematic and people-pleasing approach to ballet certainly puts bums on seats. Based on the iconic Powell and Pressburger film (and the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale), this production follows Victoria Page, a gifted young dancer torn between an all-consuming romance with composer Julian Craster and the uncompromising demands of ballet impresario Boris Lermontov, who insists that true greatness requires absolute personal sacrifice.

For all of New Adventures’ lavish, energetic storytelling - superpowered by Lez Brotherston’s ever-impressive sets - the results can be a little underwhelming for me. Nevertheless, the sheer scale and ambition of The Red Shoes is undeniable, and for those less zeroed in on pure technique and emotional depth, it will undoubtedly be a highlight of the Spring. At least, that’s my opinion: by the time you read this, one of my reviewers, Sass MacDonald, will have given her verdict over on theQR.co.uk - so I stand ready to eat humble pie!

Staying at Number 4 is... Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Edinburgh Playhouse, until Saturday)

Last year, I caught a dazzling, glitter-soaked rendition of this beloved musical by Edinburgh’s premier unpaid professional outfit, The Bohemians. Now, the official 30th anniversary touring production is rolling into the Playhouse, and it is bringing some serious industry firepower with it. With a cast boasting Kevin Clifton, Adèle Anderson, and Peter Duncan, plus a wardrobe stuffed with spectacular costumes by Strictly’s Vicky Gill, the pedigree on and off the stage is undeniable. Given how much I enjoyed the local grassroots effort, I fully expect this blockbuster spectacular to be at least as fabulous. Shake your groove thing and grab a ticket!

Staying at Number 3 is... Deeper Purple (The Voodoo Rooms, Saturday)

Classic rock fans, consider your weekend plans sorted. I caught this phenomenal tribute act last year, and they unequivocally blew my (and my Deep Purple-loving wife’s) socks right off. Serving up a face-meltingly authentic homage to the rock gods, you can expect blistering, note-perfect renditions of anthems like Smoke on the Water, Highway Star, Child in Time, and Perfect Strangers. As a lovely bonus, the band members are absolute sweethearts off-stage, too. Do not miss the chance to see them back in Edinburgh this Saturday.

Holding firm at Number 2 is... GUSH (Traverse Theatre, until April 25th)

Now fully up and running at the Traverse, Jess Brodie’s debut play is generating some serious chatter. It completely upends the usual rosy narrative of impending motherhood by plunging us into the nerve-shredding final days before Ally’s due date. She’s meticulously followed all the rules, cut the caffeine, and done the classes, yet she can’t shake the terrifying feeling that she’s about to lose her identity entirely. Helmed by the brilliant Becky Hope-Palmer, audiences are promised a fiercely honest, darkly funny examination of female desire, compromise, and prenatal panic. Go see this undeniable win for grassroots talent development.

New at Number 1 is... Sir Stephen Hough Plays Rachmaninov (Usher Hall, April 24th)

It is certainly not for lack of competition that we have a new Number 1 in town. But when one of the world’s most distinguished pianists - recently voted the 7th greatest of all time by BBC Music Magazine, no less - sits down at the keyboard, it instantly becomes the hottest ticket in the city. Sir Stephen Hough brings effortless brilliance to the stage, and here he will be tackling Rachmaninov’s show-stopping Piano Concerto No. 1.

As if that wasn’t enough, he is joined by the brilliant John Wilson on the conductor’s platform alongside the mighty Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The evening’s programme is beautifully rounded out by Ravel’s sumptuous dream waltz, La valse, and Vaughan Williams’ gloriously technicoloured Symphony No. 2 (A London Symphony). Anything less than perfect musical magic is impossible to imagine.

And that’s your Top 5!

Whether you are seeking a glitter-filled outback adventure, an existential theatrical journey, or a night of symphonic perfection, get out there and support our venues. Drop a comment below to let me know if my picks hit the right notes this week, and I’ll see you in the stalls!

‘It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We couldn’t afford to buy in Edinburgh’

The tax forcing first-time buyers out of the Capital and the campaign to reform it

by David Forsyth

“It was a bit heart-breaking to be honest. We had finally found the first home we dreamed of – but once we realised we still had to factor in the tax it proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back and we were back to square one.”

Jane and her partner Ian had been searching for a flat they could call their own in Edinburgh, their home city, for a few months when they came across a modern, two-bedroomed flat in the Dalry area.

It ticked all the boxes for the young professional couple in their early 30s, and at £300,000 it stretched a little beyond their budget but they reckoned they could just about manage it. And then came the bombshell from their solicitor – they’d forgotten to factor the need to pay Land and Buildings Transaction Tax into their sums, a further £4000 they had to find.

“It doesn’t seem all that much, but we’d saved for years to gather the deposit through savings and some family borrowings, then would’ve had to borrow a little more to stretch to achieve the £300,000 asking price. Another £4000 on top was just a deal-buster.

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It’s a Sunday morning in March, and the weather is frankly biblical. I am following Lorna Slater, Scottish Greens candidate for Edinburgh Central, around a row of Tollcross tenements, and the weather is almost as varied as the conversations. We emerge from one conversation about cycle infrastructure and potholes into hail and gale-force winds, duck into the next stairwell to talk about international affairs, and then emerge into warm sunshine.

One door opens to Beth, who immediately smiles and says, “Oh yes, we’ll be voting Green for sure.” Beth calls back to Ry, who also enthusiastically joins the doorway discussion. Slater is keen to know what these voters would like to see her working on, and the three launch into a conversation about reducing car use in city centres, concerns about energy-hungry data centres in Edinburgh, and trans rights. Everything Slater has to say about the work the Greens have done in the last Parliament, and their policies going forward, is met with nods and hums of agreement. Slater makes sure to get in at the end that Ry and Beth should vote Green on both ballots this time round, not just on the regional list, but it seems that’s been their plan all along.

For nearly two hours of door-knocking in this neighbourhood, receptions are overwhelmingly positive. At worst, individuals are simply clueless - when asked “have you thought of voting Green before?” their eyes immediately give away that they’ve not thought about voting at all until now. Many, often overseas nationals settled in Edinburgh, do not even know they’re eligible to vote.

Thanks to the city centre’s rapid population turnover, we also meet many whose voting preferences are marked ‘unknown’ on the Greens database, who mostly say they are undecided. They seem ready to be convinced by Lorna and the Greens, although it’s impossible to tell how much may be simply politeness. One says their children’s support for the Green party policies made them consider voting for the party, another wants to see more availability of childcare, another is concerned for cycle infrastructure and free university tuition. Those who have voted in several Holyrood elections are surprised to know the Greens actually have a chance of winning a constituency seat - a fair few say they usually vote SNP for the constituency and Greens for the list.

Streets like this are the reason that, for the first time ever, a Holyrood constituency is looking winnable for the Greens. For Slater, it would be wonderful if every street in the constituency were like this. In reality, this is one of the Greenest pockets of the constituency which stretches from Dundas Street to Sciennes and from Gorgie to Dumbiedykes. According to most polls, the constituency is a close race between SNP, Labour and the Greens. We took a deep dive into the three main competitors in what is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing corners of the Scottish Parliamentary election - and potentially an historic one.

All change at Edinburgh Central

Edinburgh Central is an incredibly changeable constituency; it has changed hands in every election since 2011, and been held by Labour, SNP and the Tories since devolution. It has also changed shape significantly ahead of the 2026 election, losing much of Stockbridge, Murrayfield and Comely Bank and gaining most of Merchiston, Marchmont and Bruntsfield.

Edinburgh constituency boundaries, 2021 and 2026. Data: Ordnance Survey. Basemap: Open Street Maps (OSM). Map: Sarah McArthur

All this amid sea changes in British and Scottish politics. The rise of Reform, historic victories for Greens, Labour slumping in polls, the Conservatives imploding, and scandals dogging the SNP… there should be plenty on the minds of voters this Spring.

The polls are certainly predicting some upsets; with a new Ipsos poll predicting the Greens will become the second largest party in Holyrood, jumping from 7 to 17 seats. However, 42% of respondents in this poll said they might change their mind before polling day. Another recent poll puts the Greens at only 14 seats nationally, behind Labour and tied with Reform, and with no increase from their two regional seats in the Lothians. This poll has the SNP winning Edinburgh Central with 28% of the vote, followed by the Greens and Labour on 23% and 21% respectively.

The stats which give Lorna Slater the most reason to be excited are from Ballot Box Scotland, which combines polls with previous election results to make projections on constituency levels. For weeks now, Ballot Box has placed Slater top of the class in Edinburgh Central; as of April 1 (before the two polls cited above), BBS estimates that the Greens will win it with 30.6% of the vote, followed by Labour on 23.1% and the incumbent SNP in close third with 22.4%. Indeed, both Labour and Green party internal calculations rank Edinburgh Central as one of their most winnable seats in the country.

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Chamber of Commerce leads charge to make Scottish Election “generate momentum” in growing our economy

The case for a fairer level of Scottish Government funding for Edinburgh has been raised as a key issue by the city’s business community ahead of the May election.

In a policy paper being sent to all parties and candidates, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce is calling for devolution of economic powers and has also asked for a better funding settlement for Scotland’s Capital – and its city region.

The Chamber argues that with the city region responsible for the biggest single proportion of Scotland’s economic growth, also set to drive most of the nation’s population growth, any incoming administration should accept that “When Edinburgh succeeds, Scotland succeeds.”

An integral part of that will be “fairer funding for Scotland’s Capital” they argue, with the Scottish Government’s own figures showing that Edinburgh is the lowest funded council per capita in the country.

Do we need fairer deal?

Absolutely, and the Inquirer has reported on the inequity of funding several times in terms of our public services.

The city council’s Finance and Resources Committee considered a report based on Accounts Commission figures which council officials said showed that Edinburgh remained the lowest funded per capita local authority in Scotland. Had it been funded at even the Scottish average rate, councillors said, the city would have been £280 million better off.

NHS Lothian, which covers most of the city region as well as providing both regional and national treatment centres, remains the lowest funded NHS area per capita in Scotland. NHS Lothian’s own figures pointed to a £150 million gap in monies it should have received over the past few years alone, compared to funding it should have received if the Government had simply paid what the area is entitled to under the Government’s own needs-based NRAC formula.

The long-term impact of health under-funding is also something we have highlighted.

What is the Chamber asking for?

The Chamber is, naturally, focused on the economy of the region. Its policy paper maintains the devolution of regional economic powers, properly funded with the city able to retain more of the revenue it generates through, for example, business rates, would encourage better decision-making around investment in infrastructure, connectivity, housing, skills and innovation.

In the paper, Chamber Chief Executive Liz McAreavey says: “As our capital city, and a global hub for finance, technology, education and culture, Edinburgh and our wider City Region is one of the principal engines of the Scottish economy. By fuelling its continued growth — investing in connectivity, housing, skills, innovation spaces and international competitiveness — we do not concentrate opportunity in one place; we generate momentum that benefits every region.”

The Chamber also points out that, as the nation’s Capital, Edinburgh faces unique pressures – from housing demand to higher living and business costs, that need to be recognised.

On Non-Domestic (business) Rates the Chamber wants a future Govenrment to allow Local Authorities to retain 100% of NDR growth either entirely “or above an agreed baseline level for a defined period of time, with reinvestment channeled into economic development, business support, infrastructure and skills.”

How vital is more regional and local decision-making?

This is a key element for the Chamber, and while they point to the impact on infrastructure and investment of regional decision-making in Mayoral authorities in England, such as Greater Manchester, the Chamber is not necessarily advocating mayoral structure, bur rather than need for more regional control.

Policy Director Joanne Davidson said: “We’ve got a great example of how the local authorities work in collaboration in Edinburgh through the City Region Deal. What we’ve not been able to do in our City Region is to take that structure and enable it to deliver other elements of economic policy.”

A note of caution

Former council leader Donald Anderson, now a businessman and consultant in the city, has warned in recent days against politicians taking the continued success of Scotland’s Capital for granted. He described the success as “hard won” and added: “With Rachel Reeves’ landmark move to give English city regions access to tax revenues, and with English city regions securing huge financial and policy backing, we do need to keep raising our game.”

Don’t miss Tuesday’s Inquirer for an in-depth look at one of the most intriguing and significant contests of the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections: Inside the battle for Edinburgh Central.

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

HISTORY CALLING? After another dramatic sporting weekend, Hearts remain on course for their first league title in 66 years (and the first by anyone except Celtic or Rangers in 41 years). The premier league now splits into top and bottom six for a final round of five fixtures with Heart a point clear at the top of the table. Every team who has been top of the pile at this stage since 2009 has gone on to win the championship… Meanwhile, Hearts Women are aiming to make it a double after moving top of the women’s premier league.

FIFTH STABBING: A man has been taken to hospital after a stabbing in Nicolson Street at about 7.20pm on Friday. A 23-year-old man has been charged and is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today. It is at least the fifth serious stabbing in the last four weeks in the Capital. (More on the background here: Edinburgh’s knife crime problem)

BIRDWATCH: The humble house sparrow remained the most commonly spotted bird in the Capital in the RSBPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch 2026, followed by the wood pigeon, blue tit, blackbird and magpie. Across Scotland, blue tit, coal tit and great tit sightings are becoming more common in gardens, with goldfinches and robins less frequent. The RSPB has updated its feeding advice, urging householders to take down their garden feeders at the end of the month, to help prevent the spread of avian diseases.

FESTIVAL PROTEST: Edinburgh International Festival has accused pro-Palestine protesters who spray-painted signs promoting the festival outside its headquarters, the Hub on the Royal Mile, of "crossing a line". Festival organisers have reported the graffiti by the Art Workers for Palestine protest group to the police.

CAR FACTORY HOMES: Work to convert the UK’s first purpose-built car factory into housing can go-ahead after developers signed an agreement with the city council to contribute £50,000 towards active travel and transport infrastructure. Social housing charity Lar Housing Trust will convert the buildings in Granton into 28 townhouses.

DECARBONISED COLLEGE: Edinburgh College has become the first college in Scotland to completely decarbonise one of its campuses. The gas heating system at its Midlothian Campus, in Eskbank, Dalkeith, has been replaced with an air source heat pump, which, together with other improvements, will reduce carbon emissions by more than 100 tonnes annually.

CLUB SUES OVER FLOODS: Old Town nightclub Cabaret Voltaire is suing Scottish Water for £500,000 in damages after being forced to close due to flooding dozens of times. Owners Scotsman Hospitality say the underground venue has suffered “serious and ongoing” damage following a burst water main in the road above it in 2024. Scottish Water says it has prioritised remedial work which it was in the process of completing.

HOSPITAL BUS ATTACK: Eight youths have been charged following an attack on a Lothians bus driver during a disturbance outside the Royal Infirmary at around 7pm on Sunday, 5 April.

SECOND HOME TAX PAUSE: A quadrupling of council tax for second homes in Edinburgh has been put on hold for six months following lawyers’ advice to the local authority. The planned increase has been paused while the council examines the impact of the move and potential exemptions. Edinburgh doubled council tax on second homes in 2024, before agreeing to double the rate again from this year.

PEDESTRIAN CRITICAL: A 49-year-old man is fighting for his life after being hit by the driver of a blue MG HS on Chesser Avenue in the early hours of Saturday morning. Police are investigating the circumstances of the incident which happened at around 20 minutes past midnight.

Pic of the week

THE BUSINESS

WE’RE ON RIGHT TRACKS: One of our guest writers, award-winning engineer Corey Boyle, has been invited to present to a Tram Trains for Edinburgh group in Newington next week. Corey’s look at the potential offered by reopening the rail line through the south of the city proved popular with our readers. The event looks set to be popular with the local community, with more than 200 tickets booked so far.

Corey has also written for us on how to tackle congestion in the city, and how a superfast rail link – no matter how unlikely – could transform the Capital’s future.

HOME HELP: Housebuilder Miller Homes is inviting local groups and causes keen to make a mark on the local communities near its Edinburgh developments West Craigs Manor, Edgelaw View, and West Craigs Mews to apply for the first round of its Community Fund in 2026. Applications close on 29 April.

CREATIVITY CELEBRATED: The Marketing Society Scotland has announced that entries to this year’s Star Awards have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, marking the biggest year on record. The society maintains it demonstrates the sector’s “strong resilience” with record levels of creative output and campaign activity.

ETHICAL FINANCE BOOST: More than 3,000 delegates are expected to attend the Edinburgh Finance Festival from June 8 to 20, which kicks off with the Ethical Finance Global Summit on June 18 at Edinburgh’s Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa. Organisers the Global Ethical Finance Initiative say the events over the course of the festival will bring a £1 million boost to the Scottish economy.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

RECORD SHOPPING: VoxBox Music has once again hired St Vincent’s Chapel in Stockbridge to celebrate Record Store Day on Saturday, as well as its own 15th birthday. There will be a pop-up record shop, licensed bar and live music from 11am to 6pm, featuring acts including Kathryn Joseph and Meursault. Assai Records, Ilium, Avalanche Records, Thorne Records, and Underground Solu'shn are all also taking part in Record Store Day.

SPORTING HISTORY: Be part of history, as Scotland take on world champions England at Murrayfield Stadium in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations Rugby on Saturday. The 25,000-plus crowd will be the biggest ever for a standalone women’s sports event in Scotland. With entertainment in and around the stadium, the clash of the Auld Enemies promises to be a great family day out.

CELLULAR ART: The work of more than 20 Edinburgh artists and makers will be showcased in the Cellular Exhibition opening at Leith’s Out of the Blue Drill Hall tomorrow. Award-winning painter Daniel Murray and Amanda McGrattan, founder of Leith Jewellery Studios, are among the featured artists. Entry is free and the exhibition is open daily 10am-5pm until 24 April.

QUICK BITES

COTTAGE GARDEN: A park venue has reopened as a dining destination. The Cottage at Royal Terrace Gardens is reopening on Friday, 1 May, as an intimate, seasonal restaurant. It was last open as The Gardener’s Cottage.

COFFEE IS SERVED: Carter Coffee opens this week at its venue in Bonnington. For the first six weeks the premises at 4 Fyfe Lanewill be takeaway only.

Edinburgh gourmands owe a debt of gratitude to a former Broughton High guidance teacher, Andrew Young, who was responsible for setting a 15-year-old who liked cooking on a culinary trajectory which ultimately revolutionised the city’s fine dining scene.

The city currently has seven one Michelin-starred restaurants, with a total of 36 recommended in the foodie bible. Before Martin Wishart gained his Michelin award in Leith, 25 years ago, there had never been a single starred restaurant in the Capital and scant few guide mentions.

Today, in Leith alone, there are multiple Michelin one-starred and recommended eateries to choose from, but when pioneering Restaurant Martin Wishart opened on The Shore in 1999 the area was just beginning its gentrification journey.

Martin, who suffered from childhood epilepsy, explained: “I worked hard at school, but I found it difficult to focus; I was just put into a class, and that was that. There was no talk of university.” At the age of 15, when he told Mr Young that he enjoyed cooking with his mother, a culinary Youth Training Scheme was suggested instead of the planned career in carpentry. Woodworking’s loss has been hospitality’s gain.

Around a decade ago his old teacher came to dine. He said: “I went out to say hello to him. I was blown away by the fact that I was speaking with him, because the last time I had seen him, I was 15, and at that age, I really didn’t know what I was doing. It was really lovely to see him again, and he was smiling from ear to ear, which was nice.”

There’s further reason to be grateful for his career choice as well as delighting our taste buds. A renowned fine-dining scene is good for our economy, as we reported last year.

Success through partnership

The biggest influence in his career and life is his wife and front-of-house business partner Cecile, who he credits as being a major part of the restaurant’s success. They have been married for 23 years. “When I left the Balmoral, she was working there. She left a month afterwards to join me in opening the restaurant. So much of our success is down to her; she’s just superb at what she does with guests, her friendliness, her professionalism, and her support as well. From day one, we’ve enjoyed the highs and the lows together.”

They first met when working at John Burton Race’s L’Ortolan in Reading. The couple clicked. Cecile was a hospitality student at Toulouse University, born in Mexico to French parents. The pair run their restaurant together and have three children: Clara, 21, Amy,18, and Jack, the youngest, 11.

Martin is not sure where his culinary talents originated; he grew up in Blackhall with his two brothers and didn’t have a foodie upbringing, his father George was a sales rep for Polydor records, and his mum Georgia worked in a bank. “I liked cooking at home, but it was very simple stuff; I was inspired by Keith Floyd on television.”

From the start he thrived in the structure of a professional kitchen. “Once you get into a kitchen, there’s so much that you can learn. I was just curious, and it’s just something I fell in love with, really.”

Campervan adventure in gastronomy

After a spell at Cameron House, Martin decided he seriously wanted to excel in his chosen career and headed to France to undertake several stagiaires (work experience) in Michelin-rated establishments. “I just felt that the best kitchens were in France. I was intrigued and wanted to test myself.”

He drove his VW campervan to Paris to attempt to get work in Michelin-starred kitchens. He wasn’t entirely successful, parking his van outside a royal palace which meant he was swiftly moved on. Burgundy was his next stop, to work at Marc Meneau’s restaurant in Vézelay.

When he ran out of money, he caught the ferry back to Portsmouth and saw an advertisement for Nick Nairn’s Braeval near Aberfoyle. “I phoned Nick and explained where I had been working and told him I was keen to come back home. He asked how soon I could get here for an interview, so I drove up the next morning and got the job.”

From this point on, his focus turned to owning his own restaurant, rather than chasing accolades and awards. His appetite for learning from the best remained strong and the next five years were spent working at some of the world’s finest restaurants: Le Gavroche, Restaurant Marco Pierre White and L’Ortolan.

It was Marco Pierre White who suggested that Martin approach Rocco Forte, who was looking for a head chef to open their restaurant at The Balmoral. “I got the job opening Hadrian’s, but it was a strategic move. I was very open with them about what I wanted to do. I wanted to look for my own place and find a network of suppliers.” Opening Hadrian’s at the Balmoral was his first head chef role.

The hotel’s vegetable supplier gave him the nod about a potential venue in Leith, Silvio’s. The owner, Silvio Praino, was considering selling, and although they had never met before, Wishart hopped on his bike early one morning to chat. He points out of the window. “I put my bike up against the lamp post here and walked in.” He fell in love instantly with the place, he added. “I still see Silvio once every two or three weeks. We have coffee together.”

Heart, soul and money on the line

The reality of what drew him to Leith’s Shore was simple: cost, plus the waterfront location, but he added: “I walked in, and there was an instant connection. The kitchen was tiny, but then and there, I knew I had found the perfect place.”

The restaurant opened its doors in 1999, on a shoestring budget of £9000 with the help of family and friends. “I tiled the kitchen and painted the walls myself.” The marketing budget consisted of taping a handwritten A4 piece of paper in the window. “It’s just so nerve-wracking. I had put my heart, my soul and my money on the line.”

On the restaurant’s opening night, no one came; the second night, just two diners. Thankfully, word quickly spread. Reservations really took off a few months later when Albert Roux visited. “I worked with the Roux brothers in Amsterdam. I told him that I was going to leave to open my own restaurant in Edinburgh. After a few choice words, Albert said, ‘Okay, Martin, when you do, let me know, I’ll come and visit you.’ Albert was good to his word. He told the assembled journalists that the restaurant reminded him of Pierre Koffman’s La Tante Claire in Chelsea.”

In 2001, he won a Michelin star. He recalled: “I think it was a Friday, a customer called the restaurant in the morning to congratulate me on winning a Michelin Star. We had a busy lunch service, so I just went back into the kitchen, told the guys and then phoned Cecile. We had a glass of champagne later at night.” Having worked in 2 and 3-star establishments over the years, he understands the value, importance and pressures that Michelin recognition brings.

As the first restaurant in Edinburgh to make the guide, bookings soared, up to a six-month waiting list. Today, Leith is known as being a foodie destination, and he approves. “It’s great, because it puts a focus on the area, on Leith, and Edinburgh, which brings people down, rather than being all on your own.”

Another career highlight was winning a Michelin star for his second venture, Martin Wishart at Loch Lomond Cameron House. He says, “I was just delighted to be able to open at Cameron House, somewhere I’d worked before. It was completely different from what I was doing in Leith. It was in a hotel. It was on the other side of Scotland. We took some of my chefs from my kitchen in Leith, and we just really focused on the food. And, in the third year, we got the star.”

Sadly, a major fire closed the hotel in 2017 and remained closed for some time. The star was lost, through no fault of his.

No celebrity distractions for Martin

Martin has always shunned the celebrity limelight, preferring to concentrate on creating sublime dishes. “I was asked to go on MasterChef when it first started. I’d had a little taste of that stuff, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t need to fly down to London to spend all day going over the same thing. I just wanted to stay away from all the distraction. I like what I’m doing, cooking.”

Looking back over his 25-year Michelin-starred career, he puts his success and longevity down to hard work, quality and consistency, and crucially, keeping his ideas up to date. Many believe he is worthy of a second star, and he recalls an inspector asking him if he wanted two stars. His response to the question was “For me personally, yes, but for the business, I’m not entirely sure.”

He explains his reasoning. “It puts you up on a different level in your industry, but business-wise, you’ve got to maintain that standard. It means higher overheads, and that means having to charge more. I’m not so sure we’d still be open if we’d won two stars. I wouldn’t want us to obtain two stars and lose it again, that I would see as a fail.”

I ask him whether he’s seen pots flying across any of the top kitchens in which he cut his teeth? He pauses for a moment, considers carefully, and then replies: “It’s kitchens and restaurants, things happen. It’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle, it’s everything. These really good chefs and restaurants are high-pressure environments, but things have changed. You have to be able to manage your own stress. Running a business is stressful.”

His dream was to own his restaurant, which he is immensely proud to have achieved. “I am getting to an age where I could stop when I want, but that’s not on the cards at the moment.”

A family dynasty?

“That’s why I’m pleased that my children are coming into work; I want them to see, engage in it, get a passion for it, and understand it. Jack comes in on Saturday morning, as the girls have done. He currently wants to be a rock star, but also, maybe a chef as well.”

He is proud that all his children are knowledgeable about what they eat and enjoy cooking. “I’m delighted that they’ve been able to share what we do, and they understand the difficulties and the highlights of running a restaurant. But would that be wanting them to take over? I think it’s pretty difficult these days. I know how much stress there is. You’ve got to want to do it. If any one of them comes to ask me, though, I’d be 110% behind them.”

His mother died from Parkinson’s, an illness he has campaigned for. In 2019, he sailed across the Atlantic with a small crew of family and friends to raise some money for The Cure Parkinson’s Trust. He says, “It snowballed very quickly. I did interviews on Sky TV, Radio Scotland, and Boogie in the morning, and did a series of interviews on a satellite phone when I was in the Atlantic. I’m very proud of that. It’s just amazing the support that you get when people get behind you. Every penny raised went to The Cure Parkinson’s Trust.”

He added: “But I think I am at a good place now. I’m thoroughly enjoying working with my team. I’m able to structure my day a little bit better. I can do a lot of research in my kitchen at home. I think my enjoyment levels are back to what they were when I was first established.”

I ask him what makes him happy: “I love cooking and windsurfing. I used to finish lunch service, put my stuff in my van, drive down to Gullane, and go windsurfing for an hour. I’d be away out in the middle of the Forth, it is a fantastic way to clear your thoughts. I just try not to fall off, and I have been trying to do that for 30-plus years.”

For today’s long read, David Forsyth has paid a return visit to one of the city’s best-loved institution, the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home.

The last time he was down at Seafield, the charity was facing an existential crisis, so he was delighted to find them still fighting the good fight.

The future though might look very different in order to secure the future of its vital work. After around 70 years by the seaside, it is being forced to contemplate fairly radical change.

You can read more about the big challenges facing the cat and dog home below, but first your regular midweek news roundup and your cultural highlights for the week ahead.

Your Edinburgh Briefing

MACHETE ATTACK: Two men have been arrested following an alleged gangland machete attack in Musselburgh. The 31-year-old victim was taken to the Royal Infirmary following the attack in the town’s Drummohr Avenue at around 11.15pm on Monday. The incident is being investigated by detectives working on the ongoing Operation Portaledge which targets serious organised crime.

PRISON ABOLITIONIST: Greens election candidate Kate Nevens has doubled down on her opposition to prisons after the party issued a statement in her name suggesting she supports incarceration as a last resort. Nevens has a high chance of getting elected to the Scottish Parliament as the party’s second top candidate on the Edinburgh and Lothians East regional list. She has faced fierce criticism for calling for the abolition of the prison system, citing its poor record of rehabilitating offenders. Using her social media channels, she later described herself as an “abolotionist”, adding her qualified support only applied “while we work towards the goal of ending the current prison system”.

DEAF ‘LIVES AT RISK’: The charity Deaf Action has warned it believes lives are being put at risk as a result of the city’s latest social care cuts. The cuts ordered by the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership spell the end of the specialist social workers and equipment it supplied to support British Sign Language users. The partnership says it is still providing services to deaf people, but in a different way.

SPITFIRE RETURN: Spitfires will fly over the Forth bridges at 2.10pm today, weather allowing, after low fuel forced the cancellation of a planned flypast to mark the aircraft’s 90th anniversary yesterday.

Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops

Greetings, Pop Pickers!

Welcome back to the chart. As we march merrily into the heart of April, the Edinburgh weather is doing its usual chaotic dance of four seasons in a single afternoon (did you see the snow?!). Fortunately, our city’s brilliant venues offer the perfect shelter, and the lineup they are serving up this week is an absolute belter, writes Will Quinn.

We have a brilliantly bizarre assortment box for you. There is 90s Scottish sitcom royalty reuniting for a musical camp-fest, a masterclass in classic rock, an avalanche of sequins in the outback, and a frank, fiercely funny dive into the existential dread of impending motherhood.

Let’s count them down...

Honourable Mentions: One Day, Shooglenifty & Dystopia

Still clinging to the edges of the chart for its final curtain calls is One Day (Royal Lyceum Theatre). You have until April 19th to catch this Scottish cultural moment, and to let me know if the sound design has improved. I’d also like to give a massive nod to two one-night events that only missed the Top 5 by a whisker this week. First, Soundhouse: Shooglenifty (Traverse Theatre, April 11th). As the undisputed originators of ‘acid-croft’, these Scottish legends are guaranteed to blow the roof off Traverse 1 this Saturday night by fusing traditional Highland melodies with contemporary beats. Meanwhile, over at the Assembly Roxy, the gloriously unhinged Dystopia The Rock Opera (April 11th) offers a fever-dream fusion of political cabaret, biting satire, and masked tyrants. I have it on very good advice that this is a cracking wee show!

Dropping to Number 5 is... RSA New Contemporaries 2026 (Royal Scottish Academy, until April 22nd).

Slipping down to the Number 5 spot this week - mostly because you have all had ample time to get yourselves down there by now! - is the RSA’s annual showcase of Scotland’s top graduating artistic talent. Strolling through the neo-classical galleries on Princes Street, I guarantee you’ll find something that stops you in your tracks. Whether it’s that impossibly grand indoor sandcastle, a mesmerising collection of figures painted from behind, or a reimagined Glaswegian palace of the arts, the sheer variety really is spectacular. Naturally, some pieces weren’t my cup of tea, and others defied description entirely, but that is the joy of it. Crucially, these are working artists with rent to pay, and everything on the walls is up for grabs. Go and buy some art!

New in at Number 4 is... Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Edinburgh Playhouse, April 14th – 18th)

I actually caught this glitter-drenched musical last year, courtesy of a dazzlingly good production by one of Edinburgh’s premier unpaid professional outfits, The Bohemians. However, this brand-new 30th-anniversary touring production rolling into the Playhouse comes armed with some serious industry firepower. Starring Kevin Clifton, Adèle Anderson, and Peter Duncan, with costumes by Strictly’s Vicky Gill, the pedigree on and off the stage is undeniable. Given how much I enjoyed The Bohemians’ effort, I fully expect this blockbuster version to be…at least as good. Shake your groove thing and get booking!

New in at Number 3 is... Deeper Purple (The Voodoo Rooms, April 18th)

If you are a classic rock fan, clear your calendar immediately. I saw this phenomenal tribute act last year, and they absolutely blew my (and my Deep Purple-loving wife’s) socks firmly off. Delivering a face-meltingly authentic homage to the rock legends -expect blistering, note-perfect renditions of Smoke on the Water, Highway Star, Child in Time, and Perfect Strangers - the band members are also absolute sweethearts to boot. It’s a joy to see them back in Edinburgh. Do not miss this one.

Holding firm at Number 2 is... GUSH (Traverse Theatre, April 10th – 25th)

With the curtain officially going up tomorrow, there is a palpable buzz around Jess Brodie’s professional playwriting debut. Rather than leaning into the usual glowing portrayals of expectant motherhood, this piece zeroes in on Ally—a woman staring down her impending due date with a profound sense of panic, despite having done everything strictly ‘by the book’. It promises a frank dive into female desire, sexuality, and the fear of losing your identity to parenthood. With fast-rising director Becky Hope-Palmer in the director’s seat, the production is a shining example of the Traverse doing what it does best: nurturing grassroots talent from a Playwrights’ Studio concept all the way to a fully realised main-stage premiere.

And storming straight in at Number 1 is... The High Life (Festival Theatre, April 7th – 11th)

If you are wondering why the hottest ticket in Scotland didn’t make the chart last week, it’s simple: Capital Theatres was already dominating the list with a very strong double bill, and it would have been frankly indecent to let them monopolise the entire column!

But there is no holding it back now. This musical spectacular reunites all four original cast members—Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhan Redmond, and Patrick Ryecart—from the cult classic BBC Scotland comedy series. It’s a wickedly funny, camp, and unapologetically silly flight of nostalgia as the ageing Air Scotia cabin crew fight to save their airline from the scrap heap. It also arrives with serious pedigree, being co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep Theatre, in association with (our very own) Capital Theatres and Aberdeen Performing Arts. It will certainly not need my recommendation to sell out, but it surely deserves the crown this week. I’m actually writing this from the Festival Theatre foyer, less than an hour before curtain up — expect my verdict on theQR.co.uk tomorrow!

And that’s your Top 5! Make your choices, grab your tickets, and be sure to let the box office know who pointed you their way. Drop a comment below to let me know if my picks lived up to the hype, or if you’d rather demand a refund for the evening! (Neither The Edinburgh Inquirer nor I accept any liability — caveat emptor!)

Facing into The Big Challenge at Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home

New CEO Amelia Morgan is charged with looking at the long-term future of city’s cherished institution at Seafield

by David Forsyth

It’s not easy, running a much-loved institution in a city that loves its traditions and establishments as much as Edinburgh does. And the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home, as new Chief Executive Amelia Morgan knows, is one of those fixtures closest to the hearts of much of the Capital’s population.

It’s a charity that is hugely popular, enjoys significant local support from generous donors, but receives not a penny in support from the public purse for the many activities it undertakes on behalf of pets (and often their owners) who are distressed.

Read more

More than four people a week are dying homeless in Scotland. That was the stark finding in the latest figures produced by the Scottish Government this month. A total of 231 people were estimated by the National Records of Scotland to have died without a place to call their own in 2024.

Edinburgh enjoyed the unhappy distinction of having the highest per capita homeless death rate in Scotland, a status City of Edinburgh Councillor Tim Pogson, Convenor for the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee, said the city “very much regrets” and he pledged that significant efforts and investments are being made to tackle the issue.

“The real answer to this is for people to be living in their own permanent home as quickly as possible,” Cllr Tim Pogson, convener of the city’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work told us. “We are absolutely committed to that.”

The saddest reflection on Scotland’s awful homeless death figures may not be the actual numbers – worrying though they are, and almost certainly under-reported. The greatest pathos perhaps lies in the methodology required for this grim annual accounting.

Read more

Edinburgh to host Scotland’s biggest ever women’s sport event

The upcoming Scotland-England rugby international at Murrayfield will be the biggest standalone women’s sports event in Scottish history.

Ticket sales for next week’s Guinness Six Nations showdown have hit a record 24,000 amid fast-growing interest in women’s sport.

The Murrayfield crowd will comfortably surpass the previous Scottish attendance record of 18,500, for Scotland women’s football clash with Jamaica at Hampden Park in 2019.

It follows the unprecedented success of last year’s women’s football Euros - which made household names of players such as England’s Chloe Kelly - and the Women’s Rugby World Cup, which packed stadiums across England.

The match, on Saturday, 18 April, will be one of the biggest sporting events in the Capital this year, with only the Scotland men’s rugby fixtures and Edinburgh Rugby’s biggest matches attracting larger crowds.

An historic day: From Liz McColgan’s 10,000m gold at the 1986 Commonwealth Games at Meadowbank and Catriona Matthew leading Europe to golf’s Solheim Cup to the glorious Olympic achievements of Katherine Grainger and Laura Muir, Scottish women athletes have produced some of the country’s greatest sporting occasions. Next week’s match, however, sets a new bar for attracting a mass audience.

Big noise: A carnival atmosphere is expected at Murrayfield following the noisy and enthusiastic crowds which followed the team at last year’s World Cup in England. Tickets are on sale and the match will be shown live on the BBC at 2.30pm.

Who to watch out for? In the absence of injured number eight Evie Gallagher, the stars of the Scotland side include captain Rachel Malcolm and playmaker Helen Nelson. Emma Wassell’s inspiring comeback from a life-threatening tumour has made her a fan favourite and speedy former ballerina Fran McGhie is one of the team’s rising stars.

Grassroots growth: There has been a big rise in women and girls participating in particular sports, such as football and rugby, in recent years. Edinburgh is a Scottish hotbed for female rugby in particular, with an established network of teams in schools and clubs, including Watsonians, Corstorphine Cougars and Lismore. Participation levels in sport remain lower among women overall than men - with a significant drop-off among girls in their teenage years - and campaigners saying more still needs to be done to break down barriers.

Growing pains: Professional women’s sport has generally grown rapidly in Edinburgh as elsewhere in the UK, but it continues to face challenges attracting the media attention and commercial backing of the men’s game. The challenges were highlighted last year when half of the women’s Rugby World Cup squad went into the tournament not knowing whether they were going to be made redundant or not.

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

FEAST OF BOOKSHOPS: Something special is cooking for book lovers on Leith Walk. The Cookbook Shop has opened on Haddington Place, at the top of the Walk, just a few doors down from Typewronger and McNaughtan’s. The latest literary addition to the street is Scotland’s only bookshop dedicated to cookery books, taking up the mantle of The Cooks Bookshop, which Clarissa Dickson Wright of Two Fat Ladies fame ran in the Old Town until 2004.

PETROL AND STORMS: The severe weather warnings and occasional city petrol station running out of fuel which marked the end of last week have, thankfully, turned out to be damp squibs. The forecasts for the coming days are generally sunny and petrol supplies appear to be back to normal for now at least. Despite the brief flurry of snow, the severity of the weather warning which rapidly petered out on Sunday did appear to add weight to Edinburgh Zoo’s argument that forecasting apps have become to some degree inaccurate and alarmist.

MATERNITY PAUSE: The Simpson’s Maternity Unit at the Royal Infirmary has temporarily stopped external admissions after discovering discolouration in its hot water. NHS Lothian said it was a precautionary move while the cause of the problem was identified.

GANNET NUMBERS PLUMMET: The number of gannets breeding on Bass Rock has fallen by nearly a third following the devastating bird flu outbreak in 2022. The island, off North Berwick, is home to the world’s largest colony of norther gannets. Aerial photos taken last year show the population recovered slightly from the previous year, but remains nearly a third below the 75,000 recorded in the last count completed before the outbreak, according to researchers from the Scottish Seabird Centre and Edinburgh and Napier universities.

BROTHEL BOSS BARRED: Former brother boss Ian Haig has been barred from becoming a landlord. Police alerted the city council after the 83-year-old failed to declare in his landlord application his conviction for running the Scorpio Leisure sauna near Hibs’ Easter Road Stadium. The sauna has since been converted into flats.

SERIOUS STABBING: Two mean, aged 21 and 25, have been charged with attempted murder following an alleged stabbing in the city’s Calders area. The 38-year-old victim was taken to the Royal Infirmary for treatment after being injured shortly after 4pm on Thursday afternoon.

‘YEAR OF UNI DISRUPTION’: The university lecturers union the University and College Union (UCU) has warned of a “a year of disruption” at the University of Edinburgh after staff voted to extend industrial action. Union members voted 88% in favour of further strike strike action, on a turnout of 55%, following a series of walkouts. The university is cutting its budged by £140m, which the union claims could lead to a total of 1,800 job losses.

CARE HOME BID: Plans to build a three-storey, 50-bedroom care home on the site of the now demolished Salvation Army home on Colinton Road have been submitted to the city council.

Pic of the week

THE BUSINESS

Bumper season set to land for city’s cruise ships

Edinburgh’s cruise ship season has berthed, with the arrival in the Capital of the Viking Neptune, which carries almost 1000 visitors, at Newhaven.

Capital Cruising, which is based in the city and operates as the cruising arm of Forth Ports, expects a busy season with more than 450,000 passengers being carried to its port at Tilbury in London or Scotland, or both.

City of Edinburgh Council is currently exploring introducing a Visitor Levy on cruise ship passengers, with the potential of raising more than £1 million a year to help fund local services linked to the city’s visitor economy.

The cruise calendar in Scotland traditionally runs between April and October and this year it will see 159 cruise ships sail into its locations in Leith, Rosyth, Dundee, and two deep water anchorages in Newhaven and South Queensferry.

Offering access to two globally famous Capital cities in the UK, Capital Cruising’s business opens up both of these popular destinations which are viewed by the cruise market as “marquee” cruise destinations due to the abundance of iconic attractions, events, heritage and culture.

Paul Dale, Chief Operating Officer, Forth Ports, said: “Our business continues to grow with advance bookings already secured for 2030, highlighting a strong future demand. We have many cruise lines returning to our destinations for multiple calls during the season and we are also set to welcome ships for the first time.

“Our team work collaboratively with the cities, destination partners and the wider cruise industry to deliver a successful cruise season. We know that cruise brings significant benefits to the local and national economy as hundreds of thousands of passengers visit not just the capital cities but local attractions and major events too.”

FARMER SALE: Farmer Autocare, founded by the late Sir Tom Farmer after he sold the KwikFit chain, has been acquired by Belfast-based Kerr’s Tyres Group, bringing together two family-run organisations with 48 sites in Scotland and Ireland, with ambitious growth plans.

MEDIA SALE: Edinburgh-based Daily Business, the business and politics news website and newsletter established by former Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday business editor Terry Murden, has been acquired by newly-created Hero Media & Entertainment (HM&E). Hero has also bought Dundee Press Agency and E News Now as part of its strategy to create a major Scotland-based player in the news sector.

FAST GROWTH: Zudu has appointed Paul Duffy as its new chief executive, from his current Managing Director role, and has also moved its headquarters to Commercial Quay in Leith. The software firm is aiming for £5m in revenue in the current year, and £10m by 2028

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

EXCITING EARDLEY: Get a new perspective on the vibrant works of Joan Eardley at the Modern Art Gallery Two. Joan Eardley: The Nature of Painting, which shows some of her oil paintings alongside works by Constable and Monet to draw parallels between them, runs until 28 June. Entry is free.

MEDICAL HISTORY: Explore the history of the oldest medical school in the English-speaking world in a new temporary exhibition at the Surgeons Hall Museum. Edinburgh City of Medicine: 300 years of Edinburgh Medical School charts the revolutionary progress of the city’s famous medical school and the cost of that progress.

ON ICE: Former ice hockey greats from the USA and Canada take to the ice in a series of exhibition games at Murrayfield Ice Rink. The series culminates in a showpiece match on 26 April.

QUICK BITES

ACCOLADES: Owner and chef Giovanni Pia, who runs Gio’s in Slateford, has enjoyed stunning success at the UK Italian food awards, scooping the prize as “Best Newcomer” at a ceremony in London, and also coming highly commended in both the “Best Chef” and “Best Italian Restaurant” categories.

DOGSTAR SHINES: Recently opened Dogstar in Leith, which has been garnering positive reviews, has been added to the list of recommended places to eat in the Michelin Guide by its panel of inspectors. The venue is the latest venture from chef James Murray who has worked in two of the Capital’s Michelin starred establishments in the past.

The park is bustling with visitors enjoying the bursts of the spring sunshine. There is live music and games - and, like at any good festival, a technicolour mixture of foods from around the world.

The launch in West Pilton Park offered a tantalising taste of what is planned for the North Edinburgh Community Festival next month, writes Emma Newlands.

The festival is one of the city’s great grassroots success stories, having been recognised as the city’s best festival at the Creative Edinburgh Awards in 2024. After months of planning, everything is in place for one of its most ambitious programmes to date - apart from one thing.

Organisers are now seriously concerned the annual event, which last year welcomed 13,000 visitors, will not be able to go ahead as they struggle to plug an unexpected funding shortfall of more than £20,000.

The Festival is appealing for donors to come forward to ensure the initiative, billed as being “powered by community”, can actually go ahead as it battles funding headwinds buffeting the third sector.

Festival director Adele Conn has told the The Inquirer there is a “very real possibility” the fifth edition of the annual festival, scheduled to go-ahead on May 16, will need to be cancelled without an urgent cash injection.

She explains that at this time of year she is usually “90 per cent” sure the festival will get the capital injection to proceed. “Whereas at the moment, this is probably the first time we need to make a contingency plan if we don’t get the funding.”

And should it be cancelled, it would still be on the hook for paying deposits for various attractions, she adds, “so it’s a very weird situation to be in… we will be doing absolutely everything possible [to make it happen]”.

‘Everything from jerk chicken to chicken nuggets’

The event costs about £60,000 each year to stage, which covers all programme and infrastructure costs, plus three part‑time staff roles, including Conn’s. She explains of the shortfall: “It’s not the cash to do anything elaborate, it’s literally for the marquees, it’s for the sound equipment, it’s for the stages, it’s for insurance [etc] - everything necessary. It just all adds up.”

The free-to-attend festival originally came about as a tie-up between the police, city council and West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre. Having more than doubled the number of visitors since the first year, it puts a positive spotlight on a deprived area of Edinburgh, far removed from the internationally renowned festivals that bring in millions of visitors and pounds to the city. It has instead been among the areas subject to dispersal zones to prevent groups of youths committing crimes.

“Everybody” loves and looks forward to the North Edinburgh Community Festival, says Conn. She and fellow organisers say it is a “vital community anchor that brings people together, strengthens local pride, and connects thousands with essential services and opportunities”.

This year’s programme promises to be “one of the most ambitious yet”, with attractions including live music now across three stages, including a carnival offering, and a smaller one providing a platform for up-and-coming performers “trying to build their confidence being in front of an audience”, says Conn.

On the agenda again this year is culturally diverse cooks delivering their cooking demonstration in their native language, plus “somebody delivering a recipe in the Scottish tongue… it’s just a really nice mix”.

Conn, who also runs The Tartan Spoon food blog, adds: “I think there’ll be everything from jerk chicken to chicken nuggets.”

And she explains that there will be free food as well as some options to buy, with nothing costing more than £6, as people face the ongoing struggle of high household bills. “We’re not alleviating poverty, but we’re trying to help out, and we’re just trying to give people in the area a really good, fun, free, happy day out, which I think a lot of people need at the moment.” Among the organisations in attendance are those helping people manage bills and “how to get the best out of living in North Edinburgh”.

This year’s food theme is “beans”, with relevant dishes being served on the day, and partner organisation Lauriston Farm planting beans, which will be harvested in the autumn, and then go back out into the community “so that people can make food”.

A first step for youth

This idea of renewal echoes the festival looking to provide year-round benefits to Pilton. That includes the Festival Futures Events Management Programme, run in partnership with the acclaimed youth music project Tinderbox Collective and Granton Youth.

It sees young people, from about 14 to 20, gain hands-on experience in programming, budgeting, logistics, marketing, and event delivery, helping them gain key skills and confidence. Having helped bring the festival to life in previous years, 2026 marks the first time they were responsible for the launch event, with participants including Sage, aged 20.

She says: “We were all involved in doing everything, and it’s been great seeing it all come together. It’s been a great confidence boost - you need to do a lot of communicating with new people. We’ve learned a lot.”

Also in attendance at the launch was the Tinderbox Games Club, which ran a game that its members had created, having been deliberately created as a collaborative, multiplayer game.

Liam Dempsey, project co-ordinator at the club, said the stall was in high demand. “We’ve not had a moment when it’s been quiet.”

His colleague Doska Jackowska added that there were many “lovely interactions” between people who had made the game and those giving it a try.

And she praises the festival for uniting and connecting people, having attended several times as a local.

Its director Conn does however note it will need to squeeze into a much smaller space this year as work gets under way on a controversial £4 million upgrade of West Pilton Park.

That is, however, if the event can go ahead at all, amid a lack of crucial multi-year funding.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) recently unveiled research showing the sector is increasingly struggling with funding delays, showing the need for reliable, multi-year backing. It said up to 40 per cent of respondents said cash-flow pressures stemming from such delays led to postponed or cancelled services.

Previous North Edinburgh Community Festival backers, who have been branded the “backbone” of the event, include local housing associations, Edinburgh College, Awards for All, the People’s Postcode Lottery, and corporate names such as Cruden and Centrica.

The city council has been a key supporter, and its culture and communities convener councillor Margaret Graham told The Inquirer she was pleased the local authority had provided funding for the “brilliant” launch event through last year’s Local Events Open Fund grant programme.

Describing the festival as a great way to unite people in the area, she added: “The applications for grants this year have now closed, and will be assessed later this month.”

Eleanor Ryan-Saha, a longtime attendee with her family, said: “It’s such a positive and inclusive event, and it’s one of the few big summertime events that is even accessible for my disabled daughter and many other disabled and neurodivergent members of our community.

“Over 160 third-sector organisations take part each year, including the groups for girls and women that I volunteer with. It’s been brilliant to see it go from strength to strength.”

Ryan-Saha, who is standing in the newly redrawn Edinburgh Northern constituency in next month’s Scottish Parliament elections as the Scottish Labour candidate, added: “Multi-year funding for the festival’s core costs is a huge priority for West Pilton,.”

Festival director Conn also underlines the Festival’s growing importance to the communities of north Edinburgh. “And it definitely has the potential to get bigger.”

As many of you will know having enjoyed his writing in the past, Corey is an award-winning engineer with a special interest in active travel and the potential of public transport.

You can enjoy his long read below, but first your usual news update and cultural highlights.

Your Edinburgh Briefing

FRINGE SURGE: A record number of productions are heading to the Fringe this summer despite fears that soaring costs will see artists being priced out of the Edinburgh in August. With more than two months to go before the official programme launch, more than 2000 shows have been registered for the first time, an increase of 16% on last year. You can get a flavour of some of the weird and wonderful offerings here.

JOIN THE Q: Leah Byrne, Matthew Goode and the stars of Department Q will return to Edinburgh in July for filming on the second series of the hit Netflix crime drama. Location filming in and around Edinburgh is expected to take five months. Argyle House, the Brutalist office block facing demolition, is expected to feature again as the central Edinburgh police station.

BOY RACER: A 15-year-old boy has been charged after police chased a stolen car he was driving down Princes Street. The boy ran off after the short chase at around 4am on Tuesday but was later caught by officers.

HOME AT LAST: The city’s biggest grassroots football club has won its seven-year battle for a permanent home for its 1000-plus players. The city council has agreed in principle to let Edinburgh South Community Football Club build an all-weather pitch and changing block on land at Inch Park which is being used to store council equipment.

CULTURE TOWN: At stake is £3m to spend on staging six months of cultural events - and all the prestige and hype that would come with being the UK Town of Culture 2028. Dalkeith, Penicuik and North Berwick have all thrown their hat in the ring. Other Lothian towns may follow. Not to be outdone, Leith has made its own bid. Ok, it’s not technically town (at least since its 1920 merger with Edinburgh), but it is very cool. Its bid also has the backing of such luminaries as Irvine Welsh and institutions including Hibs FC.

Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops

Greetings, Pop Pickers! Welcome back to the chart. As we officially cross into April, I hope you have all survived the annual theft of that precious hour of sleep when the clocks went forward. But look on the bright side: the evenings are stretching out, and we have a massive shake-up in the list to match the new season, writes Will Quinn.

This week’s chart is quite the assortment box. We’ve got B-movie Gilbert & Sullivan, a healthy dose of pregnant existential dread, the RSC swapping the Bard for razor-sharp 1920s comedy, and a neo-classical hall stuffed with incredible emerging art that you can actually buy. As the final applause fades for a few of our recent one-night gigs and short runs, a whole host of fresh entries has arrived to fill the void.

Let’s count them down...

Remaining in the Honourable Mentions: One Day (Royal Lyceum Theatre, until Sunday) Still holding onto an honourable mention as it enters its final weekend is the Lyceum’s mammoth new musical. Interestingly, I’ve recently revised my opinion of the Netflix adaptation. After getting beyond a rather lacklustre opening episode, I’m now appreciating its better-paced storytelling and the more palpable chemistry between the leads. It also benefits from a cracking era-appropriate soundtrack, which has really crystallised my feelings on this new stage production’s score: it is such a missed opportunity not to have tailored the music to fit the years, tracing the glorious 80s, right through Brit-Pop, and into the Post-Punk revival.

But enough about the missed musical opportunities of yesteryear—let’s get into the shows that are actually hitting the right notes this week. Kicking off the official countdown...

New in at Number 5 is... EUSOG: Ruddigore (Bedlam Theatre, until Saturday). Since first catching an EUSOG production in the midst of a global stramash over their casting of a woman in Jesus Christ Superstar back in 2023, this plucky bunch of comic opera and musical theatre enthusiasts has consistently impressed with the quality and ambition of their work. Now, they return with a B-Movie horror take on Gilbert & Sullivan’s Ruddigore (performing G&S being the originating raison d’être for the Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group when they were founded back in 1961). Their take on G&S’s most haunted work will doubtless be a memorable affair. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, of course, but I expect this to be a highly fun and very melodic night at the theatre.

Staying firm at Number 4 is... Footloose (Edinburgh Music Theatre, until Saturday). Holding steady this week, the Edinburgh Music Theatre team are now officially cutting loose. Let’s be honest, the stage adaptation of this 80s classic isn’t going to win a Pulitzer for deep dramatic nuance, but EMT consistently punches above its weight in the unpaid tier of the city’s theatre scene. Between the unapologetic cheese factor and a soundtrack loaded with absolute earworms, they know exactly how to deliver a high-energy, crowd-pleasing spectacle. Grab your tickets before the run ends this weekend — I’m heading into review the show when it opens tomorrow — check in on theQR.co.uk to see whether I ultimately agree with my own recommendation!

Staying at Number 3 is... The Capital Theatres Double Bill. Remaining firmly at Number 3 is our two-for-one entry over at Capital Theatres, as both of these heavyweight visiting productions officially open their doors this week.

At the Festival Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company is proving there is life beyond the Bard with The Constant Wife (until Saturday). Featuring Kara Tointon leading the cast and a fresh score by Jamie Cullum, it’s a potent, stylish mix that breathes vibrant new life into Somerset Maugham’s deliciously cynical, feminist comedy.

Meanwhile, if you want something decidedly darker, duck into The Studio for Northern Broadsides’ Crime and Punishment (until Saturday). Boiling Dostoyevsky’s sweeping, psychological thriller down to a cast of just three actors is a spectacularly daring feat. With director Laurie Sansom at the helm and Connor Curren starring as the murderous Raskolnikov, this promises to be a gripping, claustrophobic masterclass in tension.

New in at Number 2 is... GUSH (Traverse Theatre, April 10th – 25th). This marks the professional debut of writer Jess Brodie and follows Ally, a woman in the final days of her pregnancy who, despite all the antenatal classes and caffeine bans, still feels something is entirely off. Determined to take control of her life before the baby arrives, the piece promises a funny and frank exploration of self-identity, sexuality, and the barriers preventing women from owning their desires. Directed by one of Scotland’s brightest up-and-coming talents, Becky Hope-Palmer, and benefiting from a cracking line-up on stage and behind the scenes, GUSH is a real testament to the power of publicly funded writing initiatives, having begun as a response to a Playwright’s studio call-out, before being picked up by the Traverse’s First Looks programme last year. GUSH’s arrival on the professional stage shows the Traverse is putting its money where its new-writing mouth is.

And storming straight in at Number 1 is... RSA New Contemporaries 2026 (Royal Scottish Academy, until April 22nd).

Taking the top spot this week is the RSA’s annual celebration of emerging artists, returning to the neo-classical halls of the society’s home on Princes Street. I’ve been in for a look, and I absolutely guarantee there is something in there for everyone. Whether it’s an arresting encounter with a most impressive sandcastle, standing mesmerised before an arrangement of wandering figures painted from behind, or wandering the fully imagined halls of a could-be palace of the arts in Glasgow, it certainly offered plenty for me. There’s so much more on and between the walls that either wasn’t for me, or which simply defies description—and the brilliant thing is, if you really, really like anything you see, you can buy it! This isn’t the National Gallery; these pieces are made by living, breathing artists out to earn their rent.

And that’s your Top 5! Get out there, book some tickets, and tell them who sent you. As always, I’d love to hear whether we put you onto a good thing, or if you think we sent you out for a night to forget!

The missing link in Edinburgh’s rail revolution

Corey Boyle on the potential of high-speed rail and the missed opportunity for Scotland’s Capital

You live in an EH postcode. You have an 11am meeting in Central London. And you decide, calmly and casually, to travel down that morning.

No airport security. No 5am taxi. No overpriced hotel the night before because London room prices are absurd, even by our own absurd Edinburgh standards. Even better, you sleep in your own bed.

At 8:15am you board a shiny new high-speed train at Edinburgh Waverley. Reaching speeds of around 190 mph (300 km/h), just over two hours later you step off in London after completing the roughly 332 miles (534 km) journey. Spacious seats, coffee, Wi-Fi, and a fraction of the flight’s emissions. You make your meeting comfortably. There is even time for a (thankfully) expensed lunch. By late afternoon you are back in Scotland’s capital before the close of business on the same working day.

This is not fantasy for Lyon to Paris or Seville to Madrid. It is entirely normal across Europe and Asia. But between Edinburgh and London, it remains hypothetical and fanciful.

Journey times today hover around four and a half hours. Implementing a truly high-speed railway (HSR) would halve journeys to something close to two hours, and the relationship between the UK’s two capitals would change overnight. Day trips for business and leisure would become routine. Day trips would become routine, reshaping where businesses base staff and how investors see distance. Edinburgh would no longer feel peripheral; it would feel local to the rest of the UK.

Read more

There is something awe-inspiring about trees. Maybe it’s the transformation of a tiny fleck of a seed into a mighty towering beast, or the unwavering yearly cycle of colours that frames, quite beautifully, the endless passage of time. Maybe it’s the knowledge that most have been here longer than we have, and may well be standing, just as tall, after we are gone. Whatever it is, a tree feels more profound than just a lump of wood - as the Dunbar-born conservationist John Muir said: “After a whole day in the woods, we are already immortal.”

There’s perhaps a tendency to get distracted from the wonder of living trees by the exciting things they can make for us when they’re dead - charcoal, buildings, ships. But we really should cherish the ancient woodland that we have. It’s estimated that when the Romans arrived in Scotland half of the country was forested - by 1900 that had dwindled to just 5%.

It is quite amazing, then, that the UK has some of the largest numbers of ancient trees in Europe. Not many woods made it through those waves of deforestation, but those that did have survived to this day.

So that got us thinking - where are the ancient trees in and around Edinburgh? What’s the oldest tree we can find? The treasure hunt began…

The contendors

The natural place to start any plant-related search in Edinburgh is, of course, the Botanics. Although the garden in its current location was only established in 1820 - relatively recently, in tree years - teams famously went to great lengths to move the garden from its previous location, including wheeling plants between glass houses and the Palm Houses on carts.

The oldest palm sadly had to be cut down recently as the 200-year old giant was about to break through the roof of the glass house. We should beware on this hunt though of jumping to conclusions just from what appears on the surface. According to Max Coleman, one of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBBE) staff, looks can be deceiving. “We have trees in the Garden that look extremely old and turn out to be little over 100,” he says. That said, Coleman and his colleagues have identified a sweet chestnut tree in the grounds, which they reckon predates the garden by some way.

Coleman put us on to some more impressive contenders, too. Two yew trees flank the entrance to Craigmillar Castle. They are rumoured to be linked to Mary Queen of Scots (but what landmark in Scotland isn’t?). We do know they are at least 300 years old, and possibly much older. They would need to be at least around 450 years old for the stories of them being around when Mary convalesced there in 1566 to be true.

The connection with Mary may or may not be folklore. There is a tendency for ancient trees to become associated with famous local figures. That’s perhaps a sign of how much our human brains are in awe of, and struggle to compute, their great age. The truth is we have no way of knowing the age of the trees with any degree of certainty - even chopping it down and counting its rings (more on that later) is highly unlikely to provide anything like a definitive answer.

Read more

The widow of firefighter Barry Martin has hit out at the “unacceptable and abhorrent” delays in the investigation into her husband’s death.

The 38-year-old father-of-two suffered fatal injuries as he fought a fire in the former Jenners department store building on 23 January, 2023.

The Lord Advocate has now confirmed the fire service is being treated as “a suspect” in the investigation after concerns were raised about him being sent into the building “unprepared and under-equipped”.

His widow, Shelley, has criticised the delays as it emerged the fire service has yet to file is own report into Martin’s death three years and two months after the blaze.

What do we know about what happened? Martin was a newly-qualified firefighter serving on Blue Watch at the McDonald Road Fire Station at the time of the fire. He was part of a four-strong team sent into the burning Jenners building, but within minutes fell down a flight of stairs, damaging his equipment and losing his air supply. It took 27 minutes after his distress signal activated to find and rescue him. By then, he had suffered severe burns and injuries from lack of oxygen, and died in hospital four days later.

Why is the investigation taking so long? Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain has said she must wait for the fire service to complete its own report into the handling of the blaze before she can take a decision on whether or not there are grounds for prosecution. That report has been promised next month.

But why has it taken three years? That isn’t clear, but there is a precedent. The fire service took nearly three years to complete its report into the death of Martin’s fellow Edinburgh firefighter Ewan Williamson in 2009. Fire investigations can be complex and sensitive, but that delay was also widely criticised. The fire service finally plead guilty to health and safety breaches nearly six years after Williamson’s death, resulting in a £54,000 fine.

Shelley Martin believes there was no reason to send firefighters into the building as it was unoccupied and there was no danger to life. She described the delays as “unacceptable and abhorrent” adding: “I am angry at the way the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have sought to bury and cover this up. I’m also not surprised. It’s typical, institutionalised behaviour and that’s why I won’t go away.”

Scotland’s deputy chief fire officer Andrew Watt said: “We continue to co-operate fully with all external investigators and have maintained clear communication regarding investigation timescales and any requests for information.”

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

DOUBLE OYSTERS: A project to restore European flat oysters to their natural habitat in the Firth of Forth is celebrating after doubling its original target of introducing 30,000. You can read more about this wonderful project here: How oysters are returning to the Forth after 100 years.

FLOATING MUSEUM: Restoration work will be carried out in Leith on Scotland’s first purpose-built Fisheries Research Vessel, after it was awarded more than £150,000 by the National Lottery. Built in 1955, the SS Explorer carried out important scientific work, including pollution monitoring and climate change studies. It is now berthed in Leith Dock where it is set to be a star attraction in the Edinburgh Science Festival and there are longer terms plans to open it as a floating museum and education centre.

NEW TRAM RECORD: The city’s trams have again notched up record passenger numbers, thanks in part to ‘tap on, tap off’ and Oasis. The trams carried 12.5 million passengers in 2025, 3.3 percent more than in 2024. The new ‘tap on, tap off’ service, which allows passengers to travel with their bank card rather than buying a ticket, has been credited for part of the rise. Murrayfield concert-goers also boosted numbers, with a one-day record 77,000 passengers traveling on August 9, the day of one of the Oasis shows.

GOOD OMENS: Set the date in your diary Good Omens fans, 13 May has been confirmed as the date of the finale of the Edinburgh-filmed fantasy series, starring David Tenant and Michael Sheen. The 90-minute final episode goes out on Amazon Prime as Neil Gaiman, co-author of the original novel, faces multiple sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, Apple TV period drama The Buccaneers has been filming around St Stephen’s Church and Royal Circus in Stockbridge, a location previously used by Good Omens. Filming for both series has been based at Bathgate’s Pyramid Studios.

LINK TO DEMENTIA: Researchers at the University of Edinburgh who looked at population health data from 23,500 hospitalised people of more than 65 years old living in the Lothians found that delirium – a sudden state of confusion commonly seen during acute illness – was associated with a markedly increased likelihood of future dementia across all levels of pre-existing health. They maintain their findings confirm delirium as a “critical warning sign for future cognitive decline” and suggest future research to better understand the biological mechanisms linking delirium to dementia and to develop treatments that could reduce long-term cognitive risk.

CRIME GANG ARRESTS: Police have made another 13 arrests following a series of simultaneous pre-dawn raids across Scotland Spain targeting serious organised crime gangs. Crime gang leader Steven Lyons has also been arrested in Bali. The arrests follow protracted gang-related violence in Edinburgh and Glasgow last year.

MAKAR SHUTS UP SHOP: Acclaimed poet Alan Spence and his wife Janani are closing the community bookshop they have run in Abbeyhill for more than eight years. The 78-year-old former Edinburgh Makar - the city’s equivalent of Poet Laureate - started Citadel Books on Montrose Terrace to help fund a Hindu meditation centre they run in nearby St Margaret’s House.

IN BANNISTER’S FOOTSTEPS: Josh Kerr is aiming to emulate Sir Roger Bannister by breaking the men’s mile world record. The Edinburgh athlete - the reigning indoor 3000m world champion and a 5-time global medal winner - is targeting Hicham El Guerrouj’s long-standing record of three minutes 43.13 seconds in at The London Athletics Meet, on Saturday, 18 July.

HERITAGE ROW: The heritage watchdog charged with overseeing Edinburgh’s city centre World Heritage site has defended its approach to the controversial “super hostel” proposed for Atholl Crescent in the West End. Edinburgh World Heritage (EWH) has been criticised by campaigners for describing the change of use from offices to a 544-bed hostel or hotel as “acceptable”. It has also praised the pod method proposed by developers which would easily allow the conversion to be reversed in future. EWH director Terry Levinthal said: “The question is: is the change of use, from business to hotel and hostel, acceptable? And in our assessment it is because it causes no significant impact to the outstanding universal value of the world heritage site and we have to accept that many buildings within the world heritage site and outside have undergone a similar transformation.”

NHS HOLIDAY: NHS staff will join Scottish Government civil servants in enjoying a day off to celebrate Scotland’s men reaching the World Cup finals. Edinburgh, Midlothian and East Lothian councils have all decided against offering a day off on 15 June, largely due to the associated cost in lost productivity.

Pic of the week

THE BUSINESS

‘Plan needed to maximise economic potential of AI and data’

Edinburgh Chamber is calling for a co-ordinated plan to help the city gain maximum value from its global strengths in Artificial Intelligence and data, spanning digital infrastructure, skills development, and helping business adoption.

They are also establishing a new AI knowledge-sharing group, enabling members to exchange insights and practical experience, and is keen to help shape a policy framework that will enable growth while also helping safeguard against unintended consequences.

The chamber said: “AI’s economic potential is significant. Some estimates suggest it could drive annual productivity gains of 1.5%, while others argue generative AI could double economic growth over the next 15 years. However, these opportunities must be balanced with a clear focus on risks – ranging from environmental pressures and workforce impacts to sector-specific concerns such as protection of intellectual property for Edinburgh’s vital creative industries…

“Our city has genuine, hard-won global strengths in AI and data, built on academic excellence, advanced computing capabilities, and a dynamic tech sector. With the right strategy and strong partnerships, the city can attract further investment, build the necessary infrastructure, and ensure our businesses are equipped to compete – and lead – in an AI-driven future.”

The Chamber attended the launch of the Scottish Government’s AI strategy, and “while we will engage members on the detail, the overall direction is encouraging, particularly commitments around AI champions and support for SMEs adopting new technologies.”

Adoption also remains a challenge, particularly for time-poor SMEs, alongside ongoing concerns about job displacement. Recent research from the British Chambers of Commerce network shows that 54% of UK firms are now using AI, more than doubling in recent years. Encouragingly, 95% of those businesses report no change in overall workforce size, and 86% say roles have remained largely unchanged.

AWARDS SECURED: A leading Edinburgh cyber-security expert has won a prestigious award. Professor Bill Buchanan of Edinburgh Napier University was presented with the 10th Anniversary Security Veteran Award at the Computing Security Excellence Awards 2026. Napier student Aimie Grant was also recognised at the Scottish Cyber Awards, where she won the Cyber Security Student of the Year honour.

FINANCIAL LITERACY: Accountancy and advisory firm MHA has donated £3,500 to help improve the financial literacy of young people in Edinburgh through its MHA 1892 Foundation. The grant will be used by Edinburgh-based Grassmarket Community Project to launch a finance and budgeting workshop that strengthens young people’s practical money management skills.

TOP AWARD: Edinburgh-based Signature Group has been named the UK’s ‘Best Pub Employer’ finalist at The Publican Awards 2026 in London. Signature owns and operates 23 pub venues across Scotland, including Cold Town House, The Queens Arms, The Basement, and The Boozy Cow in Edinburgh, and employs a team of over 700 licensed trade professionals.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE: The Edinburgh Science Festival gets underway on Saturday with two-weeks of inspiring events across the city. You can read more about this year’s highlights here, search the full programme here or read about its inspiring history here: The Science Festival: Edinburgh’s other gift to the world

As part of the festival, three centuries of pioneering work at the University of Edinburgh Medical School is being celebrated in a new outdoors exhibition. Faces of Edinburgh Medical School is on the Mound until 26 April, before moving to Porty Prom from 29 April to 14 June.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: New director Adjjima Na Patalung has unveiled an exciting line-up for this year’s Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, which runs from 30 May to 7 June. The full programme features 15 productions from nine countries. One of the highlights promises to be a free family day, packed with pop-up performances, at the National Museum of Scotland, on Saturday, 30 May.

FIRE FEST: If you want to enjoy the Capital’s spectacular fire festival Beltane this year, then you’d better not hang around. Tickets, costing £16.38, including a £1.38 booking fee, are on sale now for the festival on Thursday, 30 April. Expect them to sell out long before then.

QUICK BITES

TOP BAKERY: Lannan Bakery has been named as one of the Good Food Guide’s Best Bakeries of 2026 for the third year running. The Bakery and Pantry is located on Hamilton Place in Stockbridge.

FOUR STARS: Four out of the five best new restaurants in Scotland in 2026 selected by Condé Nast Traveller are in Edinburgh - Moss in Stockbridge, Nishiki at Haymarket, Newhaven harbour cafe Norah, and Vinette on Broughton Street.

For more than a century, the lighthouse at Granton was a busy depot for the Northern Lighthouse Board.

The experimental tower with its lantern copula was added in 1874, though it never served as a working lighthouse.

Instead, the sturdy red-brick warehouse was used to teach lighthouse keepers their trade and to experiment with new technologies of the time.

But the story of the disused testing station is being rewritten – and will see it brought back to life as a beacon of a different kind.

The dilapidated building will be transformed into a community space, as part of the city’s ambitious waterfront regeneration.

It’s at the heart of the Granton Waterfront £1.3bn redevelopment, on the Capital’s largest brownfield site, which includes new homes and public spaces including the giant gasholder frame, restored as a striking landmark and open-air events space.

This week the balance of the £4.2m funding required to bring the historic C-listed building back to life was unlocked, as the Scottish Government announced £2.3m to transform it into a community arts and education hub.

Out of the Blue Arts and Education Trust (OOTB) will operate it as a creative hub following its restoration. Like their successful Drill Hall venue in Leith, the hub will have flexible workspace, exhibitions, and a cafe open to the public.

A home for musicians

But chief executive Rob Hoon says the Lighthouse will have more of a music focus with recording and rehearsal spaces at the fore. It could even host intimate gigs.

Hoon told The Inquirer: “A lot has changed over the years around Granton and people are enthusiastic about this project. At this stage, we are looking at the hub with more of a music emphasis. It could bridge what’s already on. We always try to stay mindful of the character of the building itself.

“Depot music already runs a studio there. We would look at how to get more people in using studio recording and rehearsal spaces.

“I can see small scale performances being put on. We are in talks with the college, Tinderbox Collective and the Granton Youth project.

“We are working closely with the architects and feeding into design work at this stage. A lot of our plans are flexible. But I’m so excited to be part of the huge change happening in such a vibrant area.”

More than 30 years since it first started as a grassroots project, OOTB has expanded its enterprise with studios and club venues across the city.

But Hoon jokes they are “not building an empire yet”. “The arts connect with each other, communities are built and that has a lasting impact” he says. “I can’t get over the demand for the Drill Hall and how much it has grown over the years.”

He took the helm at Out of the Blue 19 years ago, after working with WHALE arts in the north of the city.

Hundreds of artists looking for space

One of the prospects he is excited about is taking another step towards meeting the massive unmet demand for artists’ workspace in the Capital. The waiting list for the kind of flexible workspace which the Trust provides is now at 1600.

“It ebbs and flows. But the number of people waiting for a workspace has gone up by 100 in the last month alone. Our mission has always been to find space that people can use and that is sustainable.”

The Trust already leases studios at four other locations: Niddrie Mains Road; Abbeymount on Easter Road; private studios on Iona Street, Leith; and the Bongo Club on the Cowgate. They are creating another studio and hub at Powderhall Stables as part of the mixed-use redevelopment on the former council waste site.

The OOTB approach works, he says, because they put in real effort to make lasting connections within local communities. Granton will be no different.

Hoon has already discussed the music plans with Harbour Homes, the former Port of Leith Housing Association which is developing new homes in the area, and the feedback so far has been positive, he says.

The revamped space will house 120 artists and creatives in shared studios and workspaces with over 5,000 members of the community accessing the space for workshops, events and the cafe each year.

For Hoon, it’s about creating a space that is a thriving part of the area. “I think what we do goes beyond consultation. It’s about something much more hands-on; it’s about getting involved.”

As the refurbishment progresses, Hoon hopes to work with young people and local organisations, creating opportunities for everyone involved to learn about the area’s distinctive industrial heritage.

“The riso print project is something we hope to bring to the Granton project. It uses plant-based materials to create zines. We plan to run a group to produce and distribute flyers or zines locally. It’s great for skills development and drumming up that awareness so the project is in people’s minds.”

When the Trust first took on the Drill Hall, they delivered a project with local schools and community councils to refurb a local derelict park.

“We had people coming along to meetings complaining about how we shouldn’t be rewarding anti-social behaviour. It was a place where young people would hang out. We stuck to the plan and carried on working in partnership with the council and local schools to raise the money and did some landscaping work.

“One of the young people who hung about in the park came to work in our cafe for years. She now runs her own business. To get that buy-in and make an impact like that is powerful.”

A restoration surrounded by restorations

While OOTB deals with the nitty-gritty of the refurbishment, the main challenge will be to make sure they integrate into what’s already going on.

With funding now fully secured, the next step for the Lighthouse will be to finalise the design and get that through planning.

Funding for the £4.171 million project includes £2.278 million from the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund. Additional support has come from Historic Environment Scotland’s Heritage and Place Fund (£1.610 million) and the City of Edinburgh Council (£0.283 million).

OOTB will take on a 75-year lease in 2027. The restoration is expected to begin later this year and could be complete by 2030.

Original features of the Lighthouse, including the lantern, will be restored, while surrounding outdoor areas will be redesigned as social spaces with seating and greenery. The plans also include some accessible parking and cycle storage.

Funding for other arts-based heritage projects in the area has also been secured. That includes turning Madelvic House, a Victorian red stone building which was the original offices of Britain’s first purpose-built motor factory, into a community arts hub.

Granton Castle Walled Garden is being restored and the former platforms at Granton Station Square are being converted into a public square.

Hoon said: “We are aware of communities and will keep building partnerships, keep listening to what people need. It’s clear that creative workspaces are vital to the local economy. If people can’t find a space they can afford, they will leave the city. The demand is huge. It’s good to see support for organisations like us, and to know buildings are not just leased to the highest bidder.”

• If you enjoyed Jolene’s piece, you might also like Sarah McArthur’s long read on the Out of the Blue story: Nothing but three young women and an idea

Today, Sarah McArthur brings you the latest on one of the longest-running - and one of the most concerning - issues that we have been reporting on since our launch. The continuing running down of social care services in the Capital

We promise to bring you some more uplifting reading in the days to come, but in the meantime we felt this was far too important an issue for us to ignore.

One of the reasons we launched The Inquirer was to shine a light on some of the important social issues in the Capital that are not being reported elsewhere.

If you value our high-quality local journalism, please consider joining us a paying member. We need more supporters to secure the future of these newsletters.

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You can read more on the ongoing social care crisis below, but first your regular midweek news roundup and your cultural highlights for the week ahead.

Your Edinburgh Briefing

BEST OF BRITISH? When George Clooney and Sir Bob Geldof return to Edinburgh for the British Business Awards next month, it is sure to be a glamorous affair. Among those shortlisted for awards are Anne Budge, the impressive off-field leader behind Hearts resurgence in recent years, and Forth Ports, which is working to deliver thousands of jobs through the Forth Green Freeport. One of the names on the shortlist will have the good people of Cramond spluttering over their cornflakes…. AMA Homes has been shortlisted for the Leadership Award. (If you’ved missed our reporting on their failures in Cramond this is a good place to start: ‘To come along today with their waffle, it was absolutely astonishing’ On a cheerier note you can read more about Anne Budge’s work at Hearts here: Why does a football club want to run an upmarket hotel?)

CHOOSE TRAINSPOTTING THE MUSICAL: Irvine Welsh’s cult novel about heroin addiction in Leith will celebrate its 30th anniversary this summer with the Trainspotting musical opening in London’s West End. The new stage show has been adapted by Welsh in collaboration with Caroline Jay Ranger, whose previous hits include Starlight Express.

CHOOSE FLATS: Meanwhile, a fresh bid is being made to develop Dalton’s scrapyard in Leith which featured in the second Trainspotting film. The latest plans feature a mixture of build-to-rent flats and student accommodation.

DON’T ‘JUST GET ON WITH IT’: Speaking at the launch of a drive to encourage Scottish men to get tested for prostate cancer, Sir Chris Hoy has highlighted a national trait many of you might recognise, the tendency to ignore important issues and just soldier on. He told The Herald: “As men, we are often at fault for prioritising others things. Life is busy, there's always something else to do and personally, my situation was that I always assumed that there would be some kind of symptoms or early warning signs.” Shockingly, Scottish men are more than three times more likely to have stage four prostate cancer than those living in London. Early detection is the key to high survival chances, through a simple PSA blood test.

DALMAHOY DELAY: Long-awaited safety improvements at the A71 Dalmahoy junction on the edge of Edinburgh has been delayed after the death of one of the landowners held up talks to buy land crucial to the £1.6m project.

Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops

Greetings, Pop Pickers!

Welcome back to the chart. As the clocks prepare to spring forward, we have a proper shake-up in the list this week. A host of fresh entries means our previous heavyweights are gracefully bowing out of the top spots, writes Will Quinn.

Before we kick off the official countdown, let’s look at who has dropped out of the Top 5...

Honourable Mentions: One Day & Death on the Nile. After briefly holding the top spot only to drop mid-table, One Day (Royal Lyceum Theatre, until April 5th) sinks into the honourable mentions. The drama has stayed with me (in retrospect, it is almost certainly far better done than the rather soppy Netflix version), but I couldn’t whistle you a single bar from the show only a couple of weeks later. Meanwhile, Death on the Nile (Festival Theatre, March 24th – 28th) continues its run, but you only have a few days left to catch this lovely, surprisingly humorous production before it skedaddles.

New in at Number 5 is... The Light House (Traverse Theatre, March 28th). Created and performed by Alys Williams, The Light House is an autobiographical real-life love story about holding on when the person you love doesn’t want to be alive. Balancing heavy themes with puppetry and clowning, it has received consistent praise from critics since its debut. The Traverse is definitely the right intimate space for Scottish audiences to catch its Scottish premiere.

New in at Number 4 is... Footloose (Edinburgh Music Theatre, March 31st - April 4th 2026). This musical enjoyed a stronger run on Broadway than it did in the West End back at the turn of the millennium. Still, there’s no doubting the nostalgic power of Footloose, or the appeal of Kenny Loggins’ iconic theme. Edinburgh Music Theatre haven’t been thriving amongst the elite world of the city’s unpaid professional theatre scene for so long without doing plenty of things right. I expect this to be a superbly fun, boppable night out, whether or not the drama is quite up to snuff.

New in at Number 3 is... The Capital Theatres Double Bill. In fairness to the other venues around town, I’m grouping these two Capital Theatres shows into a single entry.

First up is The Constant Wife (Festival Theatre, March 31st – April 4th). When the Royal Shakespeare Company puts a show on tour, they generally mean business, and as seals of quality go, there are few with more cachet in the country. Adapted by Laura Wade and directed by Tamara Harvey, this staging of W. Somerset Maugham’s razor-sharp 1920s comedy delighted audiences and critics alike during its original run. Frankly, if you can trust the RSC to stage Shakespeare, you can trust them with Maugham.

Over at the smaller stage, we have Crime and Punishment (The Studio, April 1st – 4th). This Northern Broadsides production arrives with some serious provenance. Directed by Laurie Sansom and starring Connor Curren, expect this one to be one of the more ambitious and intense productions to grace the Studio stage yet.

New in at Number 2 is... Amy Mason: Behold! (The Stand, March 26th). I loved this show from the brilliant Amy Mason when I caught it at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe. Between a mysterious box of bidirectional sex toys, getting hacked, running out of meds, and somehow losing the actual doors to her house, Mason delivers an hour of wonderfully deadpan chaos. She is smart, sharply observed, and thoroughly hilarious. She is playing for one night only, and you really should go to it.

And new at Number 1 is... BBC SSO: Pelléas et Mélisande (Usher Hall, March 29th).

Taking the top spot this week is the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra flexing its production muscle to assemble rather a mighty line-up for a concert performance of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. The casting is genuinely top-tier: soprano Sophie Bevan MBE brings her highly respected pedigree to the role of Mélisande, while English baritone Huw Montague Rendall takes on Pelléas. He has been quietly establishing himself as a fixture across European houses, with Le Figaro recently going so far as to dub him the Pelléas of his generation.

Concert-stage operas in the Usher Hall work a treat thanks to its glorious acoustics and a stage with enough space to allow a touch of theatrics to gild the lily. If you want to hear exceptional vocal talent tackling a complex score, this is the ticket to book.

And that’s your Top 5! Get out there, book some tickets, and tell them who sent you. As always, I’d love to hear whether we put you onto a good thing, or if you think we sent you out for a night to forget!

Social care face further damaging cuts in the Capital

But disastrous slashing of services provided by Third Sector will not be repeated

by Sarah McArthur

The downgrading of social care services in the Capital is set to continue with further significant savings being ordered following successive rounds of cuts in recent years.

The Edinburgh’s Integration Joint Board (IJB), the partnership between NHS Lothian and the city council which oversees social care services in the city, has approved a plan to cut another £18 million from its £968 million budget for the 202672027 financial year. While the board’s Chief Officer Christine Laverty said the IJB is in a “better position than last year,” the leadership of Edinburgh’s health and social care partners argued further cuts are necessary because costs are rising faster than funding.

Read more