Welcome to your midweek edition of The Inquirer.
The heaven’s may have opened, doing its best to dampen our enthusiasm for hitting the streets to discover the best of the Festival - but we are unperturbed.
You’ll find Will Quinn’s guide to the surprise hits of the past week below, after your usual news and catch-up on what’s being happening in and around the capital.
You might have seen the outcry in recent days, with protests from MPs Christine Jardine and Chris Murray among others, about the £250,000 in bonuses awarded to Scottish Water executives despite concerns about the impact of sewage dumping in our waterways.
It strikes us that Jolene Campbell’s investigation last year The dirty truth about E coli in the bathing waters at Portobello is as relevant as ever.
Your Edinburgh Briefing
SUNKEN TREASURE: After a 30-year search, a team of volunteer divers believe they have found a treasure trove reportedly worth “hundreds of millions of pounds” in the Firth of Forth. The Royal ship the Blessing of Burntisland sank along with Charles I’s crown jewels in 1633. Now Ian Archibald and his team at Burntisland Heritage believe they have found its location, just a mile from Burntisland. The UK Government‘s Receiver of Wreck team is investigate their official report of the find, alongside its potential ownership. There are hopes it may eventually be housed in a museum in the town.
FLASH FLOODS: The torrential downpours caused flash floods, including a stream cascading down the Victoria Street steps yesterday, which was captured in this spectacular video shared by Keep Edinburgh Thriving.
TOWERING HOTEL: An eight-storey office block opposite Ocean Terminal in Leith is to be converted into a 146-room hotel with a rooftop restaurant. Developer OCPT Propco has been granted planning permission to repurpose the currently empty offices on Ocean Drive.
OPEN HOUSING: The city’s freeze on new applications for council housing looks set to be lifted. Councillors are being asked to agree the move from October, after city officials advised efforts to reduce a reliance on “unsuitable” temporary accommodation had progressed to a point where the freeze is no longer needed.
GET IN LANE: So-called 7-7-7 bus lane times are to be trialled in the capital ahead of their potential roll-out more widely across the city. The bus lanes will be in force from 7am to 7pm seven days a week on the 44 bus route between the city centre along London Road to Duddingston. An 18-month trial will begin in October.
SOUTH SUB JOY: Tram Trains for Edinburgh, the group which has led the campaign to run tram trains on the Edinburgh South Suburban railway, has welcomed Transport Scotland’s announcement that they will work with Network Rail to provide a high-level technical feasibility study. Group chair Rob Falcon described it as “great news” and expressed confidence there were no insurmountable technical issues.
KNIFE ANGEL: The giant touring Knife Angel is set to visit the foot of Leith Walk near the sight of a fatal stabbing of 22-year-old John McNab last year. The 27ft-tall sculpture, constructed from 100,000 seized blades, is touring Britain to promote an knife crime message. Plans for it to be temporarily sited at the Foot of the Walk are being considered by city planners.
KINGS OF THE CASTLE: It’s going to be spectacular! The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo has been appointed to deliver the opening moment of the `114th Tour de France – the Grand Départ which takes place in Edinburgh next year. The event on 30 June will be held with the stunning background of Edinburgh Castle Esplanade and will feature the official Presentation of Riders ceremony. Jason Barrett, chief executive of the Tattoo, said: “By partnering with the Tour de France, two globally recognised national brands on a world stage, we are creating an experience that will resonate far beyond Edinburgh, leaving a legacy for audiences both at home and abroad.”
GYM WIN: The opening of the new high school at Liberton has brought a major bonus with the opening of a state of the art gym. Edinburgh Leisure has announced the fully equipped gym and fitness studio will be run on a pay-as-you-go basis during evenings and weekends, with no membership requirement.
Sean Connery memorial first to face Princes Street Gardens moratorium
Princes Street Gardens is packed with statues and memorials.
There are 21 in all, with two more on the way, and now city councillors believe the time may have come to shut the gate on any more. Amid concerns about the Gardens risk becoming over-crowded, city councillors have agreed a moratorium on approving any new memorials.
The Muriel Spark memorial will go ahead as planned, as will a sculpture to commemorate those impacted by the Infected Blood Scandal, and then no more - at least temporarily - while a plan is drawn up for spreading new memorials more widely around the city.
A statue or memorial to Sir Sean Connery is expected to be among the first proposals to be discussed by the council’s public arts panel following the introduction of the moratorium. The Fountainbridge area, where he was born and grew up, would perhaps be a better location anyway.
Councillor Margaret Graham, convener of the council’s culture and communities committee, backed the moratorium: “to see how much space there is left and how practical it is to continue to put statues just in Princes Street Gardens when we are trying to develop town centres in Edinburgh, and there are other wonderful parks, like Inverleith, where there is enormous footfall and which would be ideal locations.”
The statues of Princes Street Gardens offer an intriguing insight into the heroes and priorities of Edinburgh past.
There is the statue of Sir James Young Simpson, who famously pioneered the use of chloroform as an anaesthetic by experimenting on himself and his friends in the dining room of his home in nearby Queen Street. It less well-known that he was an obstetrician, an early advocate of the use of midwives and one of the founders of gynaecology. Few would argue with his place of honour.
An abstract memorial to Dame Muriel Spark will soon join those to those other Edinburgh literary luminaries Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.
The explorer and missionary David Livingstone rubs shoulders with Wojtek the Soldier Bear, whose ambling statue celebrates the cities enduring links with Poland, and a sculpted rock marking our ties with Norway.
There are war memorials - to Royal Regiment of Scotland, the Royal Scots Greys, the volunteers from Fife and the Lothians who died in the Spanish Civil War and the Scottish-American soldiers who were killed in the First World War.
There are also statues of figures who have, to a greater or lesser extent, largely fallen out of the popular public conscience - publisher and Lord Provost Adam Black, essayist John Wilson (“Christopher North”), poet Allan Ramsay and “ragged schools” founder Thomas Guthrie.
Among the public art projects being developed in the city are a prominent memorial in the Old Town to recognise Edinburgh’s historic links to trans-Atlantic slavery. This was one of the recommendations of the independent Edinburgh Slavery and Colonialism Legacy Review Group, led by the late Sir Geoff Palmer, which examined this troubling part of the city’s history and ways to address it.
A memorial to Saroj Lal, the city’s first ethnic minority primary teacher and a pioneering racial equality campaigner, is also planned, for St Patrick’s Square, in the Southside.
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The hidden gems, masterclasses and surprising hits of the Fringe
Will Quinn’s guide to what to keep your eyes on in week two
Greetings, Pop Pickers!
The initial adrenaline of the Fringe’s opening days has faded, and we are into the marathon stretch! The flyers on the Royal Mile have been transformed into papier-mâché, the late-night voices are growing hoarse, and PR buzz has entirely given way to the most valuable currency that actually matters in August: genuine word of mouth. Yes, indeed!
I’ve spent the past week, along with the team at The Quinntessential Review, diving deep into damp basements, scaling treacherous attic stairs, and chasing down shows when we hear whispers of hidden greatness. Some are soaring, big-budget spectacles; others are intimate, lo-fi marvels. Never let it be said we don’t put ourselves on the line to bring you the best tips!
So for those of you building an itinerary for the second half of the festival, here are the latest unmissable triumphs you need to book before the “Sold Out” boards go up. Inquirer readers, get your highlighters ready! Alright? Let’s get it on...
Theatre & New Writing
The theatrical landscape this year is proving rich with complex character studies and daring new writing, anchored by sensational performances.
Over at Summerhall’s Old Lab, Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson have swapped their sketch comedy roots for full-length theatre with Jitters, and the result is magnificent! Set in a church vestry on the morning of a wedding, a heteronormative bride-to-be squares off against her queer-presenting, Oxbridge-educated step-kid in a battle over class privilege and progressive hypocrisy. It is brave, hilarious, and brilliantly crafted. There’s more than a little of Dawn French to Clive’s superlatively charming delivery, gently lethal timing, and knack for the hilarious look.
Another standout at Summerhall is You and Me (and Whoever Comes Next), a brilliantly honest look at the friction inherent in paid personal care. Co-written by and starring Keron Day, who lives with cerebral palsy, the play tracks his relationship with a new live-in assistant. Refusing to sanitise or romanticise the dynamic, it lands with razor-sharp observational detail. The rose-tinted glasses are definitely cast aside, whether for Dani, for his own flawed choices, or even for friends who mean well, but fail to appreciate the practicalities of his life. Powerful stuff!
If it’s historical gravitas you’re after, Michael Punter’s Pilate: The Lost Gospel at Pleasance Above offers a gripping solo turn from Maxwell Caulfield. Playing the infamous Roman governor recalled to answer for his conduct, Caulfield gives a bravura turn, laced with gravitas, and touched by weary humour. It’s a beautifully staged slice of factional history that treats Pilate not as a biblical villain, but as a complex, haunted military administrator.
