Welcome to your midweek edition of The Inquirer.
For today’s long read Nico Ulz has been visiting Waverley Station - and trying to find his way out without enduring the infamous ‘Waverley scrum’.
Most visitors will be familiar with the scrum that takes place at the top of the Waverley Steps as passengers pouring in and out of the station run across the path of pedestrians heading along Princes Street. As you’ll know, it isn’t pretty.
You can read all about what Nico discovered there and a potentially neat idea for sorting it out below. First though here’s your regular midweek roundup and cultural highlights for the week ahead.
Your Edinburgh Briefing
FESTIVAL DRAMA: Line of Duty and Good Omens director Douglas Mackinnon is working on a new paramedic drama set in the middle of Edinburgh’s Festival season. Mackinnon told Variety he is developing BurnTime as a series combining drama and dark comedy following a newly trained paramedic working her first shift amid the mayhem of August in Edinburgh. The drama takes its name from the work-related burnout suffered by many paramedics.
LE TOUR TICKETS: Tickets for the 2027 Tour de France opening ceremony at Edinburgh Castle go on sale from tomorrow, with prices starting from £27. The ceremony staged by the Edinburgh Military Tattoo takes place on Wednesday, 30 June, two days before the race starts out from Edinburgh. You can register to get notification on pre-sale tickets on the official tour website.
ROMAN FACE: The face of a man who died on the Roman frontier in Inveresk, East Lothian, almost 2,000 years ago has been reconstructed from skeletal remains. The man's skull will be displayed alongside the digital facial reconstruction in the Roman Scotland: Life On The Edge Of Empire exhibition which opens at the National Museum of Scotland on 14 November.
PUPILS STAY-AWAY: Some primary schools in the capital were reportedly “half-empty” on Tuesday following the hoax bomb threat that saw schools evacuated across the city on Monday. City leaders have moved to reassure parents that it is safe for their children to return, amid concerns about misinformation about the incident being spread on social media.
GRIFFINS RETURN: A pair of griffin sculptures, which once guarded the entrance gate to the historic Muirhouse Mansion, have been restored after spending more than 60 years in storage. They will sit at the entrance to the new affordable housing development, Silverlea, close to where the mansion stood, near the Granton Waterfront.
MORE UNI CUTS: Edinburgh University is set to close four more degree programmes as it pursues cuts of £140m from its annual budget. Four of the 11 postgraduate programmes run at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, which include Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics, Creative Industries, and Climate Change and Sustainability, are set to be closed new enrolments, reports The Herald, although which ones are yet to be confirmed.
SAM ON TOUR: Acclaimed singer-songwriter Sam Fender is to perform at Scottish Gas Murrayfield on 8 July next year, as part of his biggest headline tour to date. Tickets for the tour of six cities in the UK and Ireland will go on sale from sites including Ticketmaster at 9.30am on Friday, 30 October.
ARTS PLEA: Save Summerhall – the petition launched to persuade City of Edinburgh Council planners to turn down proposed development by AMA that would see arts space at the complex significantly reduced to make way for student housing and a hotel – has hit 6,000 signatures. Summerhall is currently home to more than 100 small businesses, artists studios and creative businesses as well as being a Fringe venue.
Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops
Greetings, Pop Pickers!
With Autumn leaves beginning their golden descent onto the cobbles (sorry, setts), at least half the football fans in the capital still reeling from Hearts’ bruising recent visit to Celtic Park, and humanity (or at least our technology) blasting off from Japan on Monday to gather a piece of Mars’ moon Phobos, there is an undeniable sense of the universe shifting around us - on many levels. While that spacecraft won’t touch down on Martian rock until August 2027, you thankfully won’t have to travel across the solar system to experience something extraordinary this week, writes Will Quinn.
In fact, Edinburgh is so utterly spoiled for choice at the moment that it effortlessly proves its credentials as a heavyweight cultural capital well outside August - even if it has given this poor chart-decider an almighty headache! Several outstanding shows and exhibitions continuing their runs around town have been ruthlessly squeezed out this week simply to make room for the sheer volume of incoming brilliance. Yes, indeed!
Right then, pop pickers - let’s count them down.
Honourable Mentions: Bottom’s Dream, Halloween at Filmhouse & A Trio of Classical Gems
Bubbling just under the Top 5 is a ridiculously strong slate. Currently running at the Traverse, A Play, a Pie and a Pint’s Bottom’s Dream (until Saturday) sees writer-performer Martin O’Connor and director Debbie Hannan riffing on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream over a lunchtime pie. Down on Lothian Road, Halloween at Filmhouse (throughout October) slips from number five into the honourables, continuing its gloriously spooky season of cult curiosities and 4K restorations.
Meanwhile, classical music lovers are facing an embarrassment of riches. At the Usher Hall, the RSNO presents Brahms’ Violin Concerto (Friday), with the orchestra’s own Leader, Maya Iwabuchi, stepping into the solo spotlight under conductor Emilia Hoving alongside works by Sibelius and Saariaho. Over at The Queen’s Hall, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra serves up Barber’s Adagio & Violin Concerto (October 29th – 30th), pairing conductor Ryan Bancroft and virtuoso violinist Clara-Jumi Kang in a programme bookended by jazz-tinged Schulhoff and Kurt Weill’s darkly brilliant Second Symphony. Finally, if you fancy some atmospheric strings under the historic vaults of the High Kirk, The Piccadilly Sinfonietta brings Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by Candlelight to St Giles’ Cathedral (October 31st). Don’t miss ‘em!
New in at Number 5 (Joint) are... Paul Foot: The Future (Monkey Barrel Comedy, October 29th) & Fin Taylor: The Pre-emptive Comeback Special (The Queen’s Hall, October 31st)
Sharing the fifth spot this week are two stand-up hours from two wildly different comedians. Over at Monkey Barrel, pioneering surrealist Paul Foot arrives with The Future, mourning the days when humanity dreamed of jetpacks and solar-powered bidets. I was lucky enough to review Paul at the Fringe a few years ago; suffice it to say, the legendary comic from whom the odious Russell Brand stole his schtick still does it a hundred times better than the tribute act currently on trial.
Across town at The Queen’s Hall, Fin Taylor brings The Pre-emptive Comeback Special. Riding a massive wave from his viral podcasts and interview series Fin vs the Internet, Taylor is the freshest British comic voice to hit YouTube in years - joyfully flirting with cancellation whilst gleefully puncturing any famous ego brave enough to step into a studio with him. Whilst he’s paid his dues as a seasoned Fringe regular, it will be fascinating to see whether the massive popularity he finally found online translates back onto a (big) stage.
New in at Number 4 is... Sinfonia of London: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (Usher Hall, October 31st)
Sweeping into fourth place is an orchestral powerhouse. As the honourable mentions prove, the capital is spoiled for classical highlights in the coming days, but it is hard to look past this visit from the multi-award-winning Sinfonia of London under the baton of maestro John Wilson, joined by superstar pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. Having first astonished the classical world at just eleven years old in the BBC Young Musician competition before becoming the youngest-ever British pianist signed to Decca Classics, the multiple Gramophone Award-winner now ranks among the most electrifying and sought-after virtuosos on the planet. The programme is an undeniable crowd-pleaser: Grażyna Bacewicz’s propulsive Concerto for String Orchestra opens the evening before Grosvenor tackles the swooning, cinematic romanticism of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, all culminating in Rimsky-Korsakov’s dazzling orchestral showpiece Scheherazade.
New in at Number 3 is... Tristan & Yseult (Royal Lyceum Theatre, October 20th – 24th)
Claiming the bronze medal is a fresh revival of Emma Rice’s landmark production. Often billed as one of the more influential British theatre shows of the 21st century, its claim to that historical crown is no empty boast. First dreamed up with Kneehigh in Cornwall back in 2003 before conquering the National Theatre and touring the globe, the show famously reshaped British ensemble theatre - turning rough-and-ready cabaret, physical invention, and big-hearted irreverence into the blueprint for a generation of stage-makers. Filtering the ancient Cornish myth of forbidden passion through the eyes of the “Unloved”, Rice’s staging brings together live music, acrobatics, and theatrical mischief. With John Leader and Nandi Bhebhe stepping in as the star-crossed lovers, it is a golden opportunity for those of us who missed its original heyday to see how a modern legend holds up two decades later.
New in at Number 2 is... Man to Man (Traverse Theatre, October 29th – November 7th)
Rocketing straight into the silver spot is a genuine theatrical event. Nearly four decades after originating the English translation on the Traverse stage in 1987, Tilda Swinton returns to Cambridge Street in Manfred Karge’s blistering solo play ahead of transfers to Berlin and New York. Reunited with director Stephen Unwin and designer Bunny Christie, Swinton plays Ella Gericke - a working-class German woman in the 1930s who puts on her dead husband’s trousers to survive across turbulent decades spanning the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and East Germany, now seamlessly updated to take in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the modern resurgence of the far right. Catching its London run at the Royal Court for The Quinntessential Review, Sass MacDonald praised Swinton’s commanding inner stillness and extraordinary metamorphosis inside Christie’s littered white-box set, calling it a chilling reminder of how history repeats itself. Tickets are like gold dust, so raid the returns queue if you must!
Staying at Number 1 is... The Scottish International Storytelling Festival (Various Venues, until October 31st)
Holding fast at the top of the pops for a second week, and now in full swing after officially opening its doors yesterday! Under this year’s theme of Bird and Beast, the festival once again transforms the city into a roaring international hearth of folklore, live music, and oral craft. Alongside Donald Smith’s marathon sessions on St Columba and Ossian, Finnish cow-calling, and Shonaleigh’s Anatolian collaborations, the packed 11-day programme is bursting with treasures. Highlights include an opening-day conversation between Nicola Sturgeon and Joyce McMillan; Bologna’s Fraternal Compagnia reinterpreting the myth of Daedalus and Icarus in the sharp, satirical style of Dario Fo and Franca Rame to mark Fo’s centenary; Jumana Moon and Dawud Duncan blending the classical Farsi masterpiece The Conference of the Birds with Scottish trad music; and David Hughes weaving the Celtic myth of Mad Sweeney together with the history of Glasgow’s Pollok Free State. Brilliant stuff! Not ‘arf!
And that’s your Top 5!
So whether you are hunting down a miracle ticket for Tilda Swinton at the Traverse, surrendering to Emma Rice’s mythic romance at the Lyceum, soaking in Rachmaninoff at the Usher Hall, or laughing yourself silly with Paul Foot and Fin Taylor, you have quite the week ahead of you.
Until next week: Stay bright!
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The Waverley Scrum
Can Edinburgh fix its chaotic train station entrance?
by Nico Ulz
Every day, thousands of travellers collide at the top of the Waverley Steps, the busiest exit from Edinburgh’s main railway station.
If you step off a train and climb the stairs towards Princes Street, you are immediately greeted not by the beauty of the city, but by a wall of elbows, suitcases and bus queues. At peak times, the top of the steps resembles a rugby scrum more than the exit of an international transport hub. It is a friction point familiar to both tourists and residents. Passengers spilling out of Scotland’s second-busiest railway station collide head-on with shoppers, commuters, and tourists navigating the narrow, cluttered pavement along Princes Street.
“There will not be a single resident in Edinburgh that hasn’t found themselves frustratingly jammed in a crowd of people at the Princes Street entrance to Waverley Station,” says Finlay McFarlane, a councillor who represents the city centre. “Second to the crowded pavements of South Bridge it must be one of the worst pedestrian experiences in the city as you come face to face with a litter bin, taxi rank, bus stops, visitors arriving and departing with trundle cases and people trying (somehow) to cross the road through the steady line of traffic. Add in the poor state of the roof of Waverley Mall and it really does offer a bad first impression of the city.”
A simple solution?
While the station features three main pedestrian access points: Princes Street, Market Street and Waverley Bridge, the majority of foot traffic is centred around the northern exit to Princes Street. However, a straightforward solution might be sitting right in front of Network Rail: shifting the primary pedestrian flow onto the existing ramp that leads to Waverley Bridge. Reorientating passengers down this corridor could eliminate the bottleneck and offer an immediate visual reward upon arrival.
