CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

Future of the Assembly Rooms

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    "
    On the 13th December this year the Assembly Rooms will close its doors. This is to allow the Edinburgh Council to start a programme of work that will see the downstairs of the Assembly Rooms turned into three shop spaces at the front of the building on George Street; and a "fine dining" restaurant at the back with an entrance on Rose Street. We believe this is a terrible way to address the issue of upgrading the building and will severely damage one of the city's most wonderful, iconic buildings.

    "

    http://www.savetheassemblyrooms.com

    How many 'icons' can Edinburgh encompass??

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. Claggy Cog
    Member

    One less venue for festival/fringe shows then? No more psychic/food/fiddle/beer fairs? It is quite a large space and great for shows which is what it was built for. Apparently it had two shops removed in the 1950's. It has Corinthian pillars not iconic, sorry Ionic. We still have a long time to wait for the reopening of the refurbished museum, portrait gallery and commonwealth pool, all of which shut their doors at approximately the same time just in time for "homecoming" that was a supreme bit of planning. The old GPO is now being used by NHS Lothian and is now known as Waverleygate!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. Claggy Cog
    Member

    There used to be a very posh food shop at 135 George Street, the Edinburgh equivalent to Fortnum and Mason, Dymock, Howden & Co, and I believe that during the refurb, the grocers ceased trading in the 70's, and on taking down the false ceiling revealed a fantastic interior. Also Young and Saunders oat 5 Queensferry Street which sold tea and coffee. Both iconic shops, now gone. Loved the serried ranks of shelves all very neat and tidy packed, very OCD. So come on the iconic buildings, we have lost so many!!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    "Fringe stalwart William Burdett-Coutts makes a last-ditch plea not to replace George Street theatre spaces with shops and an eatery"

    http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/William-BurdettCoutts-Don39t-bring-curtain.6651203.jp

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    From http://geo.nls.uk/maps/towns/edinburgh1893/openlayers.html

    NLS map (Leith to Comiston) overlaid on Google.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. kaputnik
    Moderator

    On top of Grays of George St. turning into some sort of fashion boutique!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. ruggtomcat
    Member

    compared to losing the Roxy, Forest, BRD etc.. Im not so bothered about the assembly having a shop and a restaurant in it. the best bits of the building are the main ballroom and the back bar, those too front areas are currently staff and office space I believe.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. chdot
    Admin

    @ruggtomcat

    Not really. I'm told -

    "They stand to lose 5 performance spaces, four of them downstairs - Supper Room, Edinburgh Suite, Wildman Room, little side room to left of door, and West Drawing Room upstairs.  These are the spaces where they do challenging new work.  

    The big spaces are the moneyspinners"

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. PS
    Member

    I presume the Supper Room is what is going to be the restaurant? Sounds like it may be going back to its intended use...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. ruggtomcat
    Member

    Ahh, thats a bit more unfortunate :( I've never done more than perform there but I would guess that outside the festival its an unwieldy beast of a building. Its very suited to High Arts and Grand Balls but these things so rarely pay for themselves. (Look at the Royal Opera) On the other hand it has vast development potential, is in the centre of the new town and there is obviously already money behind the idea...

    Ive been hearing whispers of corruption, nothing repeatable but shocking to hear nonetheless.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. ruggtomcat
    Member

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-the-Assembly-Rooms/146736878709249

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Thousands-rally-to-halt-revamp.6653355.jp

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. chdot
    Admin

    http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article/281/comment_cllr_brock_sets_record_straight_re_historic_scotland__assembly_rooms_refurb

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. gembo
    Member

    Once used a large storeroom on the ground floor to leave bikes [two] and change into MAMIL for Assualt ON George Street afterwards. Staff a little twitchy as was full of drink, but we behaved.

    Council desperate to generate revenue. You wonder what shops we don't have in Edinburgh? Jigsaw opened a Man's Boutique years back when George St was banks, that is now Centotre

    All of this is a long way off the tailor's I used to frequent out by Paddy's Market in Glasgow - sold me a good three piece black suit from czechoslovakia - I am guessing someone died in it. Also Gray's - the family not wanting to stay in retail.

    Posted 13 years ago #

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