Venues aiming for £22m boost

EDINBURGH’S THEATRES and concert venues could get a £22 million boost as the council prepares to submit a funding bid to ‘level up’ the capital’s cultural buildings.

A separate application will be submitted in an effort to secure investment for a major redevelopment of Inch Park.

The deadline for the second round of the UK Government’s Levelling Up fund is 6 July. In a previous successful bid £16 million was awarded to the restoration of the Granton Gas Holder. This time, the council is turning its attention to the city’s festival venues and will ask for £22.1 million to “renew and revitalise” cultural infrastructure and boost artistic opportunities in Edinburgh’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

If Westminster backs the bid, funding would be spread across several existing projects including the regeneration of the King’s Theatre, Leith Theatre, the Queen’s Hall and the Usher Hall.

It would also close the remaining funding gap for the completion of the Macmillan Hub, a new community arts centre for Pennywell and Muirhouse, as well as cover some of the costs of an extension to the WHALE Arts building in Wester Hailes.

The bid says: “The first Edinburgh

Festival was held in 1947 to ‘provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit’ by bringing people and artists together through culture after a period of global turmoil. As we emerge from the Covid pandemic, this is the moment to revitalise this ambition.

“Adding to recent investment such as the flagship city centre Dunard Centre and the University of Edinburgh’s Futures Institute, this project would broaden cultural engagement and help revitalise communities.”

The Council is also applying for £20 million of levelling up cash to revitalise Inch Park. An agreed masterplan states the project will comprise a restoration of Inch House “to improve its current function as a community centre”, redevelopment of the park’s plant nursery to include retail and café space and the construction of a new indoor gym hall for Inch Park Community Sports Club.

The park’s playground will be relocated and ‘significantly upgraded’, whilst paths and benches will be improved.