Category Archives: Edinburgh

‘It’s a ghost town’: tourism crisis hits British cities from Edinburgh to Bath

Posted on by

The effects of coronavirus on both international and domestic visitor numbers have left former hotspots fearing for the future

On a typical July day, restaurateur Paul Wedgwood would see hundreds of people with wheelie suitcases – airline tags still attached – walking past the window of his restaurant on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. This Thursday, he has seen just two. “We would normally look outside and you wouldn’t be able to see any tarmac – now it’s bare,” he said. “It’s just a ghost town.”

Like other British cities which usually attract high numbers of international tourists throughout the summer, Edinburgh is quiet, and businesses are suffering. August’s festival had already been cancelled when news came last week that December’s Hogmanay party will not go ahead as usual.

Continue reading...

Britain’s urban fabric comes under spotlight shone by BLM protests

Posted on by

Force of history demands re-evaluation of colonial statues and street names

Cities have always been about apportioning and memorialising power; about writing force into space. Britain’s colonial and imperial past is inscribed into the bricks and mortar of every city and town in the country. Mostly this hidden text of power relations and wealth acquisition lies dormant in the half-forgotten significance of street names, in the knotty iconography of grand facades, in the barely read inscriptions on memorials and sculptures, in the nomenclature of grand public buildings. Forming the backdrop of lived lives, these omnipresent clues are rarely fully decoded. The most monumental of sculptures has a habit of fading away to near invisibility if it is sufficiently familiar.

At times, though, such associations are activated and become urgent. So it has been in the case of the long-running affair of Edward Colston, who made his fortune in the 17th century from the enslavement of thousands of Africans.

Continue reading...

Edinburgh film festival organisers submit plan for £50m movie centre

Posted on by

Centre for the Moving Image proposes 11-floor building with screens, learning spaces and auditorium

The organisation behind the Edinburgh film festival has submitted a planning application for a £50m film centre that would be the first of its kind in the UK.

The Centre for the Moving Image has proposed an accessible and environmentally sustainable 11-floor building that it says would be a focal point for Edinburgh’s film community.

Continue reading...

Hogmanay fury as Edinburgh residents told to apply for access to own homes

Posted on by

Local people must ask Underbelly if they want more than six passes to their houses

Edinburgh residents have vented their anger at having to apply to a private company for access to their own homes during this year’s Hogmanay celebrations amid growing concern that the council’s hunger to attract tourism is reducing the Scottish capital to a “theme park”.

People living in some parts of the city centre will also face potential restrictions on the number of guests they can invite if they wish to have parties of their own on New Year’s Eve, when the entertainment giant Underbelly will be running an event expected to attract more than 70,000 people.

Continue reading...

Edinburgh gives female medical students their degrees – 150 years late

Posted on by

Victorian women who were prevented from qualifying as doctors are finally recognised

Seven women who were among the first females to be admitted to a British university have been awarded posthumous degrees 150 years after they started their studies.

The group, known collectively as the Edinburgh Seven, enrolled to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. But they faced substantial resistance from their male peers and were ultimately prevented from graduating and qualifying as doctors.

Continue reading...

Man Booker International prize: Jokha Alharthi wins for Celestial Bodies

Posted on by

First female Omani novelist to be translated into English shares £50,000 prize with translator Marilyn Booth – the first time an Arabic book has won

Jokha Alharthi, the first female Omani novelist to be translated into English, has won the Man Booker International prize for her novel Celestial Bodies.

Alharthi, the £50,000 award’s first winner to write in Arabic, shares the prize equally with her translator, American academic Marilyn Booth. Celestial Bodies is set in the Omani village of al-Awafi and follows the stories of three sisters: Mayya, who marries into a rich family after a heartbreak; Asma, who marries for duty; and Khawla, waiting for a man who has emigrated to Canada.

Continue reading...

Scotland won’t be independent within EU, says Farage

Posted on by

Brexit party leader dismisses Nicola Sturgeon’s campaign for independence within EU

Nigel Farage has called on “genuine Scottish nationalists” to vote for his Brexit party in next week’s EU elections, as he described Nicola Sturgeon’s campaign for an independent Scotland within Europe as “the most dishonest political discourse anywhere in the world”.

As anti-racist protesters chanted outside the venue, Farage told cheering supporters at a rally in Edinburgh: “If you’re genuinely a nationalist lend your vote to the Brexit party, let’s get out of the EU and then have an honest debate about independence.”

Continue reading...

Titian masterpieces to be displayed together for first time since 1704

Posted on by

The 16th-century paintings will be shown as a series in London, Edinburgh, Madrid and Boston

One of the most important groups of high Renaissance paintings is to be brought together for the first time in more than 300 years.

A partnership between galleries in London, Edinburgh, Boston and Madrid was announced on Thursday which will allow five of Titian’s greatest paintings to be seen as they were intended – together as a series.

Continue reading...

Trainspotting 2 actor Bradley Welsh shot dead – reports

Posted on by

Edinburgh police say man was found in city’s West End with gunshot wound and died at the scene

Trainspotting 2 actor Bradley Welsh has been shot dead in Scotland, according to reports.

Welsh was reportedly killed in Edinburgh on Wednesday. Police said they were called to Chester Street in the West End of the city at around 8pm and found a man with serious injuries who died at the scene.

Continue reading...

Extinction Rebellion set to disrupt London rail and tube lines

Posted on by

Climate protesters warn they will escalate action after blockading capital’s landmarks

Climate change protesters, who police say have caused “serious disruption” affecting half a million people in London over the past two days, have said they are planning to escalate their protests to disrupt rail and tube lines.

Thousands or people have taken part in the civil disobedience protests, blockading four landmarks in the capital in an attempt to force the government to take action on the escalating climate crisis.

Continue reading...