Do you have memories of The Old Royal Infirmary that you would like to share? We want to hear them!
The “Recycling a Hospital” project aims to reuse wood and slate from the reconstruction of the Old Royal Infirmary, the future home of the Edinburgh Futures Institute, to honour memories connected to the building.
Please join our Recycling a Hospital Community Poetry and Image Workshop where we hope to bring together people from the community with memories of the building (births, illness, recovery, and so on) that we can shape into text.
Official launch event to take place on 4th August.
Over 30 FREE performances scheduled to take place throughout August from artists including Chef the Rapper, Fright Years and Lewis McLaughlin
Free tickets are now available to book via the St James Quarter app here.
This Festival Fringe, St James Quarter is bringing a diverse programme of emerging music talent and street performances straight to the heart of Scotland’s capital with ‘St James Quarter Sessions’.
Taking place throughout August, The Quarter will provide a unique addition to this year’s Fringe programme. Inviting music lovers to a month-long festival held in the lifestyle district of Edinburgh, guests attending St James Quarter Sessions can sit back, under cover and enjoy music from the comfort of their very own deck chair on the Galleria without a muddy field in sight.
The free music festival runs from the 5th to the 27th of August and will fill The Quarter with the sound of the best music across two main stages – the Canopy Stage on Level 4 and The Yellow Stage on Level 3 – as well as in key outlets. Artists that will be taking the stage include Chef The Rapper, Lubana, SHEARS and Russell Stewart.
As well as established artists, St James Quarter will be providing an all-important platform for 33 buskers taking part in the Edinburgh Fringe Street Events programme with the support of Essential Edinburgh, helping showcase their talent to large audiences.
Top dining destinations, Gordon Ramsay Street Burger and Bonnie & Wild will host free ticketed events, showcasing performances from artists including Amy Duncan, Brodie Barclay and Alice Faye to name a few, with tickets bookable via the St James Quarter app. Keeping the festival spirit going, Sofar Sounds will be coming to a secret location within The Quarter on Sunday 20th August at 6:00pm with a lineup of 3 incredible artists. Tickets are available to purchase through the Sofar Sounds website here.
To mark the launch of the programme, St James Quarter will be hosting the Launch Event at Everyman Edinburgh on Friday 4th August from 7.30pm till late, featuring performances from dynamic rock duo Midnight Ambulance and Chef The Rapper, a rising star in the music industry. Tickets for the launch event are limited and can be purchased through the St James Quarter app.
Susan Hewlett, Brand and Marketing Director, St James Quarter – “We are excited to be bringing such a diverse line-up of amazing music performers to this year’s festival, the ‘St James Quarter Sessions’ will offer our guests an undercover musical experience in luxurious surroundings.
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society again after such a great 2022 and are delighted to be supported by Essential Edinburgh. Partnering with the Fringe goes beyond entertainment, as it is an incentive for tourism and a boost for the city of Edinburgh.
“At St James Quarter, we love bringing entertainment to elevate guests shopping experiences, which is why we are delighted to welcome some of the best up-and-coming talent that Edinburgh has to offer and bringing some of that renowned festival atmosphere to our Galleria and eateries.”
Roddy Smith, Chief Executive, Essential Edinburgh – “We are delighted to be supporting the ‘St James Quarter Sessions’ music programme taking place during August.
“This time of year is so important to the city as welcome our residents and visitors into the city centre to enjoy the fantastic arts and culture on offer. It will be great to see some of our local talent playing in the St James Quarter as well as giving the audiences a chance to combine great entertainment with the retail and hospitality available.”
Secure your tickets online now to be a part of the launch event, which will welcome VIP guests from the music industry. For the full event programme, tickets, additional details, and exciting updates about the Fringe, download the St James Quarter app here.
For mobile users, download the St James Quarter app here.
This event has been running for more than 40 years!
During this time South East Scotland Wargames Club has donated more than £30,000 to various Charities including Radio Forth’s Help a Child Appeal, Poppy Scotland, SSAFA ( Our Current Charity) Scottish War Blinded at Lindburn, is used to do the following promote the hobby, encourage team participation, encourage the development of motor skills and counting,
There will be more than 20 display and participation games attending the show with over 30 traders as well.
The show enables members of the public who are not aware of table top wargaming to come along and have a try out – they do not need to buy anything: in essence the only things they need are a packed lunch and the entrance fee!
Do you want to contribute to the largest study of reading and the effect it has on how we think?
Join us in August for The Edinburgh Readerbank: an ambitious research project with @durhamImh investigating reading, imagination, & mental health.
This is an opportunity to participate in a major new study of reading and the imagination – and their relationship to mental health.
Over the coming years, the Book Festival will become a research hub in partnership with a team from Durham University, gathering data from readers to create the world’s biggest open-source databank – the ReaderBank.
Drop in at any time to meet the research team, find out more about the project and sign up to add your own reading data to the ReaderBank.
This follows (larger than thought before) contractions in March and April, which means that in total the economy has contracted by 0.4% in the 3 months to May.
Now, these monthly figures can of course be volatile, and we shouldn’t read too much into the individual movements every month. The first estimates that are produced for each month and quarter are also more subject to revision than older estimates.
This has been underlined by the media line “Scotland is growing at 4 times of the UK” (which we discussed the issues with as part of a previous update) now no longer being true for the first quarter of the year. For the first quarter, the new estimate is that Scotland grew by 0.2% compared to 0.1% for the UK as a whole.
The recent monthly contractions have also meant that the size of the Scottish economy has dipped slightly below that all-important level of February 2020, the so-called “pre-pandemic levels of output”.
Bearing in mind the caveats above, we can see in the latest figures significant contractions in the wholesale and retail and accommodation and food services sectors, perhaps signalling the contraction in consumer-facing services we have been expecting given the pressure on household budgets.
In production, there was a very large contraction in the electricity and gas supply sector, which, given the dominance of wind generation in Scotland, is likely to reflect the weather in May (i.e. it wasn’t very windy). The construction sector has also shown contractions in each of the last 3 months, although in general, this sector’s output is well above pre-pandemic levels.
Towards the end of August, we’ll get the figures for June which will give us the first estimate of the figure for the full quarter. There will have to be a significant recovery in June for that not to be a contraction overall. Of course, there would also have to be a contraction in Q3 for us to be technically in recession.
We’ll also be looking with interest at the new forecasts produced by the Bank of England next week. The decision on rates will of course take the headlines. The Bank’s view may soften slightly, with market expectations coalescing around a 0.25 rise in the base rate. However, we’ll also be digging through their new forecasts to see what the Bank is expecting to happen for the rest of 2023 and beyond.
We’ll discuss all this in next week’s update! Enjoy the weekend, whether you’re seeing Barbie, Oppenheimer, or simply dodging the rain at a BBQ!
More than £1m is being invested by the City of Edinburgh Council to provide new accessible permanent toilets in Edinburgh as well as temporary facilities for residents and visitors.
New permanent toilets are planned for three of the city’s premier parks – Inverleith, Leith Links and additional loos in the Meadows.
More than 50 temporary facilities have also been installed at these locations which are open now until the end of October. In the coming weeks, a number of these temporary toilets will also open at Straiton Place Park next to Portobello Promenade.
Part of the investment (£450,000) is from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund for new accessible toilets at Hawes Pier, South Queensferry.
Environment Convener Scott Arthur said: “We’re hoping that this investment in our beautiful premier parks will encourage as many local people as possible to spend longer in them as well as at our stunning coastal areas.
“As an internationally renowned city, we also want to welcome visitors to the Capital with modern accessible facilities in popular areas so they can spend time enjoying the great outdoor space that Edinburgh is so famous for.
“The funding from the UK Government for new facilities at our busy coastal location in South Queensferry is to be welcomed, and I look forward to seeing these all of these new facilities being installed.
“The wellbeing of our residents and visitors is really important and with all of this investment, we are making it even easier for people to enjoy our wonderful open spaces and the wider city. Edinburgh will boast more free to use public toilets than many other cities.”
Thousands of international elite cyclists, including para-athletes, will gather in Glasgow and across Scotland this week for the start of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships.
From Thursday 3 August, Scotland will proudly host the world’s biggest ever staged cycling event, which is expected to attract around a million spectators. The majority of the action will take place in Glasgow – building on the legacy from the 2014 Commonwealth Games – alongside locations including Fort William, the Scottish Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Perthshire and Dundee and Angus.
The 11 days of sporting action will see cyclists compete for the following 13 world championships:
UCI Road World Championships
UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships
UCI Track Cycling World Championships presented by Tissot
UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships
UCI Mountain Bike Cross-country World Championships presented by Mercedes-Benz
UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Championships presented by Mercedes-Benz
UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships
UCI Mountain Bike Cross Country Eliminator World Championships
UCI Trials World Championships
UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Championships
UCI BMX World Championships
UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships
UCI Gran Fondo World Championships
First Minister Humza Yousaf said: “I want to extend a warm welcome to every cyclist taking part in the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships – the world’s biggest ever cycling event. I wish everyone good luck.
“Hosting the UCI World Championships is further vote of confidence in Scotland as a destination of choice for staging major global events.
“The Scottish Government is proud to fund this innovative and inclusive event. Our funding will help promote the health and wellbeing benefits of cycling and help drive wider economic and social benefits across the country.
“Whether it’s indoor competitions at the velodrome or Mountain Biking and road events set in some of the most scenic parts of Scotland, there is something for everyone. Many of these events are free and I would encourage as many people across the country to try and catch a piece of the action.”
As Glasgow prepares for the UCI Cycling World Championships, road closures and changes to public transport timetables will have an impact on how people travel to NHSGGC hospitals.
The event – which runs from Thursday, 3rd August to Sunday 13th August – will mean the closure of some roads in Glasgow during some races.
As a result, public transport providers are amending timetables and services on certain days during the event.
All NHSGGC services are planning to run as normal while the event is taking place but we realise that the road closures and changes to public transport may impact on people attending our sites.
So it’s best to plan ahead and all the latest information is being made information available on the Get Ready Glasgow website.
Most local First Glasgow routes will use the M8 as a diversion while some Stagecoach services in the City Centre will be curtailed at Bridge Street subway station or the Broomielaw.
Edinburgh hosts the elite men’s road race next Sunday.
More information on bus route diversions is available from Traveline Scotland.
Prime Minister and Energy Security Secretary to lead efforts this week to strengthen UK’s energy independence
They will meet industry leaders from oil, gas and renewable sectors – to drive forward measures that safeguard national energy security and reduce reliance on hostile states
Builds on years of critical support for North Sea oil and gas, the UK’s world-leading track record on renewables and our international leadership against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
The Government will this week set out how it’s delivering on its energy security strategy plans to grow the economy and create jobs across the United Kingdom.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will set out how the UK’s world-leading energy industry expertise will create jobs and grow the economy and ensure tyrants like Putin can never again use energy as a weapon to blackmail the UK.
As part of the Government’s efforts to strengthen the UK’s energy independence, he will announce investment plans to put powering up Britain from Britain first – making the most of our country’s resources and reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels, by backing our oil and gas industry, investing in the latest clean technologies and isolating Putin’s regime from global energy markets.
The Prime Minister and Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps will meet energy industry leaders throughout the week – including oil and gas, renewables and nuclear businesses – to ensure the UK is capitalising on opportunities to bolster our energy infrastructure now, and boosting our long-term energy independence, security and prosperity in the years to come.
The week will also include support for British innovation in new industries such as carbon capture and storage, and for cutting edge renewables across the country.
Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Energy security is national security. Since Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine the Government has driven Russia from our energy market, paid around half of a typical family’s energy bill and grown our economy by driving forward major energy projects.
“This week we will go even further. Forging ahead with critical measures to power up Britain from Britain – including supporting our invaluable oil and gas industry, making the most of our home-grown energy sources and backing British innovation in renewables.
“And across Government we will champion Britain’s businesses to deliver on the Prime Minister’s priority of growing the economy – helping them to create new jobs and even whole new industries across the UK.”
This week’s announcements will build on the country’s ‘world-leading’ track record which includes:
Supporting North Sea oil and gas, which each year contributes £17billion to the UK economy
Investing billions of pounds in renewable energy – leading to the UK having the world’s four largest operational wind farms off its shores;
Cutting emissions by 48 per cent between 1990 and 2021, while growing the economy by 65 per cent over the same period;
Having 41.5 per cent of the UK’s electricity come from renewable sources in 2022 – up from 6.7 per cent in 2010; and
Leading the world in the response to Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and driving Russia out of our energy market for good – enabling the UK to go over a year without Russian oil or gas.
Brits are being warned failure to properly protect their caravans against theft or damage this summer could have huge financial consequences.
Motoring experts at Quotezone.co.uk warn thousands of holidaymakers could be seriously out of pocket if an uninsured caravan is stolen or damaged while parked.
With many motorists set to take to the roads with touring caravans in tow this summer, experts are warning of the consequences for having incorrect caravan insurance.
Many car insurance policies will provide holidaymakers with basic third-party liability cover for towing a touring caravan.
However, with 4,000 caravans stolen each year, specific insurance to cover the costs of theft is the best way to ensure Britons aren’t left out of pocket.*
Car insurance will not cover a caravan while it is parked or if it sustains damage. This is why experts encourage Britons to take out dedicated caravan insurance.
Caravan insurance protects those who are victim to theft of personal belongings or fire damage to their caravan.
Leaving a caravan vulnerable to tampering, accidental damage or theft could also leave holidaymakers paying hefty sums to fix or repurchase their caravan.
Brits are encouraged to make sure they are keeping their caravan as secure as possible, with over 17% of those surveyed choosing to park their caravan in a communal caravan park.
Before setting off with a caravan in tow this summer, holidaymakers must alert their insurer to let them know of plans and make sure the vehicle is fully covered.
Insurance providers may wish to adjust premiums of those towing caravans. Failure to update providers may lead to refusal to pay out on any claims made.
It is also important for motorists to review their breakdown cover, as some policies will only cover car breakdowns. This could leave motorists having to leave their caravan behind in the case of a car emergency.
Greg Wilson, Founder and CEO of Quotezone.co.uk said: “With caravan thefts on the rise and so many due to travel this summer, it has never been a more important time to make sure you are fully insured against any accidents or emergencies.
“Although sorting insurance isn’t the most exciting summer prep. It could help you from forking out on repairs or covering recovery for your touring caravan in the case of a breakdown on the way to your holiday destination.
“Many car insurance policies will provide holidaymakers with basic third-party liability cover for towing a touring caravan, but this doesn’t cover everything.
“We encourage anyone towing a caravan to take out specific insurance for their home away from home. This way, you can get off on your holiday with no worries over cover for your vehicle or caravan.
“But, we also wanted to provide some safety tips to ensure your caravan is as protected as possible this summer.
Here are Quotezone’s top tips to keep caravans safe from theft or damage:
Secure storage
Many Brits are able to park their caravans at their private residence on a driveway with a barrier, but those without this option must choose carefully before securing their touring caravan for extended periods of time. If parking at a communal caravan park, make sure to remove all valuables or keep them out of sight for anyone who may be able to peer in through the windows. Make sure to also choose a reputable park with good access control.
Wheel locks
There are wheel locks designed for caravans to make it impossible for anyone to remove without your say-so. Make sure to buy one for caravans specifically in order to get the most effective outcome.
Install a caravan alarm
There are lots of caravan alarms on the market for those looking to take extra measures to keep their holiday home secure. A great deterrent for thieves is to make it clear you have an alarm installed by putting stickers in your windows. If parked in a caravan park, the loud noise caused by the alarm will not only deter thieves from your caravan but will also let other owners know there are potential thieves in the park grounds.
Storing at home
If storing your caravan at home, try to make sure you can park it to the side or back of your house if possible. Those who aren’t able to do this should park their car behind their caravan on a driveway or use a cover to disguise the van’s worth and attractiveness for potential thefts.
