Capture the spirit of Granton’s waterfront, streets, and skyline in this exciting new sketching course. Open to all levels, this class is perfect for those inspired by the urban environment and natural surroundings.
You’ll explore the essentials of line, light, and perspective while sketching both on-site and in the studio. Expect friendly guidance, creative inspiration, and the chance to exhibit your work in our Summer Exhibition.
Funding reminder! We’ll will be hosting two digital drop in sessions for anyone that is interested in applying to the North Edinburgh Community Benefits Fund and wants to find out more.
Tuesday 22 April, 10.00am – 11.00am – Online information session – Please email Granton.Waterfront@edinburgh.gov.uk for an online link.
Tuesday 22 April, 6.00pm – 7.00pm – Online information session – Please email Granton.Waterfront@edinburgh.gov.uk for an online link.
Join our next block of Waterfront Walks each Monday in May to discover Edinburgh’s new memorial art installations, located between McKelvie Parade and Granton Harbour.
Each week, our Community Artist Isla Macleod and Emma Ritchie from Caledonia Funeral Aid and Caledonia Cremation will lead the group to see a new element of this historic installation.
Isla and Emma will facilitate conversations and creative activities around bereavement, change & loss, and how we can make sense of these feelings through the arts.
This group is open to people who have been bereaved in the past year, and who are seeking a creative minded space to be amongst peers with similar shared experiences.
Men With Pens is a series of creative writing and letter writing workshops for men living with mental health conditions.
Working with groups in Perth and Edinburgh. Each participant will be paired anonymously with a participant from the other group. The men will be encouraged to write letters, creating pen pals, to discuss their mental health.
We will also work together, using reading and creative writing as a tool for maintaining well-being.
The workshops will be led by Ross MacKay, an award-winning writer with lived experience of his own mental health conditions.
Monthly Wednesday evening sessions at Granton Library on:
14th May – 5.30-7.30
11th June – 5.30-7.30
9th July – 5.30-7.30
6th August – 5.30-7.30
7th August – Evening Celebration at Edinburgh International Book Festival
A new public park officially opened in Edinburgh today as part of the £1.3bn regeneration of Granton Waterfront to become a new environmentally friendly coastal town.The Gasholder 1 Park sits within the completely restored gasholder with views over the Firth of Forth.
Council Leader Jane Meagher was joined by Minister for Employment and Investment Tom Arthur, representatives from the main contractor McLaughlin & Harvey, as well as volunteers from Granton Hub and members of Pianodrome, Scran Academy and Craigyroyston Youth Football Club to mark the opening of the park ahead of a family fun day and ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday 5 April.
A club member of the Craigroyston Youth Community Football Club will join the Council Leader to cut the ribbon and officially declare the park open for residents and visitors to enjoy for decades to come.
The entrance of the park is marked with large Hollywood style lettering making it more visible for local people and others visiting to enjoy its open green space and play equipment. It has six different zones including three play areas with a wide range of play equipment.
There is plenty of outdoor space to explore and an inner ring walk going round the outer edges of the frame with a range of places to sit and relax. An outdoor exhibition has also been created which showcases the history of Granton gasworks as well as the restoration process.
A new sculpture now also takes pride of place at the centre of the park, commissioned by the Council last year following input from the local community. Svetland Kondakova Muir designed the piece to portray one of the Firth of Forth’s most special visitors – the humpback whale – the recently completed artwork was put in place last week.
Council Leader Jane Meagher said: “The Gasholder 1 Park opening is a huge milestone reached for the £1.3bn Granton Waterfront project. It is really inspiring to look out over this important piece of coastal land for our Capital city and see these much needed homes and other facilities literally springing up out of the ground.
“The new park is a fantastic addition for local communities and the hundreds of new tenants including families who have recently moved into the homes we have built for social and mid-market rent in the area.
“Many of these are on land immediately surrounding the new park and I’m delighted to say that many more homes are being planned or under construction which will be ready for hundreds of new tenants in the next few years.
“The historic gasholder gives the new park a unique look and feel and it will also be seen for miles around as the restored frame is lit up after dark.
“I’m delighted to cut the ribbon on Saturday to open this exciting new space for the local community as well as the thousands of other visitors I’m sure it will attract from Edinburgh and beyond in the years to come.”
Investment Minister Tom Arthur said: “We have contributed £1.2 million towards transformation of Granton’s Gasholder from a derelict site to a vibrant and accessible space for people to enjoy.
“This is part of wider efforts to regenerate the Granton area, including a recent project supported by the Scottish Government to transform derelict industrial units at Granton Waterfront into communal spaces.
“To help communities thrive, we are providing £62.15 million towards regeneration in 2025-26. This will support projects which revitalise green spaces, town centres and derelict sites to benefit people across Scotland.”
UK Government Minister for Local Growth, Alex Norris, said: “Having visited Granton earlier in the year, it is wonderful to see the new Gasholder 1 Park will be opening this week. This green space will really bring the community together, from young families to elderly residents and visitors to the City.
“The refurbishment of the derelict gas holder structure has provided a real beacon of light to Edinburgh, retaining its unique history and character, while wider transformation work is underway to Granton Waterfront.
“This is exactly the kind of collaboration and locally led growth we want to see all across Scotland and the UK in our mission to boost growth and renewal as part of our Plan for Change.”
Graham Brown, Senior Contracts Manager at McLaughlin & Harvey, said:“Gasholder 1 Park was a unique restoration project to deliver for the City of Edinburgh Council.
“In deconstructing the old bell, refurbishing the listed steel structure, and repainting the frame, we have solved complex engineering challenges.
“The ribbon cutting ceremony is a brilliant opportunity for McLaughlin & Harvey to celebrate the vast civil engineering experience of our team as well as the success achieved in our collaboration with our client and supply chain partners.”
The family fun day will include
Community singalong with Pianodrome at 11am
Ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11.15am with Council Leader Jane Meagher
Family arts and craft activities
Penalty shoot-outs with Craigroyston Community Youth Football Club
Thanks to our friends from R2, we will have enough rubbish picking equipment for everyone. if you have any questions-email: anna@grantongoesgreener.org.uk
Calling all community activists in Newhaven / Trinity / Granton / West Pilton – can you share your ideas about how decisions should be made on heating system changes coming within 5-15 years?
– How to tackle fuel poverty? Stop energy leaking out of homes!
– After gas … what? Heat pumps or heat networks?
These are big technical options being discussed right now by the Scottish Government and the City Council.
– Do you want a say in the new arrangements the infrastructure needed?
– Share your views on what will happen when gas no longer heats homes / workplaces.
– Could a Local Place Plan / a Local Energy Plan help?
This online workshop is for community organisers and residents interested in the issues. It will inform future funding applications and support for community organisations looking to take control of their journey to a low carbon future.
A design portraying one of the Firth of Forth’s most special visitors – the humpback whale – has been commissioned by the Council to be displayed in the new Gasholder 1 public park.
Visitors will be able to enjoy the new piece of art at the park’s official opening on Saturday 5 April.
Last February the Council invited locally based artists and creative practitioners to develop ideas for a new artwork to be co-created with the local community.
Ideas for the selected pieces were taken from community interests and themes connected to Granton and the artists provided opportunities for the local community to participate in the design process. A panel of experts then selected Svetlana Kondakova Muir’s whale as the winning design in Summer 2024.
By portraying the whale, the artist is celebrating the local natural environment. The sculpture is a galvanised steel and aluminium life-sized head of a humpback whale appearing to emerge vertically from underwater.
At four metres tall, it is an awe-inspiring size, allowing visitors to experience the full might of this incredible creature. To complement the gasholder structure, it was made in a contemporary polygonal style using simple, flat shapes with straight edges, a style that is both minimalist and striking.
Aluminium-cast artworks created by local school children and college students, including an oyster reef, barnacles and other wildlife as well as textured panels created by pupils who have complex support needs from Oaklands School, will be added to the structure in summer 2026.
Culture and Communities Convener Cllr Val Walker said: “The new park – Gasholder 1 – officially opens on Saturday 5 April and I’m really looking forward to hundreds of visitors joining us that day and being able to see this this beautiful piece of art which is a spectacular focal point.
“I’m sure it will become a huge draw for local people and those visiting the area in the future months and years ahead. I’m hoping those who haven’t already explored the new green space will have the opportunity to do so at our official opening or in their own time at some point soon.
“The gasholder has always played an important role in Granton Waterfront and it is fantastic to see it has been completely restored and is now lit up as a permanent feature after dark.”
Artist Svetlana Kondakova Muir said: “It was a great honour to be awarded the Gasholder Public Art Commission and I am excited to see the sculpture complete.
“The best part about this project has been working with the local community to come up with ideas – it was them who chose the whale – and to create elements of sea life which will be cast in aluminium and added to the sculpture.
“I feel privileged that my artwork will be housed within such a distinctive landmark in Edinburgh’s landscape.
“Most importantly, I hope that Granton Whale will highlight the importance of marine conservation and the value of our relationships with the natural world.”
In this exhibition I share oil paintings that are part of getting to ‘know my place’, Granton, after moving here in November 2023. Its harbour, seascapes, and community mean a lot to me. Touch me deep in a place called ‘home’.
Home to gusty winds ruffling waters, to wild swimming in Wardie bay whatever the weather, to boats rowing or sailing on the Firth of Forth, to bonfires on the beach under a full moon, to romantic strolls to Cramond, to families and folks playing, smiling, taking dogs out, meeting friends, working, and much more.
I hope these depictions of Granton, seen through my eyes, heart, and brush, are ones in which you recognize parts of the place and community that touch you too. Or, if you are not local, that they convey their particular beauty and energy.
(half of proceeds to be shared between Medical Aid for Palestine and Granton Hub)
(Short term parking beside and beyond Granton Hub)
Three for the sea: dance performance and workshop
Sunday 30 March: 1.30 – 4pm
This event forms part of an ongoing movement inquiry into local coastal environments, and the emotions, histories, futures, stories, bodies, and ecosytems they create. It will be led and performed by Monica de Ioanni, Alena Ageeva and Juliet Henderson.
