All Edinburgh libraries face reduced opening hours, some will close and merge with other services, mobile library stops will vanish and Community Learning and Development jobs are to be axed in a £6.4 million cuts package, warns the Edinburgh branch of UNISON, the public service union. Continue reading UNISON reveals ‘hidden and drastic’ cuts to libraries and community learning services
A drive to tackle rubbish, fly-tipping and dumped trade waste on city streets was kicked off this week. The second phase of the Our Edinburgh initiative, which aims to address anti-social behaviour like littering, has begun in the Leith Walk area, identified as a hotspot for overflowing bin complaints. Continue reading City cleanup initiative targets Leith Walk
Police in Edinburgh and the City of Edinburgh Council are inviting people to apply for funding to deliver projects which will help create a city free from Islamophobia. Continue reading Tackling Islamophobia: funding applications invited
The Sir William Y Darling Bequest for Good Citizenship for 2015/16 has been awarded to Tracy Rendall in recognition for her charity work and volunteering. Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Donald Wilson made the presentation on Tuesday night during a reception held in the City Chambers. Continue reading Darling Award for ‘whirlwind’ Tracy!
More than 100 residents have registered to attend a ‘BBC Question Time’ style event being organised by the City of Edinburgh Council as part of their wider engagement about changes to local services. Continue reading Watch Council Question Time live tonight
Parents and carers are being reminded that Registration Week begins tomorrow (Monday 7 November) for prospective primary school children who will start school in August 2017. Continue reading Time to register for Primary School places
The city council’s Transport and Environment Committee has agreed a comprehensive action plan to improve the city’s waste and cleansing services. Councillors rubber-stamped the 65-point plan yesterday. Continue reading Council acts to improve rubbish service
Parents and carers are being urged to find out more about the exciting education on offer at their local primary school as part of the annual open day event this week. Every primary school in Edinburgh will be opening their doors to prospective parents and carers with pre-school age children on Wednesday. Continue reading Explore your local Primary School tomorrow
The search is on for the tenth recipient of the Edinburgh Award and nominations are now open. Continue reading Edinburgh Award nominations are open
A pair of slippers worn by Sir Walter Scott have been placed on display at Edinburgh’s Writers’ Museum. The renowned Scottish author, famous for penning Waverley and Rob Roy, was gifted the slippers in 1830 by friends who were ‘saddened’ by the state of the ones they found him wearing at his home in Abbotsford!
A letter from Scott’s friend, Lady Honoria Louisa Cadogan, reads: ‘The only thing we did not admire at Abbotsford was a (pair) of ugly, uncomfortable slippers we saw in (your) study so my daughters hope you will replace them by their’s.’
Councillor Richard Lewis, Culture Convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “We recently refurbished the Writers’ Museum to include a new gallery dedicated to Sir Walter Scott and this loan adds enormously to the existing display of personal books and items belonging to the author.
“It is fantastic to have a local resident step forward with the offer of this loan and I hope it might encourage further donations to the city’s Museums so we can continue to add to the mix of items on display. I have no doubt they will generate much interest.”
The embroidered footwear will be on loan to the Museum for five years thanks to private collector Richard Wiseman. He purchased Scott’s size nine slippers from a collection previously owned by the author Sir Hugh Walpole, who is said to have been inspired by Scott’s writing style.
Richard Wiseman said: “We live in one of Walter Scott’s former Edinburgh homes and we came across these slippers online by chance. We love them, and we want to give other people the opportunity to see and enjoy them too. They are certainly well-worn so you never know, Scott might have sat at his writing desk in Abbotsford wearing these slippers to keep him comfortable as he wrote his later novels in the last two years of his life.”
Gillian Findlay, Curatorial and Engagement Manager for the Museum, added: “Scott’s slippers tell such a human story of the need for creature comforts and the compassion the author inspired in his friends, particularly at this vulnerable moment towards the end of his life. He was still mourning the loss of his wife and struggling to make ends meet since the banking crisis of 1825. He had received advances on books he hadn’t written yet but a kind friend took pity on him and had these slippers made as a gift.”
The City of Edinburgh Council managed museum is free to visit and allows visitors to discover the Capital’s rare collection of first edition books, personal belongings and portraits of great Scottish writers. In August, it was named a top visitor attraction when it was selected as a winner of TripExpert’s 2016 Experts’ Choice Award.
Next week: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Samoan flip-flops?!
