Tag: Madelvic House

Knots: A Community Walk

GRANTON:HUB – SATURDAY 26th SEPTEMBER 1.45 – 3pm

We are pleased to invite you to ‘Knots, a community walk for all the family’ on Saturday 26th September, 1:45pm-3.00pm. It is part of the Granton:hub / Madelvic House Doors Open Day.

We will walk, play, do an art activity, and learn about nature too. This event relates to our neighbour, United Wire, and one of our other historical and contemporary industries, fishing. You will learn some basic knotting practices (appropriate for children and adults), making a joint artwork, and also something to take home with you to help you remember the walk and what you have seen.

Starting and ending at the Granton Hub / Madelvic House.

Places are limited for participants’ safety and enjoyment. Suitable for those with wheels / sticks. Dogs on leads are welcome.

Tamsin Grainger is a Paths for All walk leader. In 2024/5, she was the Granton Archive Community Development Worker, and she is an experienced pedestrian.

This event is free to attend but booking is required via Eventbrite.

granton:hub to take part in Doors Open Day

SATURDAY 26th SEPTEMBER from 11am – 3.30pm

FULL PROGRAMME OF ACTIVITIES AT MADELVIC HOUSE

We are delighted to announce our participation in Doors Open Day 2026 on Saturday 26 September, between 11am and 3.30pm.

Our main exhibition will focus on the industrial heritage throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th century, keeping Granton’s heritage alive and highlighting what was once a hive of activity. We are pleased to confirm that local historian Kenneth Williamson will be providing more insights and stories of his own experiences.

The Granton Archive Project (GAP) will offer informal drop-in sessions between 11:00am-2:00pm. We have photographs, films, newspapers and much more that will bring the past alive, and we’d like to invite you to come and explore, guided by our local volunteers.

Also on display will be a selection of the Quiet Heroes photo exhibition. These striking portraits celebrate these individuals and invite us all to reflect on the hidden contributions that keep a community strong.

Our collaboration with Edinburgh College of Art entitled ‘Cultural Heritage in the Metropolitan Peripheries’ records and celebrates Granton’s shifting heritage and the creative work by students from Craigroyston Academy and Edinburgh University.

The project will be launching HOPE, a new digital resource for people seeking to learn about how these urban peripheries mark and celebrate their cultural heritage and contemporary identity.

A family friendly walk (1:45-3pm) will start and end at the Granton Hub and free spaces are limited. PLEASE BOOK. Check the link for further details.

https://www.eventbrite.com/…/knots-a-community-walk…

There is no formal requirement to book a space for visiting granton:hub but it will assist us with planning the logistics.

https://www.eventbrite.com/…/doors-open-day-saturday-26…

Feel free to get in touch via gina@grantonhub.org if you have any questions.

Granton & District CC comments on ongoing traveller situation

UPDATE ON TRAVELLER ENCAMPMENT

WE (Granton& District Community Council) are aware of community concerns around the continuing occupation of Scottish Government land at Waterfront Avenue / Granton Park Avenue, which is earmarked for The Art Works development.

The Community Council acknowledges the frustration felt by local residents about the length of time it is taking for this complex issue to be resolved.

An appeal hearing in relation to the eviction order took place in early August, and the judgement was issued at the Court of Session on Thursday (27 August). It found in the Scottish Government’s favour, upholding the eviction order. However, it is worth noting that a further appeal is possible.

As a Community Council, we hope to receive further updates on next steps once available, and will do our best to communicate this to residents in good time.

View the news reports about the judgement:

BBC News (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgwd9l5210o)

and STV News (https://news.stv.tv/…/traveller-family-to-be-evicted…).

GRANTON & DISTRICT COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Granton Archive Project: Local History Drop-In Sessions at Madelvic House

GRANTON:HUB – TUESDAYS 2 – 4pm

Come along this summer to our community archive drop-in sessions, every Tuesday between 14:00-16:00 to learn more about our local history and its rich heritage.

More Information:

www.grantonhub.org

This Weekend: Big Nature Drawathon

Granton Hub Big Nature Drawathon

Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th July 2026

Dig out your pencils and come out and play for a weekend celebrating nature and art in our community.

Whether you are a keen artist, or last drew at primary school, all are welcome to come and get stuck in with our art materials and activities. Get arty on Saturday and see the full exhibition of works on Sunday.

Activities include:

• Learning plant identification through sketching (workshop at 11am and 1pm)

• Design your own mythical beast of Granton

• Clay creature sculpting

• Ant’s eye view – get up close to tiny worlds

• Get imaginative with our art materials – stay and make for as long as you like

• Add your nature art to our exhibition

• Teas, coffees and snacks by donation

Click here for free Eventbrite booking.

Find us at Granton Hub, Maldevic House, Granton Park Avenue, EH5 1HS (We are wheelchair accessible).

Get arty – Saturday 25th July, 10.30am to 3.30pm

Exhibition of work – Sunday 26th July, 2 to 4pm

granton:hub | community arts | Madelvic House

Granton Hub Big Nature Drawathon

Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th July 2026

Dig out your pencils and come out and play for a weekend celebrating nature and art in our community!

Whether you are a. keen artist, or last drew at primary school, all are welcome to come and get stuck in with our art materials and activities.

Get arty on Saturday and see the full exhibition of works on Sunday!

Activities include:

• Learning plant identification through sketching (workshop at 11am and 1pm)

• Design your own mythical beast of Granton

• Clay creature sculpting

• Ant’s eye view – get up close to tiny worlds

• Get imaginative with our art materials – stay and make for as long as you like

• Add your nature art to our exhibition

• Teas, coffees and snacks by donation

Click here for free Eventbrite booking.

Find us at Granton Hub, Maldevic House, Granton Park Avenue, EH5 1HS (We are wheelchair accessible).

Get arty – Saturday 25th July, 10.30am to 3.30pm

Exhibition of work – Sunday 26th July, 2 to 4pm

Join the board of granton:hub

Trustees Wanted – Join the board of Granton hub

Granton Hub is a small and dynamic organisation based in North Edinburgh and dedicated to the arts, local heritage and the changing Granton community.

We have a vibrant local history group, which organises tours of the area, and a unique archive covering local heritage. We also have an arts group, which organises community art and heritage projects, weekly drawing and painting classes, and weekend arts-related exhibitions and activities. Granton:hub is a registered Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO).

We are located in the historic Madelvic House, which was built in 1898 as the head office of Scotland’s first purpose-built electric car factory. The building is now part of the Council’s Heritage and Place Programme and was recently awarded significant funding to improve accessibility and the interior and exterior fabric of the building. This will support its continued and growing use by the local community and our local arts and heritage projects.

We are all looking forward to exciting new developments in the area, particularly with the new National Galleries of Scotland cultural centre being built almost next door. We anticipate that Granton:hub will play a significant role at the interface between Scottish heritage and the local community.

To help us in this next phase of our community hub work, we are looking for experienced members of the public to join our Board.

We are particularly keen to recruit people who care about arts, heritage and community development; who want to contribute to a local organisation with growing impact; who can bring experience or interest in areas such as governance, fundraising, finance, communications or community engagement; and who reflect the diversity of the Granton community in all its forms.

You do not need prior trustee experience; commitment, sound judgement and a collaborative mindset matter most.

Board meetings are held once a month, usually on the last Friday of the month from 6–8pm. The Board is responsible for ensuring good governance of the charity and supporting our future plans and strategies.

To find out more about joining the Board, please contact chair@grantonhub.org.

Thank you.

Drawing classes at Granton:hub

We’re delighted to launch a new series of Life Drawing sessions on Tuesday evenings and Portrait & Figure Drawing on Thursdays at Granton:hub.

The programme begins with Life Drawing on Tuesday 21 April, followed by the Portrait & Figure Drawing course starting Thursday 23 April.

Working from a live model each week, these relaxed and welcoming sessions are open to all levels — whether you’re picking up a pencil for the first time or looking to develop your practice further. The classes focus on observation, proportion, gesture, and expression, with plenty of guidance and individual feedback throughout.

Both classes offer a great opportunity to build confidence, meet others, and enjoy a focused creative space in Madelvic House. The portrait sessions are particularly distinctive, as they feature local “heroes” from the Granton community — offering a unique opportunity to draw and paint people who actively contribute to the life of the area.

“I highly recommend the portrait drawing classes by Romain and Gareth. I went with a friend and we really appreciated the amount of feedback we received — it was incredibly helpful.

“The structure of the sessions worked very well, starting with quick drawings to get used to the model, followed by longer poses with breaks in between. The models were all ‘heroes of the city’, including Sibar, a well-known baker at Granton Kitchen, and Willie, a long-standing community activist from Granton. I would come back every week if I could!” — Naomi

Life Drawing (Tuesdays) 6:30–8:30pm · 21 April – 19 May, £58.50 for 5 sessions · Limited to 12 places

Book now: Life Drawing (Tuesday)

Portrait & Figure Drawing (Thursdays) 6:30–8:30pm · 23 April – 21 May, £58.50 for 5 sessions · Limited to 12 places

Book now: Portrait & Figure Drawing (Thursdays)

Booking link in comments

Happy 15th Anniversary, NEN blog!

NEN PUBLISHED OUR FIRST BLOG POST ON THIS DAY IN 2011

The very first NEN blog post was published on this day in 2011. The post read:

Hello, and welcome to the brand new NEN blog.

For those of you not already familiar with the newspaper, we are a local community paper serving the North Edinburgh community. We’ve been here for over thirty years.

This blog, along with our new Facebook page and Twitter stream, represents our first foray into the world of social media.  We really want to encourage more participation, more questions and ideas from the North Edinburgh community – both online and offline – and hope that these new tools will help us to do that.

We already have a good website, where you can always find the latest edition of the printed newspaper. The blog won’t be replacing that, but will instead be there to show people the latest news about the area, and also to help us cover the current funding crisis we are facing as an organisation.

Above all, we want to include your input on the blog – be it ideas for stories, comments, pictures and events. So get in touch!

The NEN’s website was sadly deleted when funding ceased but our social media presence continues on both Twitter and Facebook and the blog is still going strong with 10 – 12 posts daily.

2025 was the NEN blog’s busiest ever year with 36,000 visitors. As I write this we’ve published more than 38,000 posts – all of these remain accessible online – and we’re currently on a run of publishing on 2749 consecutive days.

When the NEN office in Crewe Road North closed much of the NEN archive material was lost, but thankfully some of our picture library was salvaged and can now be found at granton:hub (Madelvic House), where the volunteer archive team has also collated all remaining hard copies of the North Edinburgh News newspaper.

Hopefully, between the physical archive and the NEN blog, you can find all you need to know about our community’s rich history – and we’re adding to that history every day!