Breaking news

Permission has been granted to demolish the adjoining buildings at 5 Warriston Road and build in their place a 3-storey block of flats (Ref. 14/02315/FUL; Breaking news, 17.6.14). 

This evening’s cinema screenings at the Leith Walk police box will take place inside, owing to inclement weather conditions (a superabundance of wind). 

The performances – which complement the fifth annual Edinburgh Short Film Festival – will run from 7.30–8.30pm. 

Featured will be some of the best short films from the 2014 ESFF, and they will be watchable in conditions of considerable snugness for free.

Similar weather-dependent screenings will run at the same time tomorrow evening.

Café culture in Broughton is thriving, as evidenced by three venues visited today during moments of meteorological crisis. 

We began with Bon Papillon on Howe Street, where artist/proprietor/caterer Ingrid Nilsson’s imaginative and playful portraits feature in the gallery at the back.

We particularly liked the gentle wooing of ‘Goldie’s Progress’, which brought to mind the meandering prose of George Cavendish: 

Today's newspapers suggest domestic property prices in Scotland may rise over the next 12 months by an eye-watering average of £40,000.

Rather than despair at the insanity of the current market and the woeful lack of affordable housing, Spurtle decided instead to bury its collective head in the sand and look back to an age when things may not have been any better but at least estate agents' hyperbole was a little easier on the ear.

Any plans for next week?  

Got anything pencilled in already? A work commitment, perhaps? Appointment with millionaire patron? Candlelit dinner with potential lover?  

Drop them. 

Scotland’s annual history festival – Previously – returns from 18–22 November with 38 events and 11 venues (four of them right on Broughton’s doorstep).

The programme includes drama, talks, poetry, music, walks and books, with most events costing £4.00 and some being free.

Events which caught this correspondent’s eye include:

MUSIC SCHOOL COULD BE ‘BEACON FOR CULTURE IN THE CITY’ 

Latest plans for a new St Mary’s Music School in the old Royal High School complex on Regent Road were made public last night for the first time.

Willie Gray Muir, chair of the Royal High School Preservation Trust (RHSPT), presented them in advance of a full planning application, to be submitted probably at the end of this month.

According to the online Oxford English Dictionary, the word zombie has been around in the English language since at least 1819.

Originating in West Africa, the term refers to a corpse revived by witchcraft. By the 1930s it had spread more widely to to convey a 'dull, slow-witted person' of the kind we now associate with flesh-eating tabloid journalists.

Don't you just hate those irritating little jobs? 

You know the ones. When the thing to be fixed is at an awkward angle. And you don't have exactly the right tool to hand so you end up improvising with something you found on the floor in the garage.

And then, just as you think you're starting to make progress, bits of your anatomy keep popping out and you don't have the wherewithal to pop them back in again.

An eagle-eyed Forth Street resident last week spotted busy people with theodolites in the car park on the north side of Broughton Street Lane.

He approached the surveyors, asked questions, and was told that building would most likely begin here in the new year.

Dean Valley Regeneration Ltd (DVR) held its second public meeting on Saturday morning to share outline proposals for the ‘linear public park’ between Dean Bridge and Stockbridge.

Around 60 people attended.

In the event, there was little information to be gleaned that was not already available in our article of 22 October and the comprehensive Dean Valley Conservation Statement appended to it.