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RHYS FULLERTON PREVIEWS SOME LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS ...  

The Edinburgh Art festival has been running since 2004 and this year’s programme has plenty to offer.  

Here are s a few of Broughton’s potential highlights. Not all our local galleries are exhibiting under the EAF umbrella, but here are some of the top picks out of those which are.  

The Scottish Gallery

The Scottish Liberal Democrats (SLD) have now announced their candidate for the Leith Walk (Ward 12) by-election on 10 September.

He is Mo Hussain, and says: 

Having grown up here, I now run my own business. Because of this I am very aware of what business owners and working people in Leith Walk need from Edinburgh Council, and how they can best be supported.

I feel I am the best candidate to represent the diverse and vibrant community in Leith Walk ward.

Hussain’s campaign literature stresses three main concerns:

Ushering in hayfevery August a full 24 hours early, Spurtle’s Issue 243 arrives in outlets the length and breadth of the barony and beyond from today.

Poilitics, planning, questionably spent pennies and a primal scream dominate Page 1. Further in we have fires, food, fairies, flats, France and the latest eclipse.

Look out also for news of bins supplied and dins avoided, repeated arrivals and departures once in a blue moon, tennis, golf, amazing regulations, two kinds of outraged parents, murder, and mysterious disappearing advertisements.

Just started at the Collective Gallery on Calton Hill is Beatrice Gibson’s oddly compelling Crippled Symmetries.

The exhibition comprises two short films, both of about 15 minutes’ duration, and both inspired by JR, the 1975 modernist novel by US writer William Gaddis.

‘Solo for Rich Man’ begins with an 11-year-old boy being invited by a middle-aged man (the ‘Composer’) to count money. To the rustle of notes and the jangle of tumbling change, the scene becomes more and more frenetic.

City of Edinburgh councillors today neither turned down nor consented an application to demolish the quaint 1830s building at 1–6 Canonmills Bridge (Ref. 15/01786/CON).

Instead, they voted for a hearing to be held at the next meeting of the Development Management Sub-committee on 26 August.

Officials had earlier submitted a report in favour of demolition to councillors. It read:

Dalkeith-based Cipher Games Ltd has applied for permission to convert office space at the Category C-listed 3 Queen Street into an ‘Entertainment facility’ (Ref. 15/03421/LBC). 

The nature of the entertainment is not clear, but plans reveal three Game Zones of three rooms each on the ground and basement floors.

There are many good reasons to respect a war memorial.

For example, to pay tribute to those who have lost their lives in the service of a high ideal. Or to mark the tragedy of war, and the failure of civilised discussion and compromise as a way to resolve differences.

Similarly, there are occasionally reasons not to respect war memorials. When, for example they appear to celebrate rather than abhor conflict. Or when they stand more as monuments to the vanity of leaders than to the suffering of citizens.

The Central Edinburgh New Town Association held its 'Annual Garden Party & Big Picnic' in Queen Street Gardens West this afternoon. Spurtle ventured along, hoping to witness something a bit out of the ordinary. 

'Think Ascot,' the event's organisers had advised, 'but think hats rather than horses. Think Henley, heavenly without all that water!'

We have no idea what Spey Street is like now for local residents at night. But roughly 200 years ago it was a source of huge frustration for one of the 19th century’s most influential and ill-tempered literary figures. 

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) – essayist, philosopher, historian and sociologist –  lived here in lodgings at No. 2 from 1822–24, although at that time it was known as Moray Street. 

Fresh plans have been submitted for the site at 1–6 Canonmills Bridge (Ref. 15/02927/FUL).