Breaking news

A new adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel The Secret Agent was being filmed on Broughton Place and outside the Barony Bar on Broughton Street today.

The three-part drama by World Productions for BBC One is scheduled for release in 2016. The story is set in the London of 1886. Soho shopkeeper Verloc is employed by the Russian government to bomb the Greenwich Observatory.

The cast includes Vicky McClure, Toby Jones, Paul Ellard and Charlie Hamblett, none of whom of we'd ever heard of before or was anywhere to be seen.

Royal Bank of Scotland has begun a consultation exercise concerning the future of its properties on Dundas Street, Fettes Row, Royal Crescent, Eyre Place, and Eyre Terrace. 

An outdoor exhibition of words and photographs is being staged in the Rodney Street Tunnel for the next month. 

Hold me Dear features over 40 images of ‘extra(ordinary)’ favourite places in four cities – Copenhagen, Istanbul, Hamburg and Edinburgh – captured by the extraordinary people who live there. 

They range from harbour scenes to urban playgrounds, treasured allotments to café tables, docks, stations, a former jail and even the interior of an abandoned hospital. 

Spurtle has been out and about today, noseying into other people's business as usual.

Here – in no particular order – are nine photos of what we saw. Can you name the locations?

Answers at the foot of this page tomorrow.

1. Curvy (right).

2. Looking up at Downie.

Over 120 opponents of plans to develop the old Royal High School as a luxury hotel met last night in central Edinburgh to discuss progress and ensure timely and relevant objections. 

Convened by the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, the 'urgent action meeting' comprised speeches from representatives of Edinburgh World Heritage, the Cockburn Association, the AHSS itself, and the Royal High School Preservation Trust.

'Battle for the soul of the city'

New bin collection arrangements scheduled to start tomorrow in Rosslyn Crescent and Terrace have left locals scratching their heads. 

The new system entails five different kinds of receptacle being presented on pavements in four different combinations. 

Fortunately, City of Edinburgh Council explained it all in the helpful timetable reproduced below. 

A Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant of £1.3 million has significantly boosted plans to open the City Observatory on Calton Hill to the public for the first time. 

As first reported here in April, the Collective Gallery aspires to conserve the William Henry Playfair designed building (currently on the Buildings at Risk Register), and create new gallery, administrative and restaurant spaces within the walled Observatory compound. 

Collective's vision is for:

Alternative plans for the future of the old Royal High School became a little clearer today with a counter-bid for the building and announcements about the architects who would be employed.

The Royal High School Preservation Trust (RHSPT) revealed this morning that it has made a formal legal offer to buy the site from City of Edinburgh Council for £1.5m. This figure, it says, exceeds the value CEC has so far attributed to it.

Architecture & Design Scotland (ADS) has given qualified support to aspects of the proposed hotel scheme for the old Royal High School building on Regent Road.

On 9 September, ADS’s design advisor Johnny Cadell wrote to David Given, a senior planning officer at City of Edinburgh Council.