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BROUGHTON STREET'S METROPOLITAN

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St MARY'S METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL 1814–2014: MOST BELOVED GATE OF HEAVEN by Darren Tierney 

Reviewed by David Hill 

I have something to confess. Some of my best friends are churches, Catholic ones.

While I tend to hanker after the Sicilian Baroque or Lombard Gothic, the uplifting qualities of a more local manifestation of divine benevolence, one lurking just west of Picardy Place roundabout, should not be underestimated.

But I didn’t come here to talk about John Lewis.

GRIGOR DAMNS ROYAL HIGH PLANS

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The influential filmmaker, writer and exhibition curator Murray Grigor has criticised proposals for the former Royal High School.

In a short film by Richard Nicholls released this morning, Grigor criticises City of Edinburgh Council for allowing this 'sublime building' to decline. It is, he says, 'absolutely vital' and 'as important to the 18th and 19th centuries as Stirling Castle was to the 15th and 16th'.

SHORE-FOOTED ABSTRACTIONS

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Jackie Gardiner is an Arbroath-based painter of mostly Scottish seascapes and landscapes in a semi-abstract style. Her first solo show in Edinburgh – A Coastal Tale has just begun at the Union Gallery.

Some of Gardiner's works are clearly recognisable evocations of boats and bays and foregrounded flowers set against the sea.

Others – like 'The Boathouse' (right) – take a little careful looking at before their literal subjects emerge from the play of painted colour and texture.

STICKLER ON A MISSION

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Those picking up from last week’s cliffhanger may be in for a disappointment.

You left me standing in no man’s land at the crossing on Mansfield Place. It was a regular Mexican standoff, briefly, but it didn’t take long for another pedestrian to appear, and the next green man soon put us both out of our misery. The stubborn stalemate was over and we went our separate ways. 

BUSY SCENES IN BROUGHTON St MARY'S

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Broughton St Mary's has been no place for slackers these last two days as 22 young people have raced to complete murals on the building's south-western stairs.

The mostly 3rd and 4th-year pupils – 17 from Drummond CHS, 5 from Leith Academy – are taking part in the Prince's Award, and after a year's involvement with 90 per cent or better levels of attendance – must now work even harder to finish their culminating 24-hour challenge. 

NEW VIEWS ON OLD ROYAL HIGH

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The latest set of plans for the former Royal High School (RHS) was shown to the public yesterday, and will remain on display at 5–7 Regent Road today. 

There is a greater level of explanation and detail on offer compared to the first exhibition last month (Breaking news, 5.2.15), although still noticeable by their absence are any indications of the new hotel blocks’ interiors. 

PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIES 2: SUMMER BANK

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DAVID HILL ON A NEW TOWN STREET LIKE NO OTHER 

O wild West Wind, I was recently compelled to recall your mighty caress while strolling, slantwise, along a turbulent Summer Bank.

Shelley had a point: you are the breath of being, and not just autumn's. The urban soundscape, while all too frequently a detraction, can still, sometimes, be an enrichment.

SAINSBURY'S LOCAL STRIKES AGAIN

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The branch of Margiotta’s on the corner of 71 Northumberland Street and Howe Street will close for the last time this weekend. 

The independent convenience store has been there for over 20 years, but falling sales, particularly since the arrival of the Sainsbury’s Local over the road in 2012, made this decision inevitable. 

There will be no job losses, a spokesperson told us this afternoon, as all staff  will be reassigned to head office or one of the remaining six branches across the capital.