- Musselburgh Races
- At the Writers’ Museum today
- The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is renovating
- Royal Mile School Building to become a hotel and restaurant
- Porty gym upgrade complete
At Musselburgh Races yesterday HM The Queen had a special interest as three of her horses were running there.
Her Majesty and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh visited Musselburgh to unveil a sculpture to mark the bicentenary of the city’s closest racecourse, and to watch the horses bearing the royal silks.
The Bi-Centenary meeting was to celebrate 200 years of horse racing at Musselburgh.
See more of John Preece’s photos here.
Later today the Writers’ Museum have an event at 2pm when they will perform stories poems and pieces of prose, This is a drop in event and will last for about half an hour. Non-bookable event with a suggested donation of around £3.
This event will be repeated at 3pm and then at the same times next Saturday 16 July 2016.
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society on Queen Street is closed this month as they undertake a major renovation project.
A new whisky bar will be opened on 1 August which will have a constantly changing menu of whisky flavours. The bar is being moved to the ground floor and is swopping places with the Dining Room which will now be on the first floor with a Charles Heidsieck champagne table.
The venue will host a free open house event on 5th August – more details can be found here: https://www.smws.com/qs-open-house
The Society was established in Edinburgh in 1983 and now has more than 26,000 members around the world with branches in 19 countries.
The former school building on the Royal Mile, the C-listed red sandstone Canongate Venture building will become a 21 room luxury aparthotel managed by Apple Apartments.
The 21 double height serviced apartments each have a mezzanine level providing separate sleeping and living areas. All the rooms will look out to a central light-filled atrium in an area which has been unchanged since the building was first designed in 1901 as an infant school.
Billy Cowe who is opening a boutique hotel as part of the Canongate development
Launched in 2013, London-based Apple Apartments is fast-becoming one of the UK’s most successful niche aparthotel operators, specialising in the conversion of small-scale period buildings into high-quality serviced apartments. The company is run by Scottish businessman Billy Cowe and his brother Peter, who have been involved in global property management and development for the past 15 years.
“We knew straight away that this historic building would be perfect for our next specialist conversion project,” says Billy Cowe.
“As well as sitting alongside the Royal Mile, one of the world’s most iconic streets, it also has a range of striking features both inside and out, which make it genuinely stand out as a unique destination not just in Edinburgh but across the UK.
“There is a huge, growing demand for high-quality serviced apartments in good city-centre locations serving both corporate and leisure markets. The Canongate Venture is set to become a flagship aparthotel across our UK business, offering something a little different. As well as fully serviced rooms, we will also be incorporating 24-hour butler service, an exclusive customer lounge and a gourmet restaurant which will also provide room service for guests.”
The company is still in talks with various restaurants about the ‘in-house’ restaurant.
This development is all part of the New Waverley scheme which will have a £2 million public square in the middle of it and 3 hotels.
The doors to Edinburgh Leisure’s gym at Portobello Swim Centre are on schedule to reopen again on Monday, 11 July at 7am after its refurbishment.
The refurbishment includes new flooring, state of the art equipment including brand new treadmills, cross trainers, power mill, skill mill and much more, which will sync with customers’ mobiles or wearable devices so workouts can be recorded and tracked.
There is also an additional weights room, which has benches, weights and a squat rack.
For further information, visit: www.edinburghleisure.co.uk/venues/portobello-swim-centre
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