This is a walking tour of the hot spots of Leith brought to fame in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting which takes place on certain days during the Fringe. On 2 August there is also a book launch and you are invited to the Leith Dockers Club for that (Details of how to get your free ticket below).
Experience the iconic Trainspotting on location in Leith, including places featured in the book such as Central Station and Leith Dockers Club. Follow in the footsteps of characters like Renton, Spud and Begbie past the Queen Victoria statue at the Foot of the Walk, Leith Links and the site where Leith Central Station once stood.
Trainspotting guide Tim Bell of Leith Walks guides the walk, reading passages from the book and sharing the local history of Leith in the 1980s. The walk leaves from the Leith Docker’s Club at 10.30am
Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the original publication of Trainspotting, comes Tim Bell’s critical analysis and geographical account of Leith, Choose Life Choose Leith: Trainspotting on Location which will be published on 3 August 2018 by Luath Press.
An experienced tour guide with his walking company Leith Walks, Bell weaves his first hand knowledge of Leith into his in depth analysis of Irvine Welsh’s work, converting his walking tour into literary form. Tim Bell is a speaker, writer and tour guide. Raised in rural Northumberland, he travelled in the Middle East and North Africa as a young man before se ling in Scotland to work as a chaplain to the port of Leith and with young people with special needs. He founded his highly acclaimed tour company, Leith Walks and has since taken hundreds of people through the streets of Edinburgh and Leith, exploring Irvine Welsh’s Trainspo ng on loca on. Tim has lived in Leith with his family since the 1980s.
The HIV/AIDs pandemic of the 1980s was prevalent in Leith, a issue that Welsh illustrates through the characters of Renton, Spud, Begbie and Sick Boy. Bell walks through the history of the area, tying the experience of these characters to the real-life accounts of people who were affected by drugs and HIV/AIDs in Leith at the me.
Based on Bell’s Trainspotting walks, the book is a pertinent addition to current conversations around gentrification and deprivation on the outskirts of affuent areas, including the recent local ‘Save Leith Walk’ campaign.
Book Launch: Thursday 2 August. Leith Dockers Club – 6.30pm.
Admission is free and all are welcome.
For tickets to the Book Launch click here
Choose Life Choose Leith: Trainspotting on Location walking tours are running in this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe at 10.30am on August 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25, 27.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
