Five things you need to know today

May 13, 2025 7:00 am

Edinburgh City App

The council will have a new app later this year. At an event at Central Library on 19 May from 10am to 5pm members of the public will be shown a preview of the Edinburgh Council City app.

It is intended for anyone who interacts with Council services. Whether you need to pay bills, report issues or access information, the app aims to make these interactions more convenient and accessible to everyone.

Gretna 110

The Out of the Blue Drill Hall will be forever connected with the Gretna rail disaster and now it is to be used for an exhibition to mark the 110th anniversary of the tragedy.

It is to becomes home to a new exhibition and a series of events commemorating the disaster, which killed 216 men from the 1/7th Royal Scots

The exhibition has been carefully curated by The Royal Scots Regimental Museum, and is designed to raise awareness of the crash, which took place in May 1915.

A total of 216 members of the 7th Battalion were killed during the disaster on the morning of 22nd May 1915 in the biggest train disaster in British railway history. Three trains had collided resulting in 226 fatalities. Most of the dead were soldiers who had trained at the Drill Hall in Leith, on their way to Gallipoli.

Those who had waved their young sons, brothers, sweethearts and friends off only days earlier were soon to be faced with the solemn task of identifying their loved one’s body in the Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street in Leith.

The Drill Hall was the 7th Battalion’s Drill Hall.

Back in 2015 thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Out of the Blue Arts and Education Trust, who now own and manage the Drill Hall as an arts centre and much loved resource for the community, marked the centenary of this disaster, with an exhibition and theatre performance.

Rob Hoon, CEO of Out of the Blue, said: “The Out of the Blue Drill Hall is historically associated with a hugely significant tragedy for the Leith community. Thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund we were able to explore the impact on individuals and families by people undertaking their own research, uncovering stories and presenting them to the people of Leith – and beyond! Ray Bird’s film documented the process of the community’s involvement in the context of exploring the impact of the 1915 tragedy to powerful effect.”

On Thursday 22 May 2025, 110 years to the day of the tragic crash will assemble many of the 2015 participants for a special reunion screening of Ray Bird’s short film, Gretna 100. The film illustrates how a participatory arts project can have a long lasting impact for participants and audience alike.

To mark the centenary of the disaster in 2015, a group of community actors from Active Inquiry and Strange Town Young Company researched and devised a piece of promenade theatre, Persevere, which guided the audience around the Drill Hall enabling them to catch glimpses of stories of Leithers 100 years ago. There was also a separate research group which included descendants of those who were involved in the tragedy, an exhibition group and the production of the Tree of Life, with a glass artist and Pilmeny Youth Centre. Ray Bird (Drill Hall based filmmaker) made a great film of the project, which will be screened on Thursday 22nd May 2025.

More information here.

Queen Street Gardens

M W Yellowlees, Clerk, Caledonian Exchange, 19a Canning Street, Edinburgh EH3 8HE gives notice of a meeting next week.

To the Proprietors of Queen Street Gardens (Eastern District) and of the houses in Heriot Row and Queen Street and Wemyss Place.

The Annual General Meeting of the Proprietors will be held at The Royal Scots Club, 29 – 30 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh on Monday 19 May 2025 at 5.30pm in terms of the Act of Parliament.

A meeting of the General Commissioners for the three districts will be held immediately after the meeting of the Proprietors.

Custom House

A new partnership between Scottish Historic Buildings Trust and Leith Civic Trust is to allow the future of the building in Leith to be secured.

At an event on Friday the new arrangement was announced with fundraising and development to follow.

Cockburn Association

A reminder that the 150th AGM of the Cockburn Association will be held on 20 May at 7pm in the Binks Hall in the Greyfriars Charteris Centre when the President Stephen Jardine will welcome all members to the meeting.

Here you will find the annual review as well as the candidates for election to council this year.