St STEPHEN'S COMMUNITY BID COULD START TONIGHT

A meeting to discuss the future of St Stephen’s Church – one of the most prominent Edinburgh landmarks to come onto the open market for at least a decade – will be held tonight.

The idea is to gauge public support for – or indifference to – the idea of a community buy-out for the A-listed property (Breaking news, 24.1.14).

Judging by online traffic following our coverage of the subject last month, many people – locally and across the city – care deeply. Whether they have pockets, commitment, expertise and reserves of time to match remains to be seen.

Securing the long-term future of a building like this will not come cheap. An experienced arts administrator Spurtle spoke to reckons the sum required will far exceed the £500K offers-over purchase price once refurbishment is taken into account.

Fund-raising according to the prudent model commonly adopted for such schemes in the US, he continues, would seek to achieve an additional pot from which interest could be used for, at least, ongoing maintenance and running costs. Fundraising on such a scale in today’s financial climate would be an enormous undertaking without major institutional or philanthropic backing. 

Whatever the potential difficulties, Alex Stein, one of those at the helm of the newly formed St Stephen’s Playfair Trust, is not short of vision.

‘No doubt,’ he says, ‘there are those who consider it would be cool to have St Stephen’s pass from public ownership to private, to see it de-consecrated and re-created in the image of all those former banking halls on George Street where Edinburgh’s young strut their stuff on a Saturday night.

‘But others hope St Stephen’s might find a happier and more fulfilling future amongst its surrounding community.’

Implicit in Stein’s remarks is a widespread concern locally about what such a large property might mean for the New Town in private hands. In addition to potentially unwelcome architectural changes to such an iconic landmark, there is the potential for radically altered traffic and pedestrian flows, with knock-on effects for local amenity.

That such enlightened self-interest forms part of a virtuous coalition to ‘save’ St Stephen’s should not surprise anyone. But in any case, Stein certainly doesn’t envisage a future diet of exclusively worthy-but-quiet carpet bowls and mother-and-baby tai chi classes.

‘Transformed and refreshed, one day St Stephen’s might return as a venue to host some remarkable and memorable events and concerts.

‘Who knows ...’ he says, tongue firmly in cheek, ’Lady Gaga with backing from the internationally famous Father Willis organ.’

The key point is that the community – not a comparatively unaccountable profit-focused incomer – would remain in control.

Tonight’s meeting will be held in the St Stephen’s Centre at 7.00pm. All welcome.