Vivat Trust Ltd, the charity which has let out Calton Hill’s Old Observatory House to visitors since 2009, has ceased trading.
The development came in the last couple of weeks, after a year of poor results and funding difficulties. Directors at the charity had been looking for a ‘white knight’, but when none emerged they conceded that the business had become unviable. It will shortly be placed in liquidation.
As a result, an undisclosed number of bookings (at around £2,000 per week each in August) have had to be cancelled, and City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) – which leased the property to Vivat – will not be stepping in to help
CEC may itself be owed money, although no-one there has been able to confirm or deny this since Friday.
Vivat is now in the hands of accountants Begbies Traynor in England, and is being wound up.
The last available annual accounts submitted to Companies House for the year up to 31 March 2014 reported ‘cash at bank’ of £104,870, ‘liabilities’ worth £952,918, ‘net worth’ of £2,925,617 and ‘assets’ worth £421,816.
A notice on the Charities Commission website remarks that Vivat has failed to provide information on its finances within 10 months of its financial year end.
The Old Observatory’s three-floor, 8-bedroom accommodation, dates from 1776, and has been in the city’s ownership since the late 19th century. City of Edinburgh Council secured the building’s structure and exterior around 6 years ago, after which Vivat took on a lease, restored the interior and began letting out the property commercially.
On its website, Vivat describes itself as:
a national Building Preservation Trust dedicated to rescuing neglected and dilapidated listed historic buildings of architectural, industrial and historical interest. Established in 1981, Vivat was the first trust to be allowed to acquire leasehold properties by The Charity Commissioners. As a result, Vivat is able to repair, conserve and adapt historic buildings whose owners cannot or do not wish to grant a freehold - as with Old Observatory House.
Vivat’s Latin name means 'Live long' in English. It's failure to prosper is ‘a great pity and very regrettable’, a source close to the charity told Spurtle.
‘It just goes to show,’ they continued, ‘that restoring and running listed buildings is a very perilous undertaking’.
They were, however, optimistic about Old Observatory House’s future. It had proved a highly popular and profitable element in the Trust’s 15-property portfolio across the UK, and so 'there is little doubt that a new organisation will be keen to take on the lease'.
