The Story so far of Leith St. Andrew's
From A Collective...
At the beginning of this 2024, the Church of Scotland announced their intention to sell off this historic building located in the heart of Leith. Almost immediately, a collective of not-for-profit organisations gathered together. Their goal? To start the journey towards bidding to convert the church into a community well-being centre.
March 2024
Access Parkour, Think Circus, Capital Concert Band and others, including groups that are already using the building, started working to purchase the church for the benefit of the local community. The vision is to convert it into a new activity centre, focusing on physical and mental wellbeing. For all.
Access Parkour is a community led business that has been based at Room to Move, a gym in Leith since 2016. Providing parkour, movement and circus activities for children and adults in an inclusive and non-competitive setting.
Think Circus is a circus charity that has been taking circus beyond the big top since 2017. They have delivered community circus through Cloud 9, their pop-up circus space at Ocean Terminal, and at community hubs in the heart of Leith since 2021.
...to a Registered Charity
Our collective pooled together resources to fill out the lengthy OSCR application to set up a charity, Leith St Andrew’s Trust. The aim? To buy the building and run it for the benefit of the local community as an activity centre and events space. We have earned the trust and support of the current congregation. We want to keep Leith St Andrew’s church in community hands as an activity centre and events space.
In June, our application was approved, and we are officially listed with OSCR!
Building a Community. Together.
We can’t do this without you. Leith St Andrew’s Trust is dedicated to saving a cherished historic landmark—the church in the heart of Leith, while giving the building new life in the shape of a community wellbeing & activity & performance centre.
Thanks to the generous support of the current church congregation, we’ve been granted “preferred bidder” status. This crucial step keeps the church off the open market, allowing us to focus on our preservation goals. We are excited to share that we have also secured our first round of funding! This will let us to start the essential architectural assessments as part of our feasibility study.
Our Vision
Our vision extends beyond preserving a building; we’re reimagining it as a dynamic community wellbeing, activity, and performance space. This transformation will create a vibrant hub where local residents can come together, engage in diverse activities, and celebrate our cultural heritage.
Your support is vital. Whether you volunteer your time, donate, or simply help spread the word, your involvement will help us create a space that serves and uplifts the entire community.
Let’s safeguard our heritage and build a future where the historic church continues to be a vibrant and inclusive community hub. We need your support to make this vision a reality.
You have the Q's, we have the A's
No, not at all. The building has a history as a church and we want to respect that heritage, but the new centre would have no religious affiliation and would be open to all.
The congregation will move out when the building is sold and merge with two other churches – Restalrig St Margaret’s and Pilrig St Paul’s, but we hope that as many community groups as possible using the building right now will be part of its future.
Leith St Andrew’s Trust was founded by a mix of different local groups and individuals, but some of the things we want to offer include (take your pick):
- Space hire/use for community groups and organisations
- Physical movement classes (including dance, yoga, pilates, 1:1 personal training)
- Community circus classes and workshops
- Performance and rehearsal venue (music, live art etc)
- Parkour classes and training space
- Community wellbeing services (parent and family services, counselling, addiction groups)
- Regular foodbank
- A playgroup
Capital Concert Band is an amateur wind band of over 50 members celebrating our 20th anniversary this year. We rehearse Thursday evenings at Leith St. Andrew’s Church and perform throughout the region, usually comprising 5-7 concerts per year. We are a sociable and welcoming group who enjoy making music together.
We’re going to apply to the Scottish Land Fund and the National Lottery Heritage Fund to cover most of the purchase and refit costs, but we may still need to crowdfund to cover some costs – around 5% of the total. We’ve already applied for funding to help us with this stage of the process – the feasibility stage – which we need to complete before we can apply for the big funds.
Parkour is a non-competitive movement discipline where its participants jump, vault and balance their way through the world. While it sometimes has a reputation for daredevil stunts, in Edinburgh it has become a staple part of after school activities, with the classes focusing on play, coordination and teaching children to play together. Access Parkour are the leading providers of parkour to school age children in the UK and have been based in Leith for eight years. They are now looking to move on from a rented industrial space and secure a long-term home and Leith St. Andrew’s has the potential to become an incredibly exciting new location for them.
Think Circus goes beyond traditional performance and uses the art of social circus to uplift and build communities. Social Circus is an established model used all over the world. In practice it means friendly, community-based classes teaching easy, accessible skills like juggling, hula hoop, balancing and spinning, for all ages. Social circus has been proven to have positive effects on confidence, overcoming fear of failure and life skills such as working in a team.