Hub

Hub review

The Grade A-listed Tolbooth St John's Kirk started life as the Victoria Hall for the Established Church General Assembly in 1844, following the religious 'Disruption' of the previous year. After it was bought by the Edinburgh International Festival in the late 1990s, it was renamed the Hub and extensively refurbished; a fantastic mix of Victorian Gothic and contemporary style, it's a prime example of how architectural approaches of different eras can be sympathetically blended.

The bold colour scheme of the Assembly Hall upstairs, said to adhere to architect Augustus Pugin's original palette, is particularly noteworthy. The rich red stairwell is decorated with some 200 plaster statues by Jill Watson, representing people who have performed in the EIF over the years. It's open to the public as an information point, a ticket office and a café; if the weather's good, action spills out on to a terrace.