Edinburgh Fashion Week
St Cecilia’s Hall
No Smoking
Marie Curie Daffodil Week
Historic Scotland
Edinburgh Fashion Week launches today.
Look out for the marquee at the foot of The Mound today.
Edinburgh Fashion Week puts the spotlight firmly on the city’s unique and diverse shopping offering. A week-long event that kicks off today and tomorrow, transforming the Mound into an exciting indoor fashion hub for the opening weekend.
Packed with free catwalk shows, pop-up shops and style tutorials, locals and visitors will get a first look at the spring/summer fashions from Edinburgh’s high-street, designer and independent retailers. All accompanied by DJ sets, and a selection of delicious food and drink.
***
Edinburgh World Heritage has awarded a grant of £100,000 towards the restoration of St Cecilia’s Hall, Scotland’s oldest purpose-designed concert hall.
The category A listed building dates to 1763 and was designed by architect Robert Mylne. When it was first opened the building made quite an impact on Edinburgh society, with one observer commenting, “I have seen no concert room equal to it either in London or Paris”.
Today the building is owned by the University of Edinburgh, and houses its world-class collection of historical musical instruments. However later additions to St Cecilia’s have left the original Georgian concert hall hidden from view at the heart of the building. The University’s vision is to restore and renovate the building and its facilities in order to preserve its collection and broaden its appeal to a wider public.
editededited.jpg?resize=193%2C193)
The new project looks to turn St Cecilia’s Hall into a new centre for excellence for the study, display and enjoyment of historical musical instruments, and to be a place where public exhibition, research, performance, teaching and learning intersect. Along with the new exhibition, improvements will also be carried out to oval concert room with tiered seating and staging platforms.
***
There is now just under a month to go until small shops will have to stop displaying tobacco products in Scotland.
From 6 April 2015, cigarettes, cigars and rolling tobacco will have to be covered up in all shops. This measure has been in place for large shops since 2013.
The Scottish Government introduced the legislation to reduce children and young people’s exposure to tobacco products.
All tobacco retailers in Scotland are registered with the government through the Scottish Tobacco Retailers Register. Retailers have been contacted to make them aware of the forthcoming display ban, and to let them know what is required.
Maureen Watt, Minister for Public Health, said: “This is one of numerous measures we have introduced to try and reduce the appeal of smoking to young people. We want to create a tobacco-free generation in Scotland by 2034 – defined as having less than five per cent of the population smoking. To achieve this we need to stop young people from taking up the habit in the first place.
“Brightly coloured and well lit displays of cigarettes, in prominent positions in the shop, are only likely to increase the appeal of this deadly product. We must remember that tobacco kills half of all the people who use it, and it’s linked to 13,000 deaths in Scotland every year.
“I’d like to thank tobacco retailers for their cooperation and understanding in making the necessary changes to comply with this new policy.
“The display ban, alongside other measures such as plain packaging, will play an important part in a culture change in our attitudes to smoking.”
***
MSPs including Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport Shona Robison celebrated Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal at the Scottish Parliament this week.
Over 25 MSPs joined host Linda Fabiani MSP for an evening reception in the Garden Lobby to hear about the work of Marie Curie in Scotland from Chief Executive Dr Jane Collins. Shona Robison MSP discussed her support for the charity’s annual Great Daffodil Appeal and in an emotional speech on the one year anniversary of her husband’s death; Lesley Borthwick from Edinburgh spoke passionately about the care her family received from Marie Curie.
Edinburgh West MSP Colin Keir said: “I’m delighted to support this Great Daffodil Appeal. The work that the Marie Curie organisation does is simply sensational. There are many local families who owe a lot to Marie Curie who have helped them and their loved ones through incredibly difficult times. I wish everyone involved in this campaign all the best.”
Earlier, over 60 volunteers from Marie Curie fundraising groups across Scotland attended a member’s debate supporting the Great Daffodil Appeal, the charity’s flagship fundraising campaign which encourages everyone to give a donation and wear a daffodil pin during March.
Richard Meade, Marie Curie Head of Policy and Public Affairs Scotland said: “We are thrilled to be able to celebrate our Great Daffodil Appeal with cross-party support at Holyrood. Last year thanks to the generosity of our supporters we provided care in Scotland for more than 7,400 people living with a terminal illness. We’re calling on everyone in Scotland to help us do more by donating and wearing a daffodil in March.”
To support the Great Daffodil Appeal tweet #daffodilappeal, call 0845 601 3107 (local rate) or visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/daffodil.
***
Some of Scotland’s most precious, interesting and unusual historical objects – and the stories behind them – can now be accessed at the click of a button.
Historic Scotland has launched an online gallery of 400 objects, organised so that visitors can easily search by theme, date, type or property where it is housed
More than 35,000 objects housed in over 160 properties in Scotland are in the safekeeping of Historic Scotland. This is the first time many of the objects can be viewed outside of their host properties. So the hidden gems contained in Innerpeffray Chapel near Auchterarder, Arbroath Abbey or Edinburgh Castle can be viewed from a computer or smart phone in Stornoway, Motherwell or Castle Douglas. The gallery is also an opportunity to view items from the Historic Scotland archive that are not currently on public display.
From the Honours of Scotland through to a model ship built by French prisoners at Edinburgh Castle in the late 1700s, to Neolithic paint pots from Orkney, the online gallery features some of Scotland’s most diverse and significant historical objects.
Richard Welander, Head of Collections at Historic Scotland said: “This gallery will bring Scotland’s history to people in their own homes.
“From the Stone of Destiny to cannonballs and medieval eel spears, Historic Scotland’s online object collection is full of fascinating items, some of which are thousands of years old.
“The objects we’ve chosen are a highly eclectic mix, from prehistoric bone necklaces to twentieth century cotton machinery, to give people an insight into the diversity of objects in our care.
“The gallery provides an opportunity for people to find out more about hidden gems at our sites in advance of visiting, as well as giving anyone with an interest in Scottish history the opportunity to explore this fascinating collection.”
Some of the highlights are:
- A nit comb from the 1400s that was given as a love token
- A fine Pictish carving of a stage on the reverse of a cross from Angus
- A medieval log boat found in the late 19th century in the upper reaches of the Forth near Stirling
- Islamic glass made in Syria in the late 12th century found at Caerlaverock Old Castle
- A sixteenth century water spout in the form of a court musician from Dunfermline Palace
- A rare portrait of the young James VI by Adrian Vanson
- An iron man trap from Deer Abbey (near Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire) used in the 18th C to catch poachers and trespassers on large estates
- A telescope that belonged to the first lighthouse keeper at Kinnaird Head
- A basket used by women to collect peats in the Western Isles
- A barrow for carrying coal to the furnaces at Biggar Gasworks
The object collection can be explored online at: http://collections.historic-scotland.gov.uk
Sign up here for a daily email from The Edinburgh Reporter !
[mc4wp_form]
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
