Assembly Hall (Edinburgh)

• Theatre ID
  2762
• Built / Converted
  1948
• Dates of use
  • : A ‘found space’ - never formally converted to theatre use
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  Other use (Church of Scotland, conference and events, and Edinburgh Festival venue)
• Address
  Mound Place, Edinburgh, Lothian, EH1 2LU, Scotland
• Websites
  • Church of Scotland website
  • Fringe Festival website

Details

A landmark building in the City, part of the collegiate buildings built for the newly established Free Church of Scotland. The collegiate buildings form a quadrangle between Mound Place and Castlehill, the Assembly Hall facing South onto Castlehill. Although not built as a theatre or regularly used as such apart from Festival time, this building is seminal to the development of the thrust stage for it was here in 1948 that Tyrone Guthrie found the physical actor-audience relationship which he later built upon in Canada. In England the Sheffield Crucible (q.v.) is the nearest to Guthrie’s concept. It also proved to be the inspiration for Bill Howell’s Young Vic (q.v.).

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• Events
  • Use: A ‘found space’ - never formally converted to theatre use
  • 1850 Design/Construction: as Assembly Hall within theological college for the new Free Church.
    • William H Playfair - Architect
  • 1885 Alteration: Elevation extended to the East.
    • John Dick Peddie - Architect
  • 1903 Alteration: Raised to two storeys - floor lowered to increase siz of Hall.
    • John Dick Peddie - Architect
  • 1948 Alteration: Temporary adaptation for Guthrie's production of The Three Estates.
  • 1999 Alteration: Adapted for use as temporary home of the Scottish Parliament
    • Simpson & Brown Architects - Architect
• Listings
  • Grade A