As the conservation work to North Bridge approaches an important milestone, Adam Wilkinson, Director of Edinburgh World Heritage will give a new lecture on the background and significance of the original North Bridge, the development of the first New Town, and share some recent exciting archaeological discoveries.

This lecture is scheduled for Thursday 5 September 2019. Booking details to follow in due course.

Following on from her successful ‘Strike for Freedom’ exhibition on the anti-slavery author and freedom fighter Frederick Douglass at the National Library of Scotland, Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier will share her fascinating research on the history of nineteenth-century African American authors and activists in Edinburgh. Until now the stories and activities of this grass-roots movement have received little attention, and this unique lecture will provide a fresh insight into this untold aspect of our city’s revolutionary and radical history.

Professor Bernier is Personal Chair in English Literature and Professor of Black Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

6pm, Tuesday 29 October 2019. Tickets will be on sale at the end of September.

This autumn, Edinburgh World Heritage will celebrate the completion of its 1,500th project in the city, as well as 20 years as an independent charity.

To mark the occasion, we are holding a fundraising gala dinner on Saturday 23rd November 2019, an opportunity to thank our friends and supporters for their commitment over the years, and, importantly, to raise funds for the next stage of our journey.

In the historic setting of Old College, the evening will start with a drink’s reception in the Raeburn Room with live musical entertainment. We will then move upstairs to the Playfair Library for dinner, after-dinner speech by a special guest, and fundraising auction with a host of high-value items.

Our 2019 dinner would be the perfect opportunity to entertain family, friends or colleagues, whilst showing support for the city and Edinburgh World Heritage.

We hope you will be able to join us.

Tables and individual tickets are on early-bird offer at the moment (£130 for a single ticket, £1,200 for a table of 10), so booking ahead secures the best value. You may also be interested in sponsoring the event or have a high-value experience or product which you could donate to our fundraising auction. More details on ways to support are in our Gala Dinner Brochure.

Contact Rosa, our Membership Officer, on members@ewht.org.uk to secure your place or to discuss donations or sponsorship.

We firmly believe that ‘fact is stranger than fiction’, and that the darker side of Edinburgh’s history needs to be revealed to a wider audience. In this new tour, we will take our guests through some of most important graveyard and closes of the Old Town to reveal some of the harsh realities of life and death in Old Edinburgh.

6pm, Thursday 14 November 2019 (TBC). Booking details will be available a month in advance.

Every year we host our Christmas Party in a historic and unusual location which is either a past or present conservation project. Previous venues have included St. Cecilia’s Hall, 25 Learmonth Terrace and the Tron. This year will be no exception, and you can expect to be taken behind the scenes at an important Edinburgh landmark for a warm and fun seasonal celebration.

6pm, Tuesday 10 December 2019 (TBC). Booking details will be available a month in advance.

A  look at Edinburgh World Heritage’s events from the past year

The city’s monuments and public works of art mark Edinburgh out as a great capital city and are one of the reasons for our UNESCO World Heritage inscription. To celebrate the publication of Professor Ray McKenzie’s new book ‘Public Sculpture of Edinburgh’, on 12 June 2019 we led groups around a specially curated tour of our city’s most important sculptures.

Scotland’s pre-eminent historian, Professor Sir Tom Devine, delivered the 2019 World Heritage Day lecture. Sir Tom explored the extraordinary success of late Victorian Edinburgh – as banking house to the British Empire, as patron of the arts and architecture, and as a city of considerable luxury and opulence.

The video of his talk can be viewed here:

On Friday 15 March, Edinburgh World Heritage hosted a special half-day maintenance CPD event to explore the issues and solutions presented by the needs for regular maintenance of our historic building stock in the face of a changing climate.

In this sell-out members-only lecture on 28 February 2019, architect and former Director of Development at Panmure House, Chris Watkins, told the story of the building from the time of the Scottish Enlightenment to the present day.

Panmure House was the final residence of Adam Smith, who lived there from 1778 to 1790. This important 17th century Canongate house has recently been the subject of major conservation, adaptation and restoration work, partly funded by Edinburgh World Heritage, and has recently opened as a centre of learning for the Edinburgh Business School.