Dunard Centre earmarked for hidden site closed off for more than 250 years

It will end a cultural saga that has lasted for decades and restore public access to part of Edinburgh’s historic heart for the first time in more than 250 years.

Now work is finally set to get underway on what will be the first major new city centre concert venue for more than a century when it opens in 2029.

And its chief executive has revealed her initial vision for the £114m Dunard Centre and the events that will be staged after a four-year construction programme due to start in early 2025.

Jo Buckley, is chief executive of IMPACT Scotland, the charity overseeing the creation of the Dunard Centre concert hall in Edinburgh city centre. Picture: Sally Jubb

Jo Buckley vowed that the venue, which will become home to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and host to Edinburgh International Festival concerts every August, will open all year for both day-time and night events.

She promised it will embrace all forms of music – as well as comedy, poetry, literary and film events – and predicted it will have a “transformative” impact on the city, by attracting artists who currently bypass Edinburgh and building an audience for live music events.

Ms Buckley highlighted the “extraordinary” philanthropy behind the project, with an extra £30 million being raised from donors in the last year, bringing the overall fundraising tally to £103 million since the project was first announced in 2016 after a 25-year search for a suitable site.

The demolition of an 1960s-era office block has created a hidden gap site behind an 18th century bank building on St Andrew Square where the 1000-seater venue is expected to take shape from early next year.

The project is said to have reached a “pivotal point” after several years of delays due to a dispute with the developer of the neighbouring St James Quarter, rising costs in construction industry, and the breakdown of negotiations with a previous contractor, which all thwarted plans to open in 2025.

David Chipperfield Architects and Japanese firm Nagata Acoustics, which has worked on concert halls around the world, have spent years working on the Dunard Centre.

It is named after the Dunard Fund, an arts charity created by philanthropist Carol Colburn Grigor, which is providing much of the private funding for the venue, which is also backed by £25 million from the UK and Scottish Governments, and the city council.

In her first interview since taking up her role last September, Ms Buckley said: “We are basically ready for construction now. We’ve demolished a building and the site has been cleared.

"We are working through a new construction tender process with Balfour Beatty, who have just delivered the Edinburgh Futures Institute for Edinburgh University. We have a huge amount of confidence in them.

"We’re now at a pivotal moment where we will be go from something that has been talked about for a very long time to something that is actually going to happen.

"Understandably, the focus to date has been about what it’s going to look like and when it’s going to be built, but we want to articulate what we want to do with it and its transformative potential for the city.

“We have a tight site, which will be a challenge, but it’s also the right site, because of where it is in the city centre, with its train and tram connections."When the building is there, people will see that it is a final jigsaw piece in this area.

An artist's impression of the southern entrance to the planned Dunard Centre concert hall in Edinburgh's New Town

"Our site has been closed off to the public for around 250 years, but it’s going to become such a thoroughfare. We want to make the most of that so the venue feels like a bustling hub at the centre of the city."

Ms Buckley, previously chief executive of the Edinburgh-based classical ensemble Dunedin Consort, insisted there would be no limit to the range of music on offer at the Dunard Centre or the standard of performer it attracts.

She said: "What we see in Edinburgh across three weeks in August is amazing, but we don’t see it year-round.

“That’s partly because we don’t have state-of-the-art 21st century spaces, but also because we don’t have people curating a programme bringing world-leading artists to the city. We’re just not on the touring network for some artists at the moment.

"I’d like us to curate a programme that gives us our own brand and identity, so that we’re not duplicating what is happening elsewhere is balanced. We might have a world-leading artist one night and a local community choir the next night. Getting that balance right is really important.

“We’ll basically be about bringing more music to more people more often. Our research has found that 50 per cent people wished they were going to see live music more often and 20 per cent of people felt that they’d lost the habit. We know there’s an appetite there. We want to reinvigorate those people.”

The Dunard Centre will be Edinburgh's first new purpose-built concert hall for a century.

Ms Buckley said it was key to her vision is that the Dunard Centre is open every day, and welcoming to passers-by as well as concert-goers.

She added: "My mission is to create a building that is always busy, which always has something going on and is humming with life.

"I don’t think there’s really anything like that in Scotland at the moment. In terms of vibe, I think of the South Bank Centre in London, but on a smaller scale.

"We want to surprise people with our programme, and encourage them to be imaginative and try out new things. I think we also need to experiment a bit with concert formats. Not everyone can make a concert at 7.30pm.

"It’s going to be a very intimate space – I think we need to trade on that intimacy by using it for spoken word, comedy, podcast events and solo recitals. If you can imagine it, we can have it here."

Ms Buckley confirmed talks with the public funders of the project, priced at £75 million when planning permission was secured in 2021, were still ongoing after they were asked to increase their backing when the cost rose to £114m last year.

She added: “It may be that there is no more public funding available for the project. If that is the case then we will have to work harder elsewhere.

"To say we’re turning over every stone would not be an exaggeration.

"We've set ourselves a target of meeting 90 per cent of the cost before we enter a contract in the understanding that we would raise the remainder over the following four years.

"Until we get through the tender process we won’t know exactly what that funding gap is, but to be within spitting distance at the moment gives us real confidence.

"People want to back a winner when they can see something is really happening.”

Exclusive:When Edinburgh's new concert hall will open and why the £114m New Town venue will be 'transformational'

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