Edinburgh Festival Fringe: £1m house to be venue

IT IS the £1 million pound townhouse in the heart of Scotland’s capital that was at the centre of a six-year legal wrangle with the city council.

Now the lavish Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh’s New Town is set to become a major new venue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – with the backing of a leading gin company.

Pop-up venue the Carnival of Knowledge, which will have its own “Hendrick’s” cocktail bar, will be operating from One Royal Circus throughout August, following a run in Brighton last month. The venue has lined up a string of big-name guests, including authors Janice Galloway and Maggie O’Farrell, stand-up comedian Viv Groskop, artist Alasdair Gray, erotic writer Rowan Pelling and psychologist Richard Wiseman. Council officials claimed it was being used as an illegal entertaining venue after discovering that Harry Potter author JK Rowling, TV presenters Melvyn Bragg and Kirsty Wark, and politician Tessa Jowell had all 
attended lavish parties there.

However, owners Mike and Susan Gordon claimed victory in their long-running battle with the council four years ago, after the council conceded it was only actually being run as an upmarket guest house.