Candlemaker body makes meeting plea

A HISTORIC incorporation representing Edinburgh's candlemaking industry is to urge the new owner of its former home to allow members to still use it for their annual general meeting.

The Evening News revealed last week that two historic tenement buildings on Candlemaker Row that used to be the base for the Incorporation of Candlemakers have been put up for sale by the council.

Meeting rooms within the property are still inscribed with the names of previous deacons of the Incorporation of Candlemakers (IOC).

Now the IOC's current Deacon Peter Rae, who is attempting to revive it following 125 years of inactivity, said: "We are hoping that, whoever buys the property from the city, will allow us to use the panelled meeting room for one meeting a year."

The candlemakers were forced to move to the Bristo Port area in 1722 after a fire started in a candle workshop in Forresters Wynd, off the Cowgate, and the whole trade was banished from the area.