Forest Café
in Edinburgh, United KingdomCategory: Attraction
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3 Bristo Place, Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh EH1, UK Print route »
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The Forest, also referred to as Forest Café, is an independent social centre and arts centre, located on Lauriston Place, central Edinburgh, Scotland. It is notable for being run by volunteers as a charitable self-sustaining not-for-profit. Forest cafe was previously housed in the former Edinburgh Seventh Day Adventist Church, a building owned by the Edinburgh University Settlement until August 2011, and housed the café, an arts gallery, performance space, rehearsal/music studio, and darkroom.Free events were held regularly, including workshops, music, film, poetry, theatre and readings.
During each summer the venue ran the August Forest Fringe, a theatre and alternative arts programme as an alternative complement to the mainstream Edinburgh Festival.
The Edinburgh University Settlement - the charity that owned the Bristo Place building - went bankrupt in October 2010, and it was announced that the premises were to be sold. The Forest launched a campaign to raise £500,000 to try to buy the building, or buy or rent another property elsewhere in Edinburgh.
The old Forest building was squatted on the 30 November 2011 by a group of protesters not linked to the Forest. The activists stated that they wished to re-open the building to the public. Subsequently the protesters were evicted and all accessible doors and windows of the building boarded up to prevent further squatting and vandalism.
In August 2012 the Forest reopened in Lauriston Place, Tollcross, where it continues its activity as a volunteer run vegetarian cafe with regular free events and workshops, assuming a pivotal role in the revival of the independent community development in central Edinburgh.
