Fringe venue to rise from the ashes at Gilded Balloon site

A MAJOR Fringe venue is to be created on the site of the Old Town fire, it was revealed today.

Arts impresario Hartley Kemp has struck a deal to hire out the Cowgate gap site for his C Venues company during August.

It will see a tented village spring up where the celebrated Gilded Balloon comedy club once stood, with musical theatre, drama and visual art all expected to take place.

Temporary cafes and bars are also planned under the deal with developer Whiteburn, which is masterminding the multi-million pound "SoCo" development on the site.

Mr Kemp said today: "We're excited to have this opportunity to realise a truly comprehensive theatre complex in the centre of Edinburgh.

"Each year we welcome companies from across the world. SoCo, together with our four established venues, will be a fitting home for their work at the Fringe this year."

Whiteburn unveiled initial plans last year for its development on the fire site after reaching agreement with the owners of various properties destroyed in the fire in December, 2002.

A 140-room luxury hotel, a new cultural centre, shops, bars and restaurants are all envisaged as part of the £40 million scheme, which will see new pedestrian routes created to link Chambers Street and South Bridge to the Cowgate.

The tie-up with C Venues may continue for another two years, depending on the progress of Whiteburn's plans for the site.

The firm has yet to submit any planning applications for SoCo and it could take more than a year for the council to approve any scheme.

Whiteburn's chief executive John Shepherd said "We're very excited at the prospect of the SoCo site becoming home to one of the top Edinburgh Festival Fringe venues this summer.

"The Cowgate has obviously had a long association with the Fringe - it'll be good to see some activity on the site while we're working up our longer term development plans."

Empty offices at the back of the fire site will also be deployed by C Venues for this year's Fringe, linking the site to the venue the company already runs at Adam House on Chambers Street.

Its 16-year track record on the Fringe includes running venues in the former Odeon cinema on South Clerk Street, and the Carlton Hotel on North Bridge.

A spokesman for C Venues added: "C SoCo will feature indoor and outdoor performance spaces, site-specific theatre, exhibitions and art installations, cafes and bars.

"The presence of the C and C SoCo adjoining each other on Chambers Street will place the SoCo site firmly on the map as the centre of the Edinburgh's cultural quarter."

The site has lain derelict for more than three years after the fire, which ripped through a huge chunk of the Old Town destroying several buildings and costing millions of pounds of damage.

More than 150 fire engines from across central Scotland helped tackle the flames for a period of 52 hours, until the fire was extinguished shortly before midnight on December 7, 2002. The blaze was blamed on a faulty fuse box.