The Hub is home to the Edinburgh International Festival offices. Throughout the year, the building is used to host Art of Listening workshops for school children by our Learning and Engagement team, as well as being the location of our central Box Office. In August, the Main Hall is used as a performance space.
The venue is closed to the public for most of the year, however, the front terrace is open for visitors to enjoy refreshments while overlooking the Royal Mile.
In 2023, we reimagined The Hub as the green room of the Festival. Open daily throughout August, The Hub was a space to connect with artists and musicians in a series of evening music performances and free afternoon talks and workshops. We also invited you to respond to our provocation 'where do we go from here?' on a postcard, creating an installation in our main staircase.
Image gallery
A gallery carousel of 7 items
History
Built between 1842–1845 to house the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, The Hub was curiously never consecrated as a church, even though it looks like one. Despite this, the building was used by various congregations as a place of worship until 1979.
The building was then renovated as offices and a performance space for the Edinburgh International Festival and renamed 'The Hub' in 1999, when it was ceremonially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Artist Jill Watson decorated the main staircase with over 200 plaster figures on shelves, representing past International Festival performances of dance, music, theatre and opera. The top row shows the audience applauding the performers below.
Edinburgh is very compact, which makes it ideal to explore on foot or by bicycle. See below for information about getting to the venue.
Due to road closures around The Hub during evening performances, we are running a pre booked Access Shuttle bus for anybody who may face difficulties as a pedestrian, in navigating the hills and/or crowds. Find out more about the Access Shuttle
During August the streets around The Hub are closed to vehicles from 5pm. The closest drop off point is on Victoria Street. The journey to The Hub from Victoria Street to The Hub is 0.2 miles but is uphill all the way and involves some cobbled streets.
Due to these road closures around The Hub during evening performances, we are running a pre booked Access Shuttle bus for anybody who may face difficulties as a pedestrian, in navigating the hills and/or crowds. Find out more about the Access Shuttle
The area outside The Hub can be extremely busy with tourists and may take people with mobility access requirements longer to navigate.
There is no dropped curb near The Hub main entrance. The nearest level access route is to travel part way up Castlehill until the road and pavement become level with each other, and then head back down the pavement to The Hub.
The ramped entrance from the street into The Hub courtyard is quite steep. The least steep approach is from the Castlehill side, so you are travelling downhill before you meet the ramp.
There is level access from the courtyard to the Ground Floor and Box Office
Box Office has a lowered counter and seating available
Additional seating is also available in the Ground Floor hallways
Platform lift to / from Ground Floor to Sculpture Gallery:
Due to the constraints of the building, the turning circle for this lift is only 1400mm X 1050mm
The platform lift entrance has a width of 930mm and has a weight limit of 250kg
There is passenger lift access between Sculpture Gallery, First Floor, Main Hall Balcony. The passenger lift has a weight limit of 800kg.
The First Floor has level access between the lift and Main Hall, and there is a platform lift available to get up the two steps into the Dunard Library
Sensory Access
Hearing Loop available in the Box Office and Main Hall – set your hearing aid to the T setting. There is no Hearing Loop available in the Dunard Library
Most areas have low levels of lighting
The Box Office has a bit of an echo
Event Access
There are wheelchair spaces available in the Main Hall, please book via the Access Pass to reserve one of these spaces.
Main Hall Balcony does not have level access – there are 5 steps down to the balcony area
Where an event has BSL interpretation, there will be signs identifying the seats with the best sight lines
Where an event has captions, the captioning unit will be hung in the rear/centre of the stage area, with good sight lines from most seating areas
All events at The Hub this year are operating with a Relaxed approach, where people are welcome to leave and re-enter at any time throughout the event
Amenities Access
There are multiple accessible toilets, located across all levels
Assistance dogs are welcome and can be looked after by venue staff