Venue information

Address for The Hub

Castlehill
Edinburgh
EH1 2NE

Contact information for The Hub

About The Hub

Welcome to our home, The Hub.

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.

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.