Nourishing Leith Hub
A New Multi-Purpose Community Hub for Leith
Our Vision
We are re-purposing the dilapidated former tennis pavilion into a home for Earth in Common and as a space for training and events. The transformed building will be a dynamic place for community engagement and a special place promoting healthy, inclusive and environmentally sustainable food production and consumption in Leith.
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become a beacon and landmark at the heart of the community;
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create a resilient community by bringing together residents of Leith from a variety of backgrounds and break down barriers;
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increase the skills base amongst people involved by providing
access to/knowledge of, environmental issues, healthy food,
food growing and composting;
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enable people to grow their own food and eat more local
food, thereby reducing food associated carbon footprints;
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increase biodiversity and habitats for pollinating insects;
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maintain rare and heritage seed varieties; and
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address childhood mental and physical health problems e.g.
nature deficit disorder.
By delivering our vision for the Nourishing Leith Hub, which will house our Café and Farm Shop, we hope to achieve the following objectives:
2022: Renovation Beings
Our dream was realised in early 2021 upon receiving funding from the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) (delivered annually in partnership between the Scottish Government and COSLA).
The awarded funding will now realise the full vision of the repair, the space will provide a community café, two meeting rooms for community members, a workshop space, an office and an outbuilding.
This building will be an essential point to nurture encounters, mutual support and learning across the diverse community of Leith. This will increase the communities’ resilience and help continue the organisations work to foster well-being, nature connection and biodiversity.
Excitingly, renovation began in early 2022 and the project is aimed to be complete by Winter 2022.
Evie Murray, CEO of Earth in Common:
“When one puts it in a few words – money to refurbish and extend a crumbling old tennis pavilion and install a few ancillary structures – it doesn’t seem big news. However, this is of huge significance, for the people of Leith, for Edinburgh and for Scotland as a whole.It represents backing at the highest level – The City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government – for the completion of a vision which we have been developing for years: for the first of many “urban crofts” throughout Scotland, and possibly even beyond.
The Regeneration Capital Grant Fund, delivered in partnership with COSLA and local government, supports locally developed place-based regeneration projects that involve local communities, helping to tackle inequalities and deliver inclusive growth in deprived, disadvantaged and fragile remote communities across Scotland.
