For years the impressive Edwardian bandstand from Saughton Park and Gardens has been dismantled and gathering dust in storage. The Friends of Saughton Park want to blow off the cobwebs and restore the bandstand to its former glory.
Our bandstand is rather special. Originally cast by the Lion Foundry of Kilwinning, this No. 23 model is one of only five left in the world. When restored to its pride of place in our park, it will be the only cast iron bandstand in Edinburgh.
Restoring and reinstating the bandstand isn’t just about celebrating Edwardian engineering and our park’s heritage, the bandstand will become a cultural beacon of music and performing arts in the park. A new spectator space around the bandstand will provide seating capacity for 150. We will present an exciting, inclusive and vibrant bandstand programme with opportunities for youth, community and voluntary groups to perform, as well as professional bands and theatre companies.
Locally, the bandstand and its concerts are firmly embedded in the hearts and minds of generations of Saughton Park users – bringing it back to life would be hugely popular and we would love to welcome donors to our inaugural concert.
The bandstand restoration is part of a wider programme to restore and revitalise Saughton Park and Gardens. We are working with the City of Edinburgh Council and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society to prepare the second stage application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. The funds raised for the bandstand project will also help the Friends of Saughton Park to make a significant contribute towards the match funding requirements for this grant application, so unlocking the £5.4 million needed to restore and protect one of the Edinburgh’s hidden gems.
If you would like to make a donation that is not a listed Gift Level please contact us and we can discuss your proposed donation.
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Updates
The Garden Party and launch of MyParkScotland Saturday 23 May was well attended and the weather was superb! Over 150 people were there and we had some great Scottish traditional music, storytelling and a wonderful pop up café run by the Friends of Saughton Park who did a roaring trade in cream teas. Lots of project information booklets were given out and a lot of folk also had a good look at the park master plan.
Deryck Irving from Greenspace Scotland arrived on his bike for the launch of MyParkScotland and a photo call as he was visiting 42 parks in Edinburgh in one day.
Updated on: 1st June 2015
MyParkScotland provides a safe and easy way to make a donation to support this great project.
To make a donation, click on ‘Support Now’ and select your choice of Gift Level. If you are a UK tax payer, selecting a Level which includes Gift Aid means that we can top up your donation at no extra cost to you. Adding Gift Aid typically means that your online donation of, for example, £10 becomes a park investment of £11.53 (after paying platform and management fees). You need to provide your address to enable us to claim Gift Aid.
Gift Aid is a Government scheme which allows charities to increase the value of donations made to them. Gift Aid makes a huge difference to small charities and local organisations, but if they aren’t registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and HMRC, they can’t claim Gift Aid (and many that could claim Gift Aid don’t because they find the process too complicated). At MyParkScotland, we take care of the claim process on eligible donations, so that the Friends and community groups can concentrate on the great work they do in our parks.
We use PayPal to manage online donations and they charge a small platform fee for handling donations. We work hard to keep our fees as low as possible to make sure that as much of each donation as possible is invested in our parks. For donations without Gift Aid, at least 92% of your donation is invested in parks. MyParkScotland is a not-for-profit registered Scottish charity (No. SC045424) and any fees taken go towards covering essential operating costs.
You can find out more information about Gift Aid and MyParkScotland fees in the main Small Print section.
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