DanceBase

Urban Cultural Regeneration

A Moment for Innovation

When first introduced the Arts Lottery Award provided a window for local groups to make proposals, with the consequent chance of ground-up innovation in arts provision. 

Malcolm Fraser Architects worked with a small, well-regarded dance provider to: write a brief, that became the model for regional dance centres in Scotland and England; search for and secure a site (unused upper floors on the Grassmarket plus the abandoned remnants of the buildings and closes behind, that used to teem with life); and then advocate for the social art of dance to be funded and supported, with MFA retained to deliver the plans they had evolved.

The Deal

Securing a site is necessary before funding can be sought (a process taking years); but most sites can’t be secured without funding. This paradox was avoided, as the site was landlocked and its brewery owners could only develop it by fire escape out the rear, across land owned by the City of Edinburgh Council – Dance Base supporters.

Funding and development therefore locked together: with the site being paid for by constructing a bar extension under DanceBase, into the Castle Rock; the Council site providing space for an additional Studio when the brief expanded; and the escape route out, the chance to introduce a new Close and city park on the old, inaccessible drying green (renamed by the locals “Granny’s Green”), with the historic c16th city Flodden Wall, lying collapsed, rebuilt to its edge.

Civilising Regeneration

Conventional regeneration models rely heavily on tourists, hotels, cafes and stag-nighters, with Edinburgh’s Grassmarket suffering particularly from the melee. DanceBase introduced a calming, civilising and elevating artistic focus with local use and health at its core – the city for its citizens as well as its visitors.