Edinburgh residents asked for memories of old Royal Infirmary

Edinburgh residents and those with a connection to the city are being invited to share stories and memories of the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as part of a writing project at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Part of the old hospital site in Lauriston Place has now been redeveloped as Edinburgh University’s Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI), which is now to be the new home of the Book Festival.

The former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary main building - now Edinburgh University's Edinburgh Futures Institute - is to be the new home of the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

To celebrate the move, the festival’s Words from the Wards project plans to gather stories from local people and others further afield, as well as contributions from leading Edinburgh writers and artists, including Dr Gavin Francis, Michael Pederson, Hannah Lavery, Sara Sheridan, Lisa Williams and Kirstin Innes.

Submitted stories from the public will be published at the Book Festival’s ‘On the Road’ blog, creating a time capsule of memories about the old infirmary through the eyes of those who worked and visited there throughout the years.

A selection of the submitted stories will be read by their authors, alongside the professional writers, at special events on-site at EFI on one of the former hospital wards during the Festival.

During the Book Festival there will also be a tie-in with EFI’s culture and community team’s ongoing Recycling a Hospital project, which will see a new object created from materials preserved from the building’s original interiors, such as floorboards and slates, and poetry written by community members, installed within the space.

The object, called 'The Spirit Case', will become a hub for gathering further stories, with Book Festival visitors invited to engage with the existing stories and contribute their own reflections and memories of the building.

Noëlle Cobden, the Book Festival’s communities programme director, said: "We're incredibly excited that the Book Festival's new home is the Edinburgh Futures Institute - not just because of the visionary ideas and projects at its heart, but because of its building's rich and meaningful history.

“The old Royal Infirmary is where many people took their first breaths, and its walls have witnessed uncountable moments of hope, fear, joy, and grief. We want to capture and honour the experiences, relationships and memories that people connect with the building's previous life, as the Book Festival becomes part of its future.

“We hope that as many people as possible will share their stories with us, as our fantastic associated writers will also do, and can't wait to discover the hidden, personal histories which make this place so special."

And writer Kirstin Innes said: “Like many, many people born in Edinburgh, I began in this building. Of course, I don’t remember that but I do remember being 19 and going back there, visiting my grandfather in the early stages of dementia, after he’d had a stroke.

“Thinking about this commission has already started conjuring scents and sounds - hospital bleach, my footsteps on the stone staircase, the scrape of a chair on aged linoleum. This place means so much to so many of us - it’s an honour to be asked to write something about it.”

This year’s Book Festival runs August 10-25.