The Forest, also referred to as Forest Café,[1][2] was an independent social centre and arts centre located on Bristo Place, central Edinburgh, Scotland.[3][4] It was notable for being run by volunteers as a charitable self-sustaining not-for-profit. Formerly the Edinburgh Congressional Church, the building was purchased by the Edinburgh University Settlement[1] and housed the café, an arts gallery, performance space, rehearsal/music studio, and darkroom.
Free events were held regularly, including workshops, music, film, poetry, theatre and readings. During each summer the venue ran the August Forest Fringe, a theatre and alternative arts programme as an alternative complement to the mainstream Edinburgh Festival.[3] The building is adjacent to the student-run Edinburgh University Bedlam Theatre, also a converted church.
The Edinburgh University Settlement - the charity that owns the Forest building - went bankrupt in October 2010, and it was announced that the premises were to be sold.[5] The Forest launched a campaign to raise £500,000 to try to buy the building, or buy or rent another property elsewhere in Edinburgh.[6][7] As of October 2011 the organisation is without premises.
The old Forest building was squatted on the 30th of November 2011 by a group of protesters not linked to the Forest. The activists have stated that they will re-open the building to the public.[8] The protesters have since been evicted and all doors and windows of the Forest Café have been boarded up to prevent further squatting and vandalism.
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The building at 3 Bristo Place was constructed during 1899–1900 to a design by Sydney Mitchell and Wilson for the Evangelical Union[9] on the site of a former Baptist Chapel.[10] The category-B listed building has 659 square metres (7,090 sq ft) of floor space and was previously owned by the National Museums of Scotland, who sold the building for £600,000 during 2003.[11][12] The plaque over the door reflects its subsequent use as a Seventh-day Adventist Church, who had purchased the building in 1942[10][13] and used it until 2000.[1]
The Forest organisation itself started in August 2000[14] with a venue in West Port, off the Grassmarket in Edinburgh's Old Town.[1] Relocation to the Bristo Place premises started in September 2003 and the Forest Café opened there in October 2003.
In 2004, the Forest Café became one of only four internet cafés in the United Kingdom to have won a highly recommended citation in the Yahoo! Mail Internet Café Awards.[14] The café serves vegetarian cuisine, locally produced organic food,[3] vegan food and Fairtrade drinks.[15] Free Wi-Fi and public computer terminals are provided.
The upper floors of the building are the former church, the centre piece of which is an Gray & Davison-built pipe organ. This is powered by compressed air and has 16-foot (4.9 m) high pipes. It was originally installed at the Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle in the late nineteen century and transferred to its present location in 1900.[2] The organ fell into disrepair[1] until mid-June 2007 when the Debian annual conference—DebConf7—was held in Edinburgh. During the week-long event, sufficient repairs were made by Tore Sinding Bekkedal and others to enable the organ to function again[16][17] at which point it was played by Keith Packard.[18]
In 2008–2009, Project Waldflöte (English: "Forest Flute") was initiated, a musical experiment to control sections of the mechanical musical keyboard via an electronic MIDI interface from a computer. Waldflöte is the designation of one of the organ stops available and was chosen because of the connection of the word "forest". The argumentation of the keyboards was undertaken by Dorkbot Alba without any long-term modification of the original organ.[2]