Tenants of a nine-storey Edinburgh building that houses roughly 150 artists, businesses and charities have been told they must vacate by 24 January, according to the BBC. The notice, issued on 28 September, follows the sale of St Margaret's House in the east of the city. Among those affected is one of Scotland's largest reptile and exotic animal rescues, which has operated from the building since early 2024.
Why it matters
St Margaret's House is a 1970s former government office block that the charity Scot-ART took over in 2008. Scot-ART rents the entire building and sublets space to artists, craftmakers and community organisations. Some tenants have worked there for 18 years, the BBC reports.
The closure puts a large concentration of small creative and community operations on the same four-month clock. For tenants, the practical problem is finding affordable replacement space in a city where they had already settled. For the wider arts sector in Scotland, it removes a low-cost base that had supported grassroots work for close to two decades.
A reptile rescue with two large studios
AJ River runs RiverRescue from two large studios in the building. He told the BBC his interest in reptiles and exotic creatures dates back to his childhood in the Netherlands. He came to the UK at 11 and, after a period singing in a boyband, found himself without a home. Once he was back on his feet, he started caring for animals that friends and acquaintances could no longer keep.
That side project turned into a larger commitment, and he came to see that Scotland needed someone to take in reptiles. His centre now houses more than 100 snakes, lizards and tortoises, which makes any move a complicated logistical exercise.
River described St Margaret's House as an excellent base and said the sale has been hard on everyone there. Tenants are looking out for one another, he said, but the situation has placed real strain on them all.
Sewing classes and a culture of mending
Jen Skedd has run sewing classes from the building for nearly nine years through her business, Artisan Stitch, and has won a number of awards in that time. She told the BBC she recognised early that learning to sew takes a long time and that a single class would not be enough, so she offered her students continuing support from the start.
Skedd cannot say precisely when she learned the craft, but she remembers holding a needle before she started school. As a child she would sit beneath the table while her great-granny worked clothes on a treadle machine. She said the habit of making do from that era stayed with her.
She sees her teaching as a valuable service, noting that sewing has not been taught in schools for decades. She argued that people should buy less, wear clothes for longer and repair them instead of discarding them. Skedd said she is finding it difficult to come to terms with the closure.
What the owners and Scot-ART say
Caledonian Trust, which owns the building, told the BBC it had made clear that St Margaret's House had been on the market for some time. The company said it is in talks with a preferred buyer but that the process is not complete, so further detail would not be appropriate.
The owners said Scot-ART had leased the building for many years on favourable terms and that they had taken pride in backing independent artists and freelancers. They added that the property no longer meets the standards required for its long-term future.
Scot-ART said it was very proud of what it had built over 20 years by supporting a wide range of grassroots and creative arts organisations. The charity said it was working behind the scenes on a more durable, long-term future.
What to watch
The 24 January deadline is now the focus for tenants, and the identity and intentions of the preferred buyer have not been disclosed. Whether the sale completes on schedule, and whether replacement space emerges for the artists, charities and animal rescue now facing a move, will determine how much of the building's community survives the transition.
