City of Edinburgh Council confirm £5m investment for Leith Theatre
We’ve always heard good things come to those who wait 💙
Photograph by Craig McIntosh
Leith Theatre secures multi-million-pound investment to reopen as a year-round civic music and community space
Today, we are proud to tell you about our backing from the city’s new Transient Visitor Levy.
Almost 100 years ago, the City of Edinburgh Council gifted Leith Town Hall to the people of Leith. Today, they are renewing that commitment and investing in its restoration so it can once again serve the city and its communities for generations to come.
It has been announced that Leith Theatre has secured £5m through Edinburgh’s newly introduced Visitor Levy. These funds are crucial to unlocking the next stage of restoring this beautiful heritage building and enabling it to open as a permanent, year-round cultural venue serving both Leith and the wider city.
The Visitor Levy is designed to reinvest income from tourism back into Edinburgh’s infrastructure and cultural life. As a year-round venue welcoming both residents and visitors, Leith Theatre will strengthen the city’s cultural offer beyond the city centre, supporting local businesses in Leith and contributing to Edinburgh’s wider economy.
For the Trust, this grant funding now turns a long-held ambition into an achievable reality.
“This was a place where people who didn't normally go to the Festival often did go to the Festival.”
- A Memory Project participant on his time working at Leith Theatre in August during the 1960s
That sense of accessibility and opportunity really matters. It’s about being able to head to your local venue, just around the corner or a short commute away, and step into a space where you feel confident, excited and like you belong.
Leith Theatre, 2019. Photograph by Gaelle Beri
Over the past decade, we’ve operated as a pop-up venue, bringing live music, theatre, comedy and film back into the building. We have showcased the space, brought people inside, tested ideas, built partnerships and demonstrated the demand and passion for a mid-size cultural venue in Leith.
We’ve built the right team, assessed the building’s health, welcomed many new friends and strengthened support across the city.
Finally in 2025 we secured a 50-year lease on the building and were announced as a National Lottery Heritage Fund project, aptly naming our journey as Back to Life; the theatre that isn’t just a theatre.
The City of Edinburgh Council’s Visitor Levy investment is a significant vote of confidence. It allows us to move from potential to delivery and to bring the venue back into full-time use for Leith, Edinburgh residents and visitors alike.
Once running as a full-time venue, Leith Theatre will operate seven days a week, welcoming up to 200,000 projected visits annually for live music, film, community activity, youth programmes, classes, heritage events and everyday social connection. This activity will increase footfall in Leith, support hospitality and retail businesses and strengthen the city’s year-round cultural economy.
The wait is over. Leith Theatre is coming back - as a permanent, independent community anchor for Leith and the city.
The 1,500 capacity Main Auditorium will host regular gigs, touring artists and festivals, alongside a year-round programme of smaller performances and community activity. A venue with the energy and atmosphere of Scotland’s great live music spaces, but with Leith at its heart. Our ambition is for this to be a place where a child might attend first on a school trip, return as a teenager for their first gig, get involved with youth activity, and perhaps later perform on stage themselves... and yes, we hope this becomes your new favourite venue!
“It's like when you're a wee kid and you wake up on Christmas morning, it's that kind of excitement, and you can hardly believe you're there watching the band that last month you seen on TV on Top of the Pops, or the band that you've been struggling to play on guitar for the last few weeks. It was just absolutely fantastic.”
- A Memory Project participant on attending concerts at Leith Theatre in the 1970s
These memories are already part of this building, and we look forward to creating many more.
Leith Theatre, 2022. Photograph by Ben Glasgow
We are currently in our National Lottery Heritage Fund development phase, refining designs and strengthening the foundations of our Back to Life project alongside our architects, Holmes Miller. The Visitor Levy commitment is a major step forward - but it is not the final step. We are continuing to fundraise to complete the capital programme and deliver the venue Leith deserves, and we invite our supporters, partners and future audiences to be part of this next three-year journey.
Thank you City of Edinburgh Council for putting the wind in our sails and for recognising the importance of backing a permanent cultural home in Leith; to National Lottery Heritage Fund for their earlier buy-in and support through development; and to the determination of the action group who first campaigned to protect this building, alongside the many volunteers, partners, creatives, artists and audiences who remain with us and continue to support our ongoing ambitions.
This has always been a project for the people, by the people. Now, with real momentum behind us, we move forward with renewed determination to secure Leith Theatre’s future as a permanent and vibrant cultural home for Leith and the city.
Let’s get it done.