The Venues!
This year, the festival is spread across two venues… Central Hall and Edinburgh Printmakers
Central Hall is our fantastic focus for marketplace vendors, the atelier, watching action from the gallery and - of course - there will be doughnuts.
Edinburgh Printmakers is where workshops, talks, spinning demos and a fab café are located. (This arts centre and gallery is also the venue for our Friday night shindig)
Central Hall
Central Hall is a meeting space, arts venue and church - where busy Lothian Road meets West Tollcross in Edinburgh. It is a beautiful, open and light building with amazing marble pillars, terrazzo floors and stained glass windows. You will be able to watch the marketplace from above, resting for a while with your knitting in the Upper Gallery.
We have two large marketplace rooms on the first floor, and upstairs, there are further smaller vendor rooms, the Design Atelier, Shiatsu Massage and a Quiet Room.
We have coffee, cakes galore, and will have excellent recommendations for nearby cafes too…
Edinburgh Printmakers
Edinburgh Printmakers is a creative centre for printmaking and the visual arts in the Fountainbridge area of Edinburgh. It has a large light-filled printmaking studio, two galleries, a shop selling original prints and handmade products, a venue for meetings, events and learning activities, a café, a courtyard, and community garden.
We have a variety of workshop rooms throughout Thursday 3rd April - Saturday 4th April at the Printmakers, and the stunning Boardroom is the dedicated space for our talks. The Edinburgh Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers will be demonstrating throughout the day near the (rather excellent) café.
TRAVEL
Both Central Hall (2 West Tollcross) and Edinburgh Printmakers (1 Dundee St) are city centre venues, great for public transport, but unfortunately not for parking - we’d discourage car use where possible. (The Edinburgh City Council Low Emissions Zone is now enforced - please read the guidance if bringing your car!). Central Hall is located on the edge of the LEZ – but be aware you need to approach from the south and west to avoid driving into it.
For those needing to park, there are some city centre bookable car parks and parking areas in nearby residential streets, but space cannot be guaranteed. There is no parking at either venue.
Multi-Storey Car Parks
*NB: Riego/Princes Exchange car park - no public access Mon-Fri before 9.30am
If you can, why not use the Park and Ride at Ingliston, take the tram (ticket in advance from platform machines) to Haymarket or Princes St, then follow the bus (contactless tap) guidance below instead?
Edinburgh has a fantastic public transport system and the TfE app is great for making personalised journey plans: from where you are based to Central Hall and the Edinburgh Printmakers.
Buses for Central Hall: Lothian Buses 10, 11, 15, 15a and 16 can be boarded from Princes Street, city centre. Lothian Buses 23 and 27 can be boarded from Hanover Street, city centre. All with stops within 2 minutes of Central Hall.
Buses Stops for Edinburgh Printmakers: Gilmore Park - Buses 1 | 34 | 35 | 300 Skylink / Morrison Crescent (on W Approach Road) - Buses 22 | 30 | X25 | X27 | X28 | X44
Accessibility
Central Hall have superb safety assessments in place for anyone using ‘wheels’ - a wheel chair or mobility scooter for example. It means CH staff members are available to help in the case of emergency. However, this means that that we are only allowed to have 6 ‘peeps on wheels’ in the building at once.
As a result, we’ve created a dedicated ‘Wheely Good & Companion Ticket' - please book this if you need it, and let us know if there are any problems.
Please note the Disabled Access for Central Hall, with lift to the reception area is on Dunbar St leading to Edinburgh’s main Fire Station. This means that people can be dropped off but no-one can park here, even with a Blue Badge. This is for the safety of all, ensuring fire engines can exit at speed when needed.
Both venues are completely accessible, with lifts to all floors and there are also Disabled toilets. As last year, we encourage mask use, especially in the last few hours of Saturday, when more immunocompromised people may be in attendance.
Central Hall has men’s, women’s, gender-neutral toilets and baby changing facilities; Edinburgh Printmakers has unisex toilets, and baby changing facilities.
FYI…
Edinburgh Printmakers has some independent reviews of its accessibility improvements on Euan’s Guide, which you can view here on their website.
Neither Printmakers or Central Hall have reviews on Sociability App, but you would be very welcome to contribute to this excellent source of accessibility information. You can download the app from their website here.
Central Hall - Accessibility Details
CENTRAL HALL WALKTHROUGH VIDEO
Walkthrough of access through Central Hall venue from Dunbar St Disabled Access, through all levels and indicating toilets etc. Voice Over Narration.
At the stepped entrance to Central Hall on West Tollcross, you can see signs indicating an accessible entrance - proceed ahead and then right onto Dunbar St.
Accessible Entrance to all floors lift on Dunbar St just off West Tollcross. You may drop off and turn here, but cannot park, even with a Blue Badge, sorry. This is because the street leads to the city centre fire station.
There are plenty of loos in Central Hall - On Level 2, they are labelled Men’s, with cubicles and urinals, Women’s with cubicles and baby change facilities, and an accessible toilet. On Level 3 there is a Gender Neutral toilet with cubicles and another accessible toilet.
By the lift on Level 3, there are dedicated wheelchair spaces in the Gallery to rest and view the Auditorium
Also on Level 3 there is a ticket holder quiet room - decompress, pray, rest
Edinburgh Printmakers - Accessibility Details
WALKTHROUGH VIDEO coming soon
If you are coming to Edinburgh Printmakers between 10am - 5pm, use the main entrance on Dundee St. Every door has push pads to aid opening.
If you are coming early for a workshop, or late for the evening event, access the building via the side entrance on Gilmore Park. (Blue Badge holders may be able to park here). Walk through the courtyard to the cafe.
There is lift access from the shop to the cafe and workshops.
Workshops are in the Boardroom (Floor 3), Office and Learning Studio (Floor 1). Volunteers will be at each door and in the cafe area.
Complete cubicle toilets with sinks, and accessible toilets are on Floors -1 and 1.