Edinburgh International Book Festival launches search for stories about old royal infirmary ahead of relocation

The Edinburgh International Book Festival project has been created to coincide with the event’s relocation

It played a crucial role in the lives of the people of Edinburgh for more than 150 years.

Now stories documenting the impact of the city’s historic royal infirmary building are to be brought to life when the building itself is reborn this year.

The personal reflections of leading writers, former workers and members of the public will be performed inside the A-listed building on Lauriston Place when it becomes the new home of the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August.

The Edinburgh Futures Institute building at Edinburgh University will play host to the Edinburgh International Book Festival from this year.

The Words from the Wards project is expected to reflect on moments of “hope, fear, joy, and grief” from the previous life of the A-listed building, which was designed by architect David Bryce and opened in 1879. It was closed to the public in 2003 when a new royal infirmary opened at Little France, in south Edinburgh.

Organisers of the festival have instigated a “mass-participatory” writing project that will see recollections of experiences at the hospital brought together for an online “time capsule of memories”.

A selection of these will be read by members of the public, alongside new work commissioned from leading Scottish writers, at a series of special book festival events in one of the converted hospital wards.

Festival goers will also be able to view a new work of art created from pieces of slate and the original floorboards from the building, which were salvaged during construction work two years ago. The Spirit Case, which combines elements of woodworking, poetry and stone carving, will also feature the memories of former staff and patients at the hospital.

The Edinburgh Futures Institute building at Edinburgh University will play host to the Edinburgh International Book Festival from this year.

Work to transform the complex began seven years ago on an Edinburgh University development to create a new education, research and innovation hub – the Edinburgh Future Institute – that is due to be unveiled in the summer ahead of the book festival’s relocation there from the Edinburgh College of Art.

Dr Gavin Francis, Michael Pederson, Hannah Lavery, Sara Sheridan, Lisa Williams and Kirstin Innes will be among the writers taking part in the Wards from the Wards project.

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

“It is where many local residents – and those now further afield – 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 festival becomes part of its future.

Author Kirstin Innes will be among the writers taking part in the Edinburgh International Book Festival's 'Words from the Wards' project. Picture: Sean Cahill

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

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.”