Opera Scotland

Edinburgh Theatre, Castle Terrace Edinburgh

Opened 1875 as the New Edinburgh Theatre, it quite soon acquired a royal warrant as the Royal Edinburgh Theatre.

There was a change of use to the Synod Hall in 1877. The building was converted to use as a cinema in the 1920s, and it is said to have shown the first 'talkies' in Edinburgh.

It was demolished in 1966, and the site proposed for use as a national opera house. However, after a prolonged period of argument and rising costs due to redesign, the council sold the site for an office redevelopment, and backing was given first to the reconstruction of the Playhouse and then to the modernisation of the Empire Theatre, known at present as the Festival Theatre.