Wester Hailes Canalside Community Hub
In line with LPP Project 24, The Trust is exploring the possibility of acquiring 26 Hailesland Place as the Wester Hailes Canalside Community Hub.
26 Hailesland Place has a rich history of community led action in Wester Hailes. It was the site of the original Venchies playground before it was the infamous Club 85, followed by the home of the Wester Hailes Representative Council, the site of the Sentinel, and eventually the Huts. The Dove Centre, Wester Hailes’ primary organisation supporting senior citizens, established its roots in Wester Hailes here before being demolished to make way for the Canalside Building which exists today. The Canalside Building, an initiative of British Waterways and Millennium 2000 aims, was intended to be a building for the community, led by the community. Somewhere along the way, however, it became property of the City of Edinburgh Council. For many years it was leased out to organisations, with the most recent being Libertus care home. Overtime the costs required to keep the site became too high, forcing Libertus to terminate their lease. The building has been sitting empty since at least September 2025.
Venice Bienalle
workshop 2020.
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Returning
to our 2023
visions for
the Canalside
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^ Community ‘Cruise Along the Canal’ 2023 event to dream up our collective ideas for a Canalside Community Hub.
When the Trust learnt that the Canalside site was vacant, we couldn’t help but see it as a solution to a major issue in Wester Hailes.
For years we have heard from fellow local organisations that there are simply not enough community spaces in Wester Hailes to match the community’s needs. Meanwhile, the community spaces that do exist are either not up to standard, or are precarious; owned by the council and shut on weekends, owned privately and therefore always at risk of rent increases, sudden shut down, etc. In carrying out community engagement in the development of the Wester Hailes Local Place Plan, local residents echoed the same. What we heard time and time again was the need for a Hub that is entirely community owned.
These wishes culminated in the proposal for LPP Project 24: Canalside Community Hub.
Building off of Wester Hailes’ involvement in the 2020 Venice Biennale, the Canalside Community Hub proposes a Canalside community space in the former petrol station site opposite of the Westside Plaza. This would provide space to connect with the nature of the Canalside, to hold events, to encourage local residents to gather, to consolidate the work of local organisations, and to allow Wester Hailes to deepen its Canalside connections.
In 2023 the Trust partnered with Community Enterprise to carry out a feasibility study of Project 24 and the proposed site. Although the feasibility study was in full support of the project, the City of Edinburgh Council stated the prospect of a new build as highly unlikely, as it would require a Community Asset Transfer and the capital costs necessary to deliver such. As a result, the Trust put the project on hold; until 26 Hailesland Place was brought to our attention.
The Trust
carrying out
our first
site visit,
July 26’
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^ The Canalside Centre at 26 Hailesland Place.
In the Spring of 2026, the Wester Hailes Community Trust submitted an expression of interest to the City of Edinburgh Council for acquiring the Canalside site via community rate lease, with the aims of a full community asset transfer in the long term.
We realised that the site, informally called the Canalside Centre, has everything that the Canalside Community Hub proposes, albeit already constructed! While we are still exploring which of the many options for acquiring the site best meets the community’s needs, we’re optimistic that the outcome will see the space coming back into the community’s hands after many years of being otherwise.
As of August 2026, the next step is to carry out an independent survey of the site to get a clear picture of it’s condition as a community asset.
Keep your eyes peeled here for further updates in due course!
LPP Project
24 >
