“We want to make sure that this iconic building is a lively presence at the beating heart of our community”

With an award from the Scottish Land Fund, Action Porty can bring our former Portobello Police Station building into community ownership.

In December 2025, the Scottish Land Fund announced that we are one of 16 projects they are funding in this round, stating they are granting “£499,570 to Action Porty for the purchase of the former Portobello Police Station, in Edinburgh, through a Community Asset Transfer (CAT) from Police Scotland. The group will use the space to create new studios and workspaces for community organisations, community activities and artists in a central, high-street location.”

The space will initially be used to create community and artists studios and workspaces that support and add to the vibrancy of the High Street. Community ownership means that future generations will be able to use the building as they need.

The Building

The building is a much-loved feature of our High Street. It. originally became our Municipal Offices and Town Hall in 1877, and included a registrar’s office, a courtroom, the fire service and the local library. It later served as our Police Station until it closed in 2024.

The building lends itself to meeting key community needs that will doubtless change over time. Currently, we are aware of significant demand for affordable office space for community organisations and artist studios locally. We envisage a range of further community needs that would increase footfall on our high street and provide a space distinct from existing local options.

The community ownership process:

In an online survey by our former Community Council, 97% of respondents backed our proposal to bring the Police Station into community ownership. Following that a packed community consultation in November 2024 upstairs in the library (part of Heart Talk Porty) overwhelmingly endorsed the proposal.

Action Porty then submitted a Community Asset transfer request to Police Scotland in January 2025, and Police Scotland not only agreed to give the community first right to buy, but went on to work closely with us. We commissioned a joint valuation of the building (valuing it at £555,000) and Police Scotland (with Scottish Government Ministers’ agreement) then agreed to reduce that price to £495,500 given the community benefit of bringing the building into community ownership. With this SLF award, Action Porty now has 100% of the funds needed to buy the building, and we need to complete the purchase by the 23rd March 2026.

the work that got us here

A huge amount of behind the scenes work by the Action Porty sub group has gone into this process.

Scottish Land Fund Stage 1 funding helped fund the business plan (put together by Sandra Macaskill) and the building survey, while a grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund has helped pay for the Building Warrant application, the Planning Application and other key aspects.

Local professionals have provided their work for free. For example, James Lewis conducted the structural engineering survey, and Kieran Gaffney and his team put in a huge amount of work to assess what is possible and submit what is needed to secure the planning applications and building warrants. Meanwhile Frazer McNaughton, Mark Boggis, Kieran Gaffney and Justin Kenrick have led on the negotiations, consultations and what has felt at times like a wild goose chase that nevertheless seems to have caught a much loved goose that will hopefully lay some golden eggs for the community!

next first steps

Getting the sale complete by the end of March, includes having to get the planning permissions and building warrants in place so the building can be used for studios and community organisations to meet in. Then we need to make sure it can wash its face financially, while developing it along the lines the community wants as we understand better the possibilities and obstacles.

As we know from our experience with Bellfield, taking on an old, listed building is not without challenges!

Our first steps are therefore part of a multi-phase plan that will evolve over time as the community’s wishes evolve and change. The building will need to generate income while plans are prepared and money raised for more significant adaptations.

Looking ahead, we will continue to make sure that we are meeting distinct needs rather than competing with any other community offer.

In the medium term we hope that the majority of the ground floor will become publicly accessible with quieter more private spaces on the upper floors, and a lift installed to improve access once we have been able to raise the funds for it. Over the longer term we hope to provide much more than that, based on community consultation, fundraising and permission from the planners.

LONGer TERM POSSIBLE PLANS

While the initial proposal is for a vibrant community hub with offices for community benefit organisations and artists and others studios, possible future plans (all subject to community consultation) might, for example, include:

• a ‘living room’ along the High Street that could provide a socially inclusive space (with e.g. pre-school kids with their carers in the mornings, older folk’s quieter space in the afternoon, youth in the evenings),

• a gallery and/ or youth-focused space at the rear along the lane,

• a ‘residency’ upstairs at the rear (for groups of artists or folk from other communities to come and stay in order to work together during short term stays)

• a dedicated space for the High School to work with kids struggling at school, and possibly

• a touch down space for the Police when patrolling the Prom, and/ or a space for health or social service provision if needed.

Instead of losing this iconic and much loved building to high end unaffordable flats, community ownership means that future generations will be able to use the building as they need.

For more information contact: heartofporty@gmail.com

our Aims

❖ Breathe new life into an iconic public building which has served the community for almost 150 years, creating publicly accessible spaces and safeguarding it for future generations to enjoy

❖ Provide needed facilities and meaningful opportunities for community use in a central location within our expanding community

❖ Provide a clearly different offer from other community owned or operated spaces within Portobello

❖ Bring life and activity to the building, supporting and adding to the vibrancy of the High Street in ways that are accessible to the whole community

❖ Further the purposes of “Community Wealth Building”, ensuring the project supports Fair Work, equality of opportunity, supporting the success of our local businesses and recycling any profit into community benefit

Exploring a new future

Action Porty began consulting the local community in 2024 on how they would like to see it used now it has been decommissioned and is being disposed of by Police Scotland.

❖ An application was made to Police Scotland for the Community Asset Transfer of the building with a positive decision made September 2025

❖ A Stage 2 application to the Scottish Land Fund was submitted in August 2025. The successful outcome was made public on 9th December 2025

❖ Taking on an old, listed building is not without challenges and a variety of permissions and works will be required to deliver the end vision, so a meantime use is proposed until this can be delivered

A phased approach

Planning and other permissions are required to change the use of the building to deliver the vision, and the money to adapt the building will need to be raised. It is likely that, in the first instance, the building is used for artists’ studios and for community organisations. This can generate income while plans are prepared and money raised for more significant adaptations.

a possible model for Initial use:

the vision: expanding the use

Action Porty is working with a local architect - Kieran Gaffney - who, like the rest of the Action Porty Board sub-group, is currently putting in his time for free, in order to prepare a plan for the long-term vision for the building, and this could look like the plan below, depending on what you tell us you would like to see, what funding we can secure, and what planning consents allow!

In the plan below we would aim to continue with (a) the arts/ music etc studio focus downstairs in the rear half of the building (purple), and continue with (b) the climate and community arts organisations as core tenants, possibly in the upper front of the building (light blue), but also possibly incorporate (c) a residential centre in the upper rear (green) and (d) open up the Hight Street ground floor front of the building to more publicly accessible and inclusive use (brown).