Forest Café facts for kids
The Forest, also known as Forest Café, is a special place in central Edinburgh, Scotland. It's a social centre and arts centre run entirely by volunteers. This means people give their time for free to make it work!
The Forest is a charity and doesn't aim to make a profit. It used to be in a building that was once a church. In that old building, it had a café, an art gallery, a space for performances, a music studio, and even a darkroom for photography.
In August 2012, The Forest moved to its current home on Lauriston Place. Here, it continues to be a volunteer-run vegetarian cafe. It also hosts many free events and workshops. The Forest plays an important part in helping the independent community in Edinburgh grow.
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The Forest's Story
The Forest started its journey in August 2000 in a different spot called West Port. Later, in September 2003, it moved to Bristo Place and opened its doors there in October 2003. After leaving Bristo Place in August 2011, The Forest found its new home in Tollcross and reopened in August 2012.
Bristo Place: A Historic Home
The building at 3 Bristo Place was built a long time ago, between 1899 and 1900. It was designed by Sydney Mitchell and Wilson. This building is so special that it's listed as a 'category-B listed building', meaning it's protected because of its history and architecture. It used to be a church before The Forest moved in.
While at Bristo Place, The Forest held many free events. These included workshops, music shows, film screenings, poetry readings, and theatre performances. There was even a special darkroom where people could develop black and white photos. Every summer, The Forest also ran the 'August Forest Fringe'. This was a programme of theatre and alternative arts, offering something different from the main Edinburgh International Festival.
In 2004, The Forest Café was recognized as one of the best internet cafés in the United Kingdom. It received a special award from Yahoo! Mail.
The charity that owned the Bristo Place building faced financial problems in 2010. This meant the building had to be sold. The Forest launched a campaign to try and buy the building or find a new one.
The Amazing Pipe Organ
The upper floors of the Bristo Place building were once the church hall. The most amazing part of this space was a huge pipe organ. This organ was powered by compressed air and had pipes as tall as a house! It was first installed in a chapel in Dublin in the late 1800s and moved to Bristo Place in 1900.
For a while, the organ didn't work. But in 2007, during a big computer conference called DebConf7, some clever people fixed it. They made enough repairs for the organ to play music again!
Later, in 2008-2009, a cool project called Waldflöte (which means "Forest Flute" in English) began. This project was a musical experiment. It used computers to control parts of the organ's musical keyboard through a special electronic system called MIDI. The name "Waldflöte" was chosen because it's also the name of one of the organ's sounds, and it connected to "The Forest" name. This experiment was done without changing the original organ permanently.
A Protest for Arts Spaces
In November 2011, after The Forest left the Bristo Place building, a group of local people temporarily occupied it. They were protesting because several independent arts spaces in Edinburgh, including The Forest, were closing down. The activists wanted to reopen the building for public use. During this time, the space hosted several events before the protest ended.
Tollcross: The Current Home
The Forest found its new home at 141 Lauriston Place.
The Friendly Café
The café at The Forest serves delicious vegetarian cuisine. They use locally grown organic food and offer many vegan options. They also serve Fairtrade drinks, which means the people who grew or made the ingredients were paid fairly. The menu often includes salads, wraps, chili, burritos, falafel dishes, and soups.
One special thing about The Forest is its "pay it forward" system for hot drinks. This is called Caffè sospeso. It means a customer can pay for an extra hot drink for someone who might not be able to afford one themselves. It's a kind way to help others!
The café also offers free Wi-Fi for everyone. You can find musical instruments and board games to use while you're there. There's even a free shop where visitors can swap goods they don't need anymore, helping to reduce waste.
What's Happening Now
Because of rules about noise in the area, the café can't have loud music or entertainment late at night. However, during the daytime, The Forest is often filled with free performances. Local musicians, poets, and artists share their talents. All events are always free, and you never need a ticket!
The basement of the building has been updated and now hosts a pop-up art gallery. New art exhibitions are shown here every two weeks.
Community Connections
The Forest works closely with other community projects in Edinburgh. For example, it has strong ties with the Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative and the Swap and Reuse Hub (SHRUB). SHRUB is run by students from the University of Edinburgh and focuses on reusing items. The Forest also has its own food cooperative, where people can work together to get food.
