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Dateline: 15th December, 2002 The Edinburgh Fire Fringe venue The Gilded Balloon will definitely have to be demolished after the fire that raged through part of Edinburgh's Old Town last weekend, it was confirmed earlier this week. Only the walls are left standing and it is unlikely that even the façade of the C grade listed building will be saved. Also totally destroyed in the fire was La Belle Angèle, the nightclub which the Gilded Balloon uses as a venue during the three weeks of the Fringe. However Adam House in Chambers Street which houses C venue, although suffering some smoke and water damage, was saved. The fire is believed to have started in a shaft between La Belle Angèle and the Living Room, a pub next door to the Gilded Balloon. It is expected that the total cost to the city will run to around £100m, including the loss of hundreds of jobs and the closure of numerous streets for weeks or even months. Cowgate is closed from Grassmarket to St Mary’s Street, and North and South Bridge from Princes Street to West Richmond Street. In spite of the fact that the area is a busy one, only one person was hurt, a fireman who sustained a minor knee injury. How will the Edinburgh Fringe in 2003 be affected? The loss of the Gilded Balloon is a major blow to the comedy strand of the Fringe, as the GB specialised in comedy. It did mount some theatre, but for the last couple of years most of their theatre events have been concentrated in the Gilded Balloon Teviot, just a couple of hundred yards from the Pleasance Dome on the edge of Bristo Square. La Belle Angèle housed some smaller theatre shows. The major effect is on the organisation of the GB "empire". As GB boss Karen Koren lamented last week, all of the company's records were stored in the destroyed building, and this is the real major loss, for it will take some considerable time for them to be replaced. Suggestions are already being made as to what will replace the devastated area. Although Edinburgh is a World Heritage site, only the Gilded Balloon itself was a listed building, so there is no requirement for the area to be rebuilt in the same style and many voices have been raised suggesting that any replacement should be much more modern, with lifts and escalators connecting the lower Cowgate level with the upper Chambers Stree/North and South Bridge levels. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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