Our Story

The Queen's Hall started off life as Hope Park Chapel in 1823 (later becoming the church of Newington and St Leonard's) and continued as a place of worship until 1976.

The closure coincided with a search by the Scottish Baroque Ensemble (now the Scottish Ensemble), the Scottish Philharmonic Singers and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for performance and rehearsal premises. An appeal was launched in 1977 and after raising £850,000 to convert the church to a concert hall, The Queen's Hall was officially opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 6 July 1979.

Since then the building has been home to a different form of worship - to great music performed by world-class artists.

We celebrated our 40th anniversary in 2019 with a wonderfully eclectic programme of events and a special performance by Steven Osborne and Alban Gerhardt on 6 July, and later a party filled with open mic spots from many of the artists who have performed here over the years.

It remained closed from 20 March 2020 to 22 August 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic - the longest time in its history that the building has been silent. 

We ended 2022 with our new AMPLIFI series of events winning the Inclusion Award at the Creative Edinburgh Awards and started 2023 delighted to appoint Rosamund West as our new Board Chair.

At the beginning of 2024 (slightly delayed due to the artist's touring commitments) we celebrated the 200th Anniversary of our building with a concert featuring a glorious commission by Erland Cooper, 'Hope Park'.

We continue to thrive as one of Edinburgh's oldest and most varied independent live music, comedy and spoken word venues and are so pleased that you find yourself here.