What future for Regent Road Bowling Green?

Edinburgh Reporter

22-06-2025

Edinburgh has a profusion of community projects injecting energy and optimism into abandoned and underused spots in the city. Key to these is a desire to keep such places within the public domain and for them to contribute to community life – and also to greening the city.
Successful projects include Leith Community Growers, Lochend Secret Garden, and The Sunshine on Leith Community Garden (tucked behind tenements near Sloan Street). There is hope that Regent Road Bowling Green in Abbeyhill can follow this path, turning an abandoned site into a community run space.
Bowled over
While many private bowling clubs are in a healthy situation, many council-owned bowling greens are no longer being used. Abandoned bowling greens are evident across the city, from Harrison Park to Powderhall and Leith Links. This raises questions as to how these fantastic assets can best be put to use, while keeping them within the public domain. Successful examples include the allotments on Victoria Park, which are gradually turning into community allotments.
Regent Road Bowling Green when in use
Regent Community Bowling Club suffered badly during the Covid-19 pandemic and transferred stewardship back to the council. This transfer has prompted renewed discussions and initiatives aimed at revitalising the site for the benefit of the local community.
The Thriving Green Space Team of The City of Edinburgh Council set things in motion. Local groups such as Colony of Artists, Abbeyhill Action, and Leith Community Growers have expressed interest in keeping the Bowling Green as part of the local community. Two locals, Kat Chisolm and Tom Adams (of Abbeyhill Colony of Artists) have now taken on the lease of the site, on a month by month rolling basis. They've been negotiating with the council for two years, but need now to turn hopes into concrete steps.
To secure a longer term lease, they need to show the council that there is strong community support and that a capable management team is in place. Securing a long-term lease is a prerequisite for funding applications. For example, Leith Community Growers were very interested in getting involved but would have required at least a five-year lease to make it workable for them.
Regent Road Bowling Green in the haar, by alljengi on flickr.com
Strike while the iron is hot
This need to put together a capable, legally constituted management committee, including a diverse range of people and skills, was the aim of a drop-in session on Saturday. Despite the cool, foggy morning, dozens of people turned up, creating quite a buzz. Kat and Tom were happy to see a good range of ages and 'skill sets' among those offering their assistance. As Kat and Tom emphasised, while statements of support are welcome, it was offers of active involvement that are really required at this stage. They need to 'strike while the iron is hot' and not just talk about it but actually do something'.
Kat and Tom have no interest in carrying the project on just by themselves. They've taken on the role 'as guardians for the community' to keep the site in the public domain. They are aware that the council would be happy to see the site being used by a business, following examples such as the Herringbone Restaurant, which uses the former public toilets in Royal Terrace Gardens on London Road. Other such examples include the Toll House at Canonmills. Many regard such projects as denuding the public domain.
The most controversial example was the effort to turn the former Royal High School, just along the road from the Regent Road Bowling Green, into a hotel. That project was eventually blocked, but illustrated the pressures on the council to seek large injections of money from offloading public assets. Those at the drop-in session on Saturday all seem to share a desire that this would not be the case with the bowling green.
So many possibilities
Kat and Tom have to be able to prove that whatever project emerges is financially viable. If this could be established (alongside community use), the council would happily 'bow out and leave us to it'. At present, a steady trickle of income comes from some local businesses who make use of a small car park which is part of the site. Kat notes that 'we could charge more', but that having people using the site regularly helps keep the site used and monitored. The need to keep the place checked had been emphasised the day before when Kat's husband had discovered a dead body in one of the huts. According to the police 'The death is being treated as unexplained but is not believed to be suspicious'). A sobering moment for all concerned.
The areas around the sheds were taped off but this was also because the sheds are in a rather dilapidated shape. However, Kat and Tom believe they could be restored and repurposed. Tom himself brings joinery skills and feels that, though the structures on the site are not in good condition (including asbestos in one of them and leaking roofs), bringing them back to life is 'all doable'. One model to follow is that of Leith Community Croft (on the western tip of Leith Links), which has done a fantastic job of bringing life to abandoned tennis courts and restoring an old sports pavilion there, turning it into a superb community space and café.
A community café is high up on Kat and Tom's initial set of proposals, although they are open to alternative ideas from those who join them. There are, as Kat put it, 'so many possibilities'. One of the sheds had to be removed last year as it had become dangerously unstable. But the footprint of that structure could be built on as part of the project, adding an extension to one of the sheds.
Magnificent views
The key asset is the bowling green itself. It's a fantastically sheltered green space, surrounded by banks thick with vegetation. At present, only the local rabbits have access (the way I saw one of the rabbits chasing off a blackbird suggests that the rabbits feel they now own the place!). On days when the haar isn't hanging over the city, the bowling green offers magnificent views towards Arthur's Seat. It must be one of the finest urban views in Europe. Fundamental to the project is that this site cannot be built on; it must be preserved as a green space.
The green is also a substantial size, so could be put to multiple uses. Tom has the idea of some sort of sculpture at the centre, with the four quarters of the green used for different purposes. Some raised beds for gardening and fruit growing (there is some concern about the soil under the grass, given the amount of fertiliser applied to the bowling green over the decades), a children's play area and perhaps one quarter used for pétanque, a sport which is growing in popularity. Examples in the city include Ferranti Bowling Club in Inverleith Park. One advantage is that pétanque is played on hard dirt or gravel, much easier to maintain than a manicured bowling green.
For Tom, pétanque would be a nice way of paying homage to the previous occupants of the green by 'keeping the bowling vibe going'. For Tom, the place should also have a 'healing' character, making use of the well-established positive impact that gardening -and simply being in calm green spaces- has on mental health. This aspect has been emphasised in a number of other community projects; recognising that those who live in tenements have limited access to green space. This was also mentioned by many of those in attendance on Saturday, who were very keen to see the space publicly accessible, not 'privatised'.
Political support
Lorna Slater was among those in attendance. As a local resident she commented that she regularly walks past the bowling green and had wondered what its status was. She was 'really excited' to see that efforts were being made to make it into a community space, aware of the limited green space that tenement dwellers in Abbeyhill have. Ms Slater offered her support to the project and told Kat and Tom that she would 'tap into the resources of the Parliament' to assist the project with grant applications and the like. Assisting projects such as this, which can 'get stuck' was, Slater emphasised, 'something that MSPs can do'.
It seemed clear from Saturday's event that substantial support exists for a community- based future for Regent Road Bowling Green. The task now is turning that support into creating a team that will take responsibility for developing a plan, seeking funding, and managing the green towards the aim of community ownership. This committee's work will be essential for ensuring the long-term sustainability of the bowling green as a community asset.
Those interested in further information and getting involved can contact the project at: [email protected]
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