🤝 Forest Café

The Forest, also referred to as Forest Café, was an independent social centre and arts centre located in central Edinburgh, Scotland. It was notable for being run by volunteers as a charitable, self-sustaining not-for-profit organisation. The Forest was initially housed at a West Port venue from 2000 to 2003, then housed at 3 Bristo Place in the former Edinburgh Seventh-day Adventist Church, a building owned by the Edinburgh University Settlement until August 2011. It featured a two-room café with performance space, a single room art gallery named Total Kunst, a radical library named Old Hat Books housed in the café front room, an Action Room for consensus process based meetings and internet access, artist gallery spaces, a meeting cum screen printing and crafting room, a rehearsal/music studio, a walk-in freezer, a woodworking and machining room, and a darkroom specialising in alternative photographic process. In August 2012 the Forest reopened at 141 Lauriston Place, Tollcross, where it continued its activity as a volunteer-run vegetarian cafe with regular free events and workshops, assuming a pivotal role in the revival of the independent community development in central Edinburgh. In 2022 the physical space closed, citing difficulties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, despite arts activities continuing decentrally.