Helping young people in Edinburgh enjoy new adventures

Our hall is named after John Liddle – a distinguished former Scouter who instigated the building of the original hall on its present site nearly 50 years ago. The Group was formed in 1937 in Carrick Knowe Parish Church under the leadership of Bill Gardener, the first Scout Leader. John Liddle became the next Scout Leader in 1941. This was wartime and John was called up to do his bit for King and Country, during this time the Group ‘soldiered’ on as best they could. On demob, John took up where he left off as Scout Leader, the Group continued to meet in the Church Hall but John realised this was far from ideal and set the wheels in motion to acquire land to build their own hall. By this time, John was the Group Scout Leader with Frank Whitelaw as his Scout Leader. The Bowling Green in Broomhall Avenue was opening in 1955 and John negotiated the lease of the adjacent land for the Scout Hall. The original hall was of all wood construction apart from the foundation. It was opened in 1956 by Lord Rowallan, the Chief Scout. This served the Group for nearly 10 years when it was decided to build a brick extension to the back of the original hall. The extension was opened in 1965. The hall with two ceiling heights looked a bit odd but the decision to build the higher ceiling was entirely vindicated when the decision was taken about 10 years later to demolish the original from part and rebuild it in brick. At that time, the estimate for re-building the front part of the hall was £10,000. In 1974 the cost of the project was £13,000 (does this sound familiar? Scottish Parliament?). During the re-building, the Group once again met in Carrick Knowe Parish Church. The new hall was finished in 1975 and the first meeting was held on the 25th April.