History of the Usher Hall - Ruth Boram

In a most amusing talk Ruth told us she had, at one time, worked at the Usher Hall.

In 1896 Andrew Usher donated £100,000 to The City of Edinburgh, for the purpose of creating a venue for musical artistes to perform for the citizens of Edinburgh and beyond. Andrew Usher was the chief of Usher’s brewery. Though the beer was not very good the company had interests in many distilleries and other things. He was a very wealthy man

A variety of sites in Edinburgh were looked at finally settling on the site in Lothian road. A competition was held for the design. In 1911 building was started. The King and Queen laid the first stone.

It opened in 1914, 18 years after Andrew Usher had made his donation. Sadly he had died many years previously. There were 3 tiers of seating – grand circle, stalls and upper circle. On the opening night there was music from Handel, Bach, Beethoven and others. In 1915 there was a fund raising concert in aid of the war effort.

In 1947 the Edinburgh International Festival started. The highlight of this was concert starring Kathleen Ferrier.

In 1996  a large section of plaster fell from the auditorium ceiling into the empty seats below. Edinburgh Council decided the Usher Hall had to be renovated and it was closed for some time. 

Ken Lindsay gave the club’s vote of thanks for a most informative and amusing talk.