Call to keep 'vital' Edinburgh museum open amid rise of far-right

The working-class history museum in the city’s Royal Mile has been shut for the past two months and the city council had proposed keeping it closed until April 2025 as it grapples with a £26.7 million gap in its budget for next year.

Following a huge public outcry over the plans and criticism from high-profile figures including author Irvine Welsh, there is now some hope the museum could be reopened in December, with the council saying it is “committed” to trying to make this happen.

Jim Slaven, who is an organiser of the Save The People’s Story Campaign and has grown up in the Old Town, told the Sunday National it is crucial the doors are reopened at a time when there is so much concern around the rise of the far-right in working-class communities.

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He said: “If the People’s Story did not exist we’d be talking about trying to build one, because it is a vital part of the social and cultural fabric of this city.

“It’s the only museum in Edinburgh that focuses on working-class history, that tells the stories of workers and communities.

“Given everything that has been said recently by Keir Starmer about how important it is that working-class stories are told and respected, given the amount of focus there has been on the rise of the far-right and racism in working-class communities, it is vital we tell stories of working-class solidarity, that we tell the history of working-class communities as being always multi-ethnic.

“The People’s Story is the place to do that. We need to open it and make it better.”

It has been reported that staffing issues are what has led to the Canongate museum being closed but Slaven (below) has accused the council of “spin” given local authority chiefs cited health and safety concerns and Covid-19 as also being among the reasons the attraction could not remain open.

“There seems to be an attempt to spin it that the staffing issue is the [only] problem,” he said.

“These are some of the highest-paid people in Edinburgh City Council and they are blaming some of the lowest-paid people in this city for the closure of this museum. That’s despicable.”

(Image: Duncan McGlynn) Last week, the council’s director of culture Joan Parr quit having been in the post for three years after coming under fierce criticism for the closure.

The museum charts the day-to-day experiences of ordinary citizens in the capital from the late 18th century to today and has been open since the 1980s in the historic Canongate Tolbooth.

Campaigners believe its temporary closure is part of a worrying pattern of several community spaces being shut in the Old Town, with St Ann’s Community Centre and the South Bridge Resource Centre among venues which have been now been repurposed – the latter soon to be home to the Fringe Society’s new headquarters.

Despite there being hope of reopening the People’s Story before Christmas, Slaven has insisted the Labour-led council “cannot be trusted” to keep the museum going if this does happen and the management of it must be overhauled.

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“We’re hoping that when it goes back to the committee [in December], given the outcry there’s been about this, we’re hoping the councillors see sense,” Slaven said.

“The first step is to get the building reopened but we also accept the reality is this Labour administration cannot be trusted with places like the People’s Story. They mismanage them, they disinvest and then they close them. We cannot allow that to happen.

“So we’re saying this is now a crisis, it’s a failure on the part of the council’s management and they have to accept that, and then once we reopen the doors, we want them to open up the management structure of the People’s Story to include councillors, but to also include other interested parties.

“We want trade unions involved, we want community organisations involved, we want residents involved. We need to put energy back into this building and also it needs investment.

(Image: Duncan McGlynn)

“The council have admitted they’ve done nothing to support that building since it opened in the 80s. We need a new structure that gives it a sustainable strategy going forward.”

Slaven also slated the “democratic deficit” the residents of Edinburgh are stuck with given there are only 11 Labour councillors – propped up by the Tories and LibDems – out of 63 driving decisions over The People’s Story.

“They’re [the council] destroying the social fabric of this city. They’re closing all our public spaces and whose interests are they acting in?,” said Slaven.

“There’s only 11 Labour councillors at the moment out of 63, so there’s a democratic deficit here where we have 11 councillors pushing through the closure and also enforcing loads of other cuts.”

The proposal to keep The People’s Story shut was condemned by Culture Secretary Angus Robertson at Holyrood who called it “shameful”.

But despite the clear fury over the decision, Slaven said there is still an opportunity to be positive and make the museum a “world leader” in telling working-class stories.

“I’m a great believer in finding solutions,” he said.

“Out of this crisis we can create opportunities to make the People’s Story a world leader in telling the stories of workers and communities in the 21st century.

“The council has failed but let’s not focus on that, let’s get the doors open and build a better future for it.”

The council’s culture and communities convener Val Walker said: “We are totally committed to re-opening The People’s Story museum, but we recognise that there are challenges to overcome. 

 “This temporary closure of The People’s Story has been put in place and it is an absolute commitment from me that at the December committee meeting we will be looking at the ways in which we can re-open that museum – not in April but in December.”