The secret life of Leith Theatre, Edinburgh’s theatre at risk and home to BBC One’s The Bidding Room

Leith Theatre, now home to BBC One’s popular daytime programme, The Bidding Room, with Nigel Havers, remains on the ‘Theatres At Risk Register’, join me for an exclusive look behind the scenes as work to secure the Category B listed building’s future continues. 

Somewhere around 1977, when I was 12 or 13 years old, my Old Man took me to see renowned stage hypnotist Robert Halpern perform at Leith Theatre. I was allowed to bring a school pal, he, sadly, is no longer with us, one of the ‘Trainspotting’ generation lost too soon. We sat in the Balcony, seats I-6 to I-8 to be precise. I was in the middle seat I-7, 44 years later I sat again in that very seat. 

As I did, I recalled the audience that night standing for a demonstration of mass hypnosis; arms outstretched, eyes closed, they swayed as Halpern’s mellifluous tones transported them to the top of a windy mountain. He told them that they carried a shopping bag in each hand and I watched as they tilted left as he suggested a 2lb bag of sugar had just been added to the bag in their left hand. He then proceeded to convince many he had glued their hands together.

He hadn’t, but those who ‘believed’ their hands to be stuck tight became his co-stars and playthings for the evening, eating raw onions, stripping and generally making a sight of themselves. 

Halpern finished by hanging himself on a sinister gallows, having first hypnotised himself to survive the drop, obviously. Many years later, I appeared in a play that used the very same prop. Now I know how he did it, but the young me thought it a breath-taking spectacle. 

Leith Theatre fell into disuse in the years that followed and I wouldn’t see another show there until 2018, the experimental Last Days of Mankind. Being back in the venue during lockdown gave me the chance to reconnect with its charm and history, all of which was so nearly lost and could yet be as Leith Theatre remains on the ‘Theatres At Risk Register’, where it has been since 2016. 

Under the auspices of architects Bradshaw, Gass and Hope, Leith Theatre was built between 1929 and 1932, when it opened with a capacity of 1,500 seats, but its existence has been troubled. In 1941 the main auditorium was bombed in an air-raid and closed until 1961. In the 1980s it gradually fell into disuse having played host to Edinburgh International Festival productions such as Rikki Fulton’s adaptation of Moliere’s A Wee Touch o’ Class in 1986.

Over the years gig-goers had also watched the likes of AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Dr Feelgood, Slade, Mott the Hoople, Kraftwerk, and The Wombles there. It was saved from being redeveloped into flats in 2004 with the foundation of The Leith Theatre Trust, whose ongoing mission is to refurbish the auditorium, which was re-opened in 2017, as well as other backstage and front of house areas.

Chief Executive Lynn Morrison and her small but dedicated team continue the fight to keep the venue alive and should be applauded for significantly raising its profile by attracting creatives from across the worlds of theatre, music, film and television to bring their work there. 

In the meantime, here’s a glimpse of a gem of a theatre that we can’t afford to lose. 

Pics | Liam Rudden Media