COMMUNITY PETITION SAVE THE HIMALAYAN CENTRE FOR ARTS & CULTURE

SAVE THE HIMALAYAN CENTRE FOR
ARTS & CULTURE
Keep our community's home — Dr Bell's Swimming Pool, Leith — in community ownership.
Reject the proposed 15-year private lease.

To: The Board of Trustees/Directors, Himalayan Centre Edinburgh Ltd (Charity No. SC044650, Company No. SC416996), 121 Great Junction Street, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 5JB

1. Background

The Himalayan Centre for Arts & Culture was built by this community, for this community. What was once the derelict former Dr Bell's Swimming Pool — empty and deteriorating for over a decade, a symbol of neglect in Leith — was brought back to life through years of volunteer effort, community fundraising, Life Membership contributions and loans from community lenders, including Social Investment Scotland (SIS).
It exists to serve the charitable objects set out in its constitution: to provide a quality community venue, to advance education, and to advance the arts, heritage and culture, for the benefit of Leith and the wider community, without distinction of background.
We understand that the Board is now considering leasing the whole Centre to a private commercial operator for a period of 15 years, with community access reduced to a single day per week, in order to generate rental income of approximately £30,000 per year to service outstanding debts.

2. Our Concerns

We, the undersigned Life Members, Members, Investors and community lenders, object to this proposal for the following reasons:

• A betrayal of purpose. The Centre was funded and rebuilt on the promise of community ownership and community benefit. Handing control to a private company for 15 years — effectively a generation — is a fundamental departure from the trust placed in the Board by every member and lender who contributed.
• Loss of community access. Reducing community use to a single day a week turns a community-owned asset into a private commercial venue with token community involvement, not a community centre.
• Poor value for the community. £30,000 a year in rent is a fraction of the social, cultural and economic value the Centre generates when it is fully open, run and controlled by and for the community it was built to serve.
• Practically irreversible. A 15-year lease will span a generation of residents in Leith and diaspora families across Scotland who will grow up without full access to a building their community fought to save. Reversing a long commercial lease once granted is difficult and may not be achievable at all.
• An unnecessary risk. Leasing to a private operator transfers long-term control and risk to a third party whose interests are commercial, not charitable — jeopardising the Centre's charitable status and its founding mission.
• It is not the only option — and no longer the necessary one. The community has already answered the call that this proposal claims to solve.

3. The Community Has Already Solved This
This Board's own fundraising campaign showed what this community is capable of:

Local families, artists, Life Members and supporters came forward with over GBP 170,000 sufficient to repay most of the outstanding lenders, including SIS. The community has further committed the fund the needed balance to clear up all debts that this proposed lease is intended to service.
A 15-year loss of community ownership is not a necessary or proportionate response to a debt that the community itself has already committed to pay off. We ask the Board to recognize, and act on, what its own members and donors have achieved.

4. We Demand That the Board:

a) Withdraw the proposal to lease the Himalayan Centre to a private company.
b) Apply all the funds raised by the community (GBP 170,000+) to repay SIS and any other outstanding lenders in without delay.
c) Confirm in writing that the Centre will remain in full community ownership, with community access and use undiminished.
d) Report transparently to Life Members, Members, Investors and lenders on the Centre's finances and the steps taken to implement the above, including at a general meeting open to all members.
e) Involve members and the wider community in any future decisions that affect the ownership, governance or long-term use of the Centre, consistent with the Board's duties as charity trustees.
f) Start the Centre's cafe business from the first week of August 2026 (aligned to the Edinburgh Festivals), under the management of a newly formed Himalayan Centre Enterprise Committee accountable to the Board and to the members.

5. Our Commitment

We built this Centre once, out of a derelict swimming pool and a shared belief in what the Himalayan Centre (Chautari) in Leith could achieve together. We are not asking the Board for charity - we are offering the means to solve the debt at the heart of this proposal, so that the Centre can remain what it was always meant to be: ours, together.
By signing below, we call on the Board of Trustees/Directors of Himalayan Centre Edinburgh Ltd to halt the proposed private lease and to work with us to secure the Centre's future in community ownership.