The building was opened as a church in 1912 with seating for exactly 1,000 people. It was built, on the site of an earlier pedimented 18th century chapel, at a cost of £7,250 for a long-standing Baptist congregation which had been established by theologian Christopher Anderson in January 1808.. The architects were J A Arnott and J Inch Morrison. The building was listed on 28 March 1996. In 2012, the congregation bought the former St George's West Church of Scotland building in Shandwick Place for £1.55m. Senior pastor, Rev Paul Rees, said the Rose Street building was not fit for the congregation's needs while the Shandwick PLace building gave them a larger and more flexible space. In 2014, an application was made to convert the building to a ‘superpub’, but this was refused by City of Edinburgh Council. However, in 2016, a new application by Glendola Leisure Ltd, owners of Waxy O'Connors pub in Glasgow, to turn the building into a restaurant and apartment building was accepted. The ground floor was to be a 124 cover restaurant, while the basement was to have restaurant space for 64 and room for 48 standing at the bar. There were to be 22 serviced apartments in the space above, with two new floors created, including a guest lounge on the first floor. However, a different plan was eventually enacted, when a £1.8m development of a new theatre and performing arts centre by Danish ballet dancer and director Peter Schaufuss was accepted. The converted building features four performance spaces, including a 300 seat main hall, a basement space for 120, a 100 seat studio, and an attic with a capacity of 50. It opened at the 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, programmed by Gilded Balloon who put on a mixed bill of 40 productions, including comedian Craig Ferguson. Shortly after that initial Fringe, Gilded Balloon announced a year round programme, including theatre in the main hall and comedy in the basement.
Design
The building is a four storey, five bay stripped Wrennaissance chapel and meeting halls, built of polished sandstone ashlar, with harled secondary elevations.
