TOURISTS on the Royal Mile have been wondering what’s within the Lego brick lined close that’s appeared in recent weeks.
Well, they’ll soon be able to take a look inside and explore Brick City, a project which aims to build a model of Edinburgh out of the popular building toy.
Opening on Saturday August 4, professional Lego builder Warren Elsmore and his wife Teresa have transported their workshop to the Fringe to offer a glimpse at their incredible models.
Visitors will also be given the chance to see how the building team works in their studio as, piece by piece, the city comes to life.
Lifelong Lego fan Warren, who works full time creating commissioned models, told The Sunday Post: “I spend most of my day building Lego and everyone wants to come and see the studio, but it’s just not possible.
“But for the Fringe, and just for the Fringe, we’ve transported our studio into Riddle’s Court.
“We’ll be here with models on display that we’ve built and we’ll be live building so people can come and chat with us.
“Once you’ve seen all of that, you’ll be able to come downstairs and see what we’re live-building – the huge city!”
The exhibition is the first tenant of the newly restored Riddle’s Court building, operated by the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust.
Sections of the model have already been put in place, with Portobello beach and Edinburgh Airport pre-built.
The airport alone took five weeks to put together and contains between 20,000 and 30,000 bricks.
The complicated nature of the city’s architecture is set to prove quite a challenge for even the most experienced of builders.
“There’s a few Edinburgh landmarks that you’ll recognise and a few of them are a challenge to build in different ways due to the different shapes or the different colours,” Warren said.
“Lots of the Old Town is not square!
“We’ve put a Lego take on everything so it’s good fun and it’ll raise a smile, and hopefully give you a few ideas to go home and dig your own bricks out.”
Brick City has also partnered with Support In Mind Scotland’s 100 Streets campaign which is encouraging people to walk 100 streets in a bid to raise awareness and money for mental health projects.
Former Scotland rugby star Scott Hastings and his wife Jenny attended the preview event to show their support, and both have their very own Lego versions of themselves to support the cause.
Scott said: “This is a project for mental health and Support In Mind Scotland, so during the festival and building the brick city they’re going to build 100 Streets as well which reflects the campaign where people can go out and run 100 streets, walk 100 streets or do 10 streets over 10 days.
“Jenny and I have backed the campaign and this is a tremendous opportunity to get people involved in their own challenges.
“It’s a novel initiative to promote the charity and to get people into Edinburgh and it’ll grow every day.”
Teresa added: “We’ve known Scott and Jenny for several years and wanted to support their work which is very important.
“It seemed a good way, being able to recreate them in Lego and have them walking the streets that we’re going to be building.”
BrickCity: The Backstage Tour, August 4-25, 277 Riddle’s Court, Edinburgh
Tickets available at tickets.edfringe.com
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