The Continuance Institute

The Circles · C-09

Edinburgh Circle

One of the eleven circles recognised in 1991, and the busiest in Europe.

Place
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Recognised
1991
Affiliated house
Fell House
Assigned steward
Iona Reid
Convener
Hamish TunnockPiano tuner. Term began 2025; second and final consecutive year.
Ordinary meeting
Weekly, Tuesday evenings; business on the first Tuesday only
Typical attendance
22 to 31
Access
Open to visitors

Local history

Edinburgh met from 1979 as an informal Tuesday gathering of people connected with Fell House who could not get to the Borders on a weeknight. It was one of the eleven arrangements given standing in 1991, and its first convener served three years, which is the irregularity that produced the rotation procedure of 1994.

The reading class began in 1998 with two pupils and a borrowed room. It now runs three evenings a term and is the circle's whole outward obligation. Nobody who attends it is told anything about the Institute unless they ask twice.

The circle is large enough that it has had to make rules about not being large: business is taken on the first Tuesday only, the room is not extended, and a member who wants to speak at length is asked to write instead.

The outward obligation

Adult education

Evening reading class, held with the municipal library service.

Free evening tuition in reading and letter writing, taught in pairs, with no register kept beyond the count.

The forms it carries

  • The Quiet Twelve

    Twelve minutes are kept before the reading. Nothing is assigned to the silence.

  • The Repair Table

    A table, a bench, or a marked shelf where ordinary objects wait to be mended.

  • The Weather Entry

    Before the first shared meal of the month, one person writes the weather in the house book.

Local variation. The repair table meets on Saturday mornings in a member's workshop and is the only part of the circle that requires signing in, because of the tools.

The shared forms, as they are kept in the houses

Also attached to Fell House

Elsewhere in Europe