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9 Sept, 2026. 2:30 PM
1880s – 1940s Hong Kong photos: 70 years of stories to tell
In this new talk for 2026, David brings us a selection of his favourite photos of old Hong Kong to enjoy. The excellent detail in these old photos, combined with high-resolution scanning and a modern projector, allow David to zoom in live and show us their minutest details. These details become the clues he’ll use to tell us the photos’ hidden stories.
We’ll explore views of Hong Kong’s people, the ever-changing city, and the effects of storms and the Second World War, using photos taken from the 1880s through to the 1940s. Eggs and gelatin also make an appearance, as key ingredients in that period’s photographic revolution!
Date : Wednesday 9th September 2026
Speaker : David Bellis BEM of Gwulo.com
Venue : The Studio, Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EL [map]
Time : 2:30 pm [2pm doors open, 2:30pm talk begins, 3:30pm Q&A, then tea & coffee and time to chat with David and guests.]
Booking is required : Email to Grace at grace@gwulo.com
Lecture cost : £12 (or £6 for full-time students), to include refreshments after the talk
The speaker : Originally from Wales, David lived in Hong Kong from 1992 to 2024. Since 2009 he has run the Gwulo.com website, providing an online meeting place where people from around the world meet to ask questions and share their knowledge about Hong Kong’s history. The site has grown to over 60,000 pages, including over 40,000 photos of old Hong Kong.
In 2014 David received the SCMP’s Spirit of Hong Kong award for Heritage Preservation for his work on Gwulo. Then in the 2025 New Year’s Honours List he was awarded the British Empire Medal, For services to Heritage Preservation in Hong Kong.
David is a regular speaker, both in person and on YouTube, using photos from his collection to introduce Hong Kong’s history in a way that is easy for audiences to enjoy. He has also published a series of five illustrated books, Volumes 1 – 5 of Old Hong Kong Photos and The Tales They Tell. Volume 1 has also been translated into Chinese.
10 Sept, 2026. 6PM
Building a Feminist Nation: Scotland in the Era of Polycrisis
BOOK LAUNCH
This edited collection aims to raise the calibre of current conversations, at the local, community and nationallevel; to better inform the Scottish electorate and commentariat, and more effectively influence Scotland’s decision makers; to ultimately help create a more equitable, feminist, Scotland.
17 Aug, 12:15
Edinburgh International Book Festival
In Building a Feminist Nation
- social justice campaigner Talat Yaqoob
- modern historian Helen O’Shea
- Law professor Kim Barker
commissioned bold new writing on the intersection of feminism, human rights, advocacy, and policy to prompt vital discussions about Scotland.
Esa Aldegheri talks with them and contributors Muminah Koleoso (writing on young women and misogyny) and Catherine Murphy (exploring poverty and the economy), considering the political shifts required to deliver a more equitable, feminist Scotland.
22-30 Aug, 2026. 1PM
Rick Conte
At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Or, Benjamin Franklin’s Scottish Enlightenment.
The Founding Father loved Edinburgh. He visited in 1759 and made pals with David Hume and Adam Smith. But what does Auld Reekie have to do with America’s Declaration of Independence? Exactly 250 years after the Declaration, Rick Conte retraces his countryman’s steps in a warm, funny and historically grounded account of how Enlightenment Edinburgh influenced a nation, and how a native of that nation found a home here centuries later.
- ‘Delightful’ ***** (NorthWestEnd.com).
- ‘A beguiling show’ **** (Scotsman).
- ‘Storytelling at its best!’ **** (ScotsGayArts.com).
- ‘Heartwarming’ **** (AllEdinburghTheatre.com).
Available Online
1776 and All That:
Reflections on 250 years of the US and Edinburgh's Unitarian Church.
Professor Frank Cogliano
This year marks the 250th anniversaries of both the American Declaration of Independence and the founding of the Unitarian Church in Edinburgh. At first glance it would seem that this is just a coincidence. However, as Miss Marple said, ‘Any coincidence is worth noticing.’
To kick off the events to mark 250 years of Unitarians in Edinburgh, Professor Frank Cogliano will discuss the connection between these two events and reflect on the significance of the US semiquincentennial based on his recently-published book, Thomas Jefferson Survives: American Independence in His Time and Ours (with Peter S. Onuf).
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Speakers
.......have included eminent academics, published authors, documentary producers, historical novelists, postgraduate researchers and Open History Society members. The subject matter may be anything from the Falklands War to medieval women, from Hugh MacDiarmid to Eamon De Valera, from Nazi feature films to Sicilian cultural history, from Bannockburn to Verdun.