Gareth Davies

This weekend Edinburgh gained a new memorial: a statue of the bear Wojtek, who was honoured as a war hero after being rescued by a troop of Polish infantry during WWII, and later came to live a post-war life at Edinburgh Zoo. The new statue takes pride of place in Princes Street Gardens, and makes Wojtek the city's second major animal memorial - after the city's best-known canine Greyfriars Bobby. Wojtek was adopted by a troop of Polish soldiers in 1942 after they took shelter in an Iranian town, en route to Tehran. Later in their manoeuvres the soldiers were requied to travel by ship with the British military, and the men were told that Wojtek couldn't travel with them as the ship was for military personnel only.  In a stroke of tactical military genius, Wojtek was swiftly inducted into the Polish military at the level of Private - he would rise through the ranks as far as Corporal, serving not just as a mascot but as a bearer (ha!) of ammunition shells for his troops. Following the war Wojtek arrived in Scotland with the Polish troops he had supported, and following his demobilisation in 1947 was gifted to Edinburgh Zoo, where he lived out the remainder of his life, until his death in 1963. The memorial to his service erected in Edinburgh joins existing monuments to Wojtek in London, Ottawa, Kraków and Grimsby. Plenty of other historical figures are celebrated with statues of their likeness in the city, so here are four other famous faces you might encounter around Edinburg

There's a woman somewhere behind me, baying like a hyena, while somewhere to my left I can hear the deep throaty rumble of a man guffawing to himself. But this isn't a comedy show. I'm lying on my back, laughing. My abdomen is wobbling tremulously, as my laughter threatens to boil over into breathless hysteria. Two minutes ago we were passing around an imaginary ball of laughter; shortly before that we were using our fingers as antennae as we wiggled and giggled our way around the room. Anyone stumbling into this group by accident would wonder if we were all in the grip of a nitrous oxide leak, but there's nothing sinister behind this outbreak. We're all willing participants in Edinburgh's Laughter Club, seeking to chuckle ourselves healthy - and if it sounds like I'm having a giraffe, be assured that the ideas underpinning the Laughter Club's ethos are perfectly serious. Since 1995, over 60,000 laughter clubs have been established in over 100 countries around the world, drawing on ideas and techniques developed by Dr Madan Kataria. Jo Bluett of Laughter for Health runs a number of drop-in sessions across Edinburgh, and she invited me to experience a session at the Eric Liddell Centre on Morningside Road, where the group meets every week. I'll admit I was a little nervous about the session - what if they all laughed better than me?! - but as I chatted with members of the group before it began I quickly got a sense of why these clubs are becoming increasingly popular. As well

Winter is coming. Again. And in Scotland that can mean wet, windy days, and months where it feels like it never gets properly light. While that can mean that a visit to the likes of Edinburgh Castle, high and exposed on its volcanic outcrop, comes with a free dose of authentic (and atmospheric) Scotch mist, it makes trudging around the city in the rain feel more like a route march than a city break. But never fear, the country's capital has a wide range of indoor attractions to delight and entertain you on those days when the weather isn't fit for outdoor sightseeing. Alongside the plethora of museums and galleries, here's a selection of some alternative all-weather attractions worth checking out this winter. Got a head for heights? <img id="4e9a25b4-80f8-44ef-1c2d-7c4d7ed62626" data-caption="" data-credit="" data-width-class="" type="image/jpeg" total="185329" loaded="185329" image_id="102902311" src="http://media.timeout.com/images/102902311/image.jpg" alt="Aerial Assault Course - Edinburgh International Climbing Arena" class="photo lazy inline"> Take to the sky with the Aerial Assault Course at Edinburgh International Climbing Arena - the world's largest indoor climbing facility - offering a high-wire act like no other. Strung up 100ft above the floor of the centre is a series of obstacles to test your agility and balance. No prior climbing experience is required, just nerves of steel and the ability to resist the urge to look down. At five storeys hi

Edinburgh has a thriving year-round theatre scene, and no evening away from the telly is complete without a pre-show meal near the theatre. Whichever of the city's main venues you're heading to, your pre-theatre dinner is hereby taken care of. King's Theatre <img id="c512cc84-2eef-bcf6-829d-41726eebfcfb" data-caption="" data-credit="" data-width-class="" type="image/jpeg" total="417795" loaded="417795" image_id="102901582" src="http://media.timeout.com/images/102901582/image.jpg" alt="King's Theatre Edinburgh" class="photo lazy inline"> The Tollcross area is a thriving hub for eating and drinking, and your choices are plentiful. If you're heading to a classic drama, The Blackbird's menu includes staples such as mussels or beer-battered haddock and chips, with intriguing alternative options like grilled red mullet with asparagus. The cocktail menu is extensive, and if the weather's decent there's a decked beer garden to the rear where you can catch a few rays before trundling off to the theatre. If it's world drama you're into, check out Frontier, with American-inspired offerings like burgers and ribs as well as catfish and nachos, or Harajuku Kitchen, which offers a great range of Japanese dishes combining authentic taste with original presentations.  Traverse Theatre, Royal Lyceum Theatre and Usher Hall <img id="0134d938-a664-12ba-15b3-4a117f46e874" data-caption="" data-credit="" data-width-class="" type="image/jpeg" total="341055" lo

As Edinburgh hosts the latest Hidden Door Festival, featuring a range of cultural events within a venue transformed from a previously abandoned public space, here are four more of the city's most successfully repurposed buildings... Tartan Weaving Mill The former city reservoir, now a tartan weaving mill At the top of the Royal Mile is Edinburgh's only functioning tartan weaving mill, housed in what used to be the city's main water reservoir. Prior to the 17th century, the city's water supply was the stagnant Nor' Loch, on the site of today's Princes Street Gardens, which also served as the sewage outlet. In the 1670s a network of pipes finally brought fresh water from Comiston Springs, to the south of the city, to this large water tank constructed at the top of the Royal Mile. The surprisingly spacious interior of the old water tank The reservoir tank was replaced in 1849, and today this immense sandstone structure houses the weaving mill and associated shop. Much of the building is below ground level, making it significantly larger than the exterior would suggest. The smooth, sloping internal walls still bear water markings of its previous use, and looking up from the bottom floor you get a tremendous sense of the scale of this space, which at one time provided fresh running water to much of the Old Town. The Scotch Whisky Experience The former Castle Hill School Across the road from the Weaving Mill is the Scotch Whisky Experience, a popular attraction charting the h

A short walk south of the Royal Mile lies Bruntsfield, one of the first places in the world where golf was played, and where the first golf society was established (on Bruntsfield Links) in the early 18th century. Today Bruntsfield has a well-maintained city-village feel, and is a haven for a fine array of locally-managed businesses, with only a handful of chain stores interrupting the accumulation of independent traders . There's a heady bunch of barbers, beauticians and stylists as well as quirky up-cycled furniture shops and craft jewellers, alongside traditional community premises like a family-owned butcher, a fishmonger, and a community greengrocer. But it's the array of food joints which makes the main drag of Bruntsfield Place truly worth a wander, whether you're a local or a visitor.   Fine dining, Italian style The Main Courses For fine dining, book a table at Osteria del Tempo Perso, currently celebrating its first year in the area, to enjoy authentic Italian dishes served up in classy and comfortable surroundings. Or treat yourself to a spontaneous night off from cooking and washing up, and take advantage of the two courses for £10 menu at Montpeliers bar and restaurant. With a fine selection of more than 25 beers and ales, including regularly changing guest brews, they are also the longest-serving of all the local eateries as they've been been trading from the same premises for more than 20 years. The Three Birds Restaurant, a small but perfectly formed provide

Forget any associations you may have with the term 'happy meal' – no boxed burgers or plastic toys are required for Nutan Bala, who prides herself on providing service with not just a smile but a full throated laugh that can be heard across the street. And I mean 'across the street' literally - Bala's main trade to date has been street food, working from a re-purposed police box in Edinburgh's Bruntsfield area. Serving a surprisingly wide range of dishes cooked to order, Bollywood the Coffee Box has fast become an iconic feature of Bruntsfield, the aromas and music emanating from the small box punctuated only by the hiss and sizzle of her cooking and, of course, that laugh.   Nutan Bala's Bollywood the Coffee Box Only eight years after arriving in Edinburgh, Bala is now opening her first sit-in food premises in Tollcross, just down the road from the Bollywood Box. Her driving force, she says, is not commercial enterprise so much as a desire to challenge herself, to take risks and live life on the edge. 'I have no time for "Maybe" or "I'll try",' she explains. 'Either do it, or don't do it. That's how I live!' Every sentence is punctuated with her laugh. She describes how she took the police box premises on a whim: 'I saw the sign, To Let, on the box and I shouted to the bus driver, "Stop! Stop!" and I jumped off and ran to the box, and rang the number on the sign and asked how much the rent was, and said "I'll take it!"' She laughs again. She hadn't even seen the inside of