Edinburgh City Council recently announced plans to reconsider the future use of Thomas Hamilton’s Royal High School on Calton Hill, ending a deal with developers who had pledged in 2009 to find a sustainable purpose for the building. The High School, a masterpiece of the Scottish Greek Revival, has long lain empty; in 2015 plans to transform it into a luxury hotel were widely condemned by heritage groups and the public, and last year
the Scottish Government rejected a revised proposal.
The council’s decision has been welcomed by the Royal High School Preservation Trust, which since 2015 has campaigned for the building to become a new home for St Mary’s Music School. The trust is likely to make a bid to take over the site, while the hotel developers have yet to confirm whether they will submit a further proposal. In the April 2015 issue of Apollo, Gavin Stamp discussed the significance of Hamilton’s building and lamented that it might become a hotel; an adapted version
Edinburgh s old Royal High School building risks the same fate as A-listed St Peter s Seminary – John McLellan
Nestling in the Argyllshire countryside near Cardross is one of Scotland’s architectural gems, the country’s best post-war building, according to Prospect architectural magazine, while Historic Environment Scotland describes it as “one of the finest modern buildings”.
Saturday, 23rd January 2021, 7:00 am
The former Royal High School on Calton Hill has been lying largely empty for more than half a century. (Picture: Steven Scott Taylor)