With the future of Edinburgh’s foremost neo-classical building up for grabs, and a choice between two competing visions the heart of the ‘Athens of the North’ has emerged.
The current proposal going before Edinburgh City Council would see the Old Royal High School become a ‘six star’ luxury hotel, backed by Chinese investors and with two six-storey wings for its 300 guests built on the historic Calton Hill.
An emerging alternative is for the building to become the new home of St Mary’s Music School, where the country and the city’s most gifted young musicians will learn, practise, and perform. That scheme could see a new foyer at the back of the building.
City councillors, and potentially the nationalist Scottish Government, face an interesting decision on where their priorities lie – and between two powerful lobbies, with particular kinds of influence and clout.
The hotel scheme is backed by the Asian investment that has been so assiduously courted in the UK, and with developers touting benefits in tourism and job. The music school idea is rather more attuned to the architecture and history of the capital of the Scottish Enlightenment, and has the at least the promise of financing from probably the biggest single philanthropic funder of Scotland and Edinburgh’s galleries, orchestras and festivals.
I am aiming to post here some of the arguments that have emerged in the debate over the future of the building and planning decisions in Edinburgh more generally. Please contact me if you would like to add your voice…