Initial reactions to new plans for the old Royal High School have been mixed (Breaking news, 2.9.15).
Adam Wilkinson, Director of the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, is robustly disappointed:
Throughout our engagement with the development team over the last few months, we have been clear that development to the west of the building will be difficult in terms of the outstanding universal value of the World Heritage Site.
Hamilton's Royal High School was designed in such a way that in views from the west one only sees the dramatic landscape of Calton Hill, Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags, giving an impression of the countryside in the heart of the city – one of the elements that makes Edinburgh such a special place.
The clear and consistent advice EWH has given the development team over a number of months has been ignored, which is a matter of deep regret.
Filmmaker and cultural commentator Murray Grigor was even clearer:
I've just seen the revised scheme by Gareth Hoskins. If anything, the bulky massing of those Mayan-like blocks are worse than the original bedroom barracks as they menace the sublime neoclassical Royal High School. I would like to make the strongest possible riposte to this inappropriate defacement of Edinburgh’s Acropolis. It's made all the worse by those hypothetical claims for the financial returns that the city will gain.
I would like to propose that the City of Edinburgh should support the Royal High School Preservation Trust’s fully funded plan to restore Thomas Hamilton's Royal High School. This would return its interior spaces, not as an interior decorated elitist hotel, but as a working school to honour the building’s original function. This would allow St Mary’s Music School to expand its intake for the benefit of talented young musicians from all over Scotland, and further afield.
Range of views
Readers who expressed a clear preference in response to yesterday’s article in the Spurtle were mostly opposed to the development, by 8 to 2.
Some conceded that the latest proposals were an improvement on previous iterations.
Others suggested that the alleged economic potential of the hotel would outweigh aesthetic considerations when it comes to councillors making a decision.
Contrary to our expectations, on the Cockburn Association's Facebook page, public reaction to the artist's impressions was broadly favourably, by 7 to 3. Again, there were reservations about the height and design, but also a sense that the proposals were a considerable improvement on the earlier version.
The Cockburn Association itself has made no comment that we've seen. It appears to be waiting for detailed plans to appear on the Council's Planning Portal. So are we.
UPDATE: Plans became available HERE this afternoon.
Got a view? Tell us at spurtle@hotmail.co.uk and @theSpurtle and Facebook
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Gary McLean-Quin It's stunning, sympathetic to the shape of the site, and by a top-league international operator. The building was vacated in 1968. This is a stellar opportunity to preserve it and do something really exceptional.
Corneilius Pierce I agree, I'd hate to see the usual knee jerk opposition to this, it's very attractive.
Shelagh McDougall I quite like it, so long as it really does have the greenery to help it blend in?
E-mail from henryfoth@hotmail.co.uk: The revised plans for the old High School are vastly better than what was previously proposed. I would support them for fear of ending up with something worse. Henry Fothringham
@theSpurtle unfortunately no one will see it from the angle presented unless they are levitating or are a drone.
@papawasarodeo @theSpurtle Utterly grotesque!
Broughton Spurtle @theSpurtle
@papawasarodeo Seagulls. EEN tonight calling it 'Leaning Tower', but same artist's impression has Nelson Monument at 350º, so not convinced.
Doesn't this just show how ridiculous it is to try to finance Royal High bldg by surrounding it with hotel rooms? http://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/news/new-new-plans-old-royal-high …