The IHBC’s heritage business register HESPR – our Historic Environment Service Providers Recognition quality assurance scheme for heritage services – emails members weekly ‘News and Tender Alerts’, with news from across the development sector, and this week features Scottish Construction Now (SCN) how Edinburgh’s Royal High School is ’back on the market’.
… decision could pave the way for a rival vision…
… Cockburn Association chair Cliff Hague said…. music school scheme seems an excellent alternative…
Scottish Construction Now writes:
Following the Scottish Government’s dismissal of the appeals into the proposed redevelopment as a hotel of Thomas Hamilton’s Category A listed 1825 Royal High School on Calton Hill, Edinburgh, it is back on the market…
The former Royal High School on Calton Hill is to return to the open market after the City of Edinburgh Council cancelled a long-term legal agreement to redevelop the A-listed building.
An exclusive agreement between the council and Urbanist Group was understood to expire at some point in 2022. The developer had sought a three-year extension to the deal in order to secure planning permission for its long-running luxury hotel proposal for the historic building at the heart of Edinburgh’s original World Heritage Site.
Having had its latest bid for a 127-bed hotel knocked back by the Scottish Government in October following a public inquiry, Urbanist Group and Duddingston House vowed to return with ‘more modest’ proposals.
However, yesterday’s decision by the council’s finance and resources committee appears to signify the start of a new chapter for the building….
The decision could pave the way for a rival vision by Richard Murphy Architects and Simpson & Brown to turn the property into a music school….
The Cockburn Association, one of the world’s oldest architectural conservation and urban monitoring groups, said that it supports the proposal of utilising the building as a music school.
Cockburn Association chair Cliff Hague said: ‘Thousands of Edinburgh citizens objected to the hotel, so ending the current impasse is welcome.
‘The music school scheme seems an excellent alternative, worthy of continued support. Any other proposal must ensure as wide a civic and public benefit as possible for this finest example of Greek Revival architecture in the world.’
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