New images have been released which show the former Royal High School on Calton Hill in Edinburgh would look as a "community concert hall".
The Royal High School Preservation Trust said it has worked in close collaboration with Richard Murphy Architects and St Mary’s Music School to design expanded performance and rehearsal space that will enable the school to "broaden and extend the outreach activities it currently offers to the wider community".
The trust, which hopes to move St Mary’s Music School into the historic Thomas Hamilton building on Calton Hill with a £25 million proposal, submitted a detailed planning application to the City of Edinburgh Council late last week, ahead of a hearing on a separate plan this Thursday.
The new images come as the developers behind the £75 million plan to turn the former Royal High School into a hotel list of 100 backers including Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar and Marshall Dallas, of Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
The trust's visualisations show how the incorporation of new school buildings to the east and north protect the integrity and setting of the Hamilton masterpiece, while providing capacity for the school to increase in size in the coming years, from 83 to 120 pupils.
It said they also highlight plans to complement the creation of three new public performance spaces, including a 300-seat concert hall in the former debating chamber, with a new publicly-accessible garden on the western and northern flanks of the site.
William Gray Muir, Chairman of The Royal High School Preservation Trust, said: "The Trust’s plans have remained tightly focused on both preserving this exceptional building while bringing forward progressive, innovative designs to give it a modern and sustainable use, both for pupils studying at St Mary’s and for members of the public wanting to enjoy its new concert space and public gardens.”
Mr Dewar, also board member of VisitScotland, said earlier: "We are constantly competing with many other European airports to attract investment into Edinburgh as both a market and a destination.
"A world-class hotel will attract a new level of interest and economic activity that will benefit everyone with a stake in the visitor economy.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel