New campaign against luxury hotel bid for old Royal High School

Leading heritage bodies are joining forces in a major new campaign against plans to turn one of Scotland’s most celebrated landmarks into a luxury hotel – warning it “threatens to ruin Edinburgh’s cityscape forever”.

The Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, Edinburgh World Heritage and the Cockburn Association have launched a “Save The Royal High School” crusade over the latest plans for the A-listed building on Calton Hill.

All three bodies are hosting a campaign summit next month while a separate dropin surgery is to be held to help raise awareness of the plans by developers Duddingston and Urbanist Hotels.

A campaign page launched over the weekend describes the old Royal High School, which has been lying empty since the late 1960s, as a “Greek Revival masterpiece” which is of “international importance”.

Developers behind scaled back plans for a hotel for the Hong Kong-based Rosewood chain are said to have “ignored” the concerns of planning and heritage experts and “set aside” public opinion.

Details of the campaign have emerged days after new designs for the hotel were lodged. It will now have 127 rooms, 20 fewer than proposed in a scheme which was rejected in December 2015 due to concerns about the impact of modern extensions on architect Thomas Hamilton’s 1829 building.

Campaigners said: “Despite efforts from heritage bodies all over the UK, the threat to the former Royal High School in Edinburgh has not gone away.

“As of February 2017, a new, highly damaging, hotel proposal threatens to ruin Edinburgh’s cityscape forever. Over 1500 members of the public objected to the first proposal. Help us do this again and save the building as an icon of our city. This is not the only option, the right use can be found.”

Adam Wilkinson, director of Edinburgh World Heritage, said: “The various civic and heritage organisations in the city are working closely together to campaign against these latest proposals.

“The first priority is to help the wider public understand the impact of the proposals so that they are able to voice their concerns to the council through the planning process.”

David Orr, co-founder of Urbanist Hotels, said: “Our design will conserve founding architect Thomas Hamilton’s original building and vision, restoring and regenerating this national treasure with a new use as a world-class hotel for the people of Edinburgh and beyond.” 0 Heritage groups have united against new plans to turn the Royal High School, which has lain empty since the 1960s, into a hotel