Gallery refit put back by another year
A troubled project to overhaul Scotland’ s flagship art gallery has been dealt a new blow after its completion was delayed by a year and bosses admitted it is facing new cost increases.
Work on the overhaul of the Scottish National Gallery at The Mound in Edinburgh is now not expected until the end of 2022 – five and a half years later than originally envisaged.
The discovery of “unexpected defects” in a previous extension to the 19th century landmark, a lengthy shutdown of the construction site due to the corona virus pandemic and the need to enforce social distancing restrictions on site since work resumed have all been blamed for the new delay, which has been announced just over two years after work got underway.
Extra work to tackle asbestos, “damp penetration” and a faulty drainage system has had to be ordered to ensure The Mound building is “fully protected and safeguarded”.
However, the National Galleries of Scotland said it was unable to put a new cost on the project–two years after the budget ballooned from £16.8 million to £22m despite a planned extension for the building being shelved on the grounds of cost.
A spokesman said :“The budget was £22 million. On extra costs, it would be premature to release estimates until the full impact of the pandemic is known and all the work is finalised.”
The project was thrown into fresh turmoil earlier this year after the “unexpected defects” were discovered in a 1970s extension to the historic building, where new galleries boasting views across East Princes Street Gardens are being created.
The overhaul of the gallery – the busiest in the UK outside of London – has been dogged by problems since a £15.3m price tag and a completion date of the summer of 2018 was announced for the project in 2015. Backed by the Scottish Government and the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project’s design was significantly scaled back due to the soaring cost of initial plans to extend the gallery building out into the gardens by around five metres.
By the time work finally began once again in October 2018, the final completion date had to be pushed back to “early 2021”.