Urgent investigation after water leak at revamped National Gallery
An urgent investigation is underway at Scotland’s flagship art gallery after rain water began leaking into part of the building months after a multi-million refurbishment was completed.
Bosses were forced to put out a bucket and close off a stairwell at the National Gallery after the discovery of a drip in one of the new public areas at the historic attraction in Edinburgh city centre.
The stairwell, one of the major access routes into the 12 new exhibition spaces at the gallery, was out of bounds for several days due to the leak, which was spotted after a spate of recent downpours and strong winds in the city.
The National Galleries of Scotland, which runs the vast complex on The Mound, has called in consultants and contractors who worked on the £38.62 million project to create new exhibition spaces for Scottish art treasures to try to identify the source of the leak.
Urgent repairs will be carried out at the A-listed building – which was Scotland’s third busiest visitor attraction last year – once the source of the leak is identified.
The National Galleries has admitted that parts of its roof had to be repaired at the end of last year after a previous water leak was discovered, but did not lead to the closure of any public areas.
The organisation has revealed it is looking at ways to “future proof ” the site – which was designed by the architect William Henry Playfair and dates back to 1859 – to improve its ability to cope with “extreme weather events”.
The National Galleries, which is directly funded by the Scottish Government, said it was in the process of carrying out “in-depth climate change risk assessments” at the gallery building, which showcases work by some of Scotland’s most celebrated artists spanning around 150 years.
Funded by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the long-awaited project – which was aimed at overhauling how Scottish art was showcased at the attraction and increasing access to the national collection – took around five years to complete.
The revamp, which was described as one of the most complex engineering projects undertaken in a heritage building in Scotland, involved extensive excavation beneath the original building, the transformation of an expansion created in the 1970s and the creation of new links with underground areas opened to the public 20 years ago.
The revamp project was dogged by difficulties and delays before and during the construction work due to increasing costs, the Covid pandemic and the discovery of asbestos, damp penetration, water ingress issues and “inadequate drainage” in the 1970s extension. But the project – which originally had a price tag of just £9m and was completed five years later than originally envisaged – has almost doubled the amount of space devoted to Scottish art at the attraction.
The closure of the southern stairwell coincided with a shutdown of Princes Street gardens by Edinburgh City Council from 1pm on Saturday afternoon until 7am on Monday morning. A spokeswoman for the National Galleries said: “Following recent heavy rain and high, driving winds, a small drip of water appeared above the south stairs of the new Scottish galleries on Thursday (4 April).
“As a safety precaution to avoid a slip hazard, we took the decision to close the stairs from public use while we carried out further investigation into the cause of the drip. Levels 2-4 were fully accessible from the new Scottish galleries at all times via the lift and the front stairs, visitors were still able to enjoy all our gallery spaces and no artworks were affected.”
Visitors were still able to enjoy all our gallery spaces and no artworks were affected