Plan of note launched for Royal High School
New trust unveils proposal for music school to move into city masterpiece
A PLAN to turn a disused A-listed architectural masterpiece in the Scottish capital into the new home for a leading music school has been unveiled by a new cultural trust.
The plan would see the Old Royal High School on Calton Hill become a new home for the St Mary’s Music School.
The Old Royal High, a 19th century neo-classical building designed by Glasgow-born architect Thomas Hamilton, is already the subject of controversial plans by the Urbanist Group to turn it into a £55 million luxury hotel.
Now, in a rival plan, The Royal High School Preservation Trust (RHSPT) has said it wishes to return the building, for many years the proposed site for a Scottish Parliament, to its original educational use.
St Mary’s Music School, in the city’s Grosvenor Crescent, is currently considering its future accommodation options and has described the potential move to the historic site as an unexpected but “welcome” development.
The Trust hopes to submit detailed plans for the plan to the City of Edinburgh Council in the next six months.
A Proposal of Application Notice submitted to the council this week signals the beginning of a process of formal consultation with St Mary’s Music School and other interested parties.
William Gray Muir, chairman of the Royal High School Preservation Trust said: “Our aim is the preservation and enhancement of an endangered architectural masterpiece, not just in the context of the City of Edinburgh but Scotland as a whole.
“Our ardent wish is to achieve this by maintaining the Old Royal High buildings as a school, the purpose for which they were built, and ensure its future use as a vibrant and unique academic institution.
“What could be more appropriate than making it home to a national treasure like St Mary’s Music School?”
Kenneth Taylor, headteacher for the Music School, said that the school wishes to have a building which can include both teaching and performance space.
He said: “The board is actively considering whether this should be an extension at our existing premises or a move to another building in Edinburgh that could accommodate this.
“The possibility that the school could move to the former Royal High School Building is an unexpected development but a welcome one.
“St Mary’s Music School is not just a school for Edinburgh, but one for the whole of Scotland with our pupils coming from across the nation and beyond, and all taken on musical ability regardless of personal circumstances.
“It is very early days and we will have to see what happens but perhaps it is fitting that a landmark building should become the home of a national institution.”
The trust believes that the building would provide both teaching and performance space for the school.
Talks between the trust and the school took place for the first time recently.
Mr Muir added: “St Mary’s Music School would breathe life into the building again, making full and imaginative use of its wonderful spaces, filling the rooms with music: a literal rejuvenation of Thomas Hamilton’s world-class monument of the Edinburgh Enlightenment.”
The new trust has the financial backing of the philanthropic Dunard Fund.