St Mary’s Royal High School concert venue plans unveiled

Artist's impression of a 300-seat concert hall at the Royal High School if a new centre for St Mary's Music School is adopted. Picture: Contributed

SCOTLAND’S only independent music school says it is ready to take over one of Edinburgh’s most celebrated landmarks within months - if a controversial hotel project collapses.

St Mary’s Music School is planning to increase in size by 50 per cent if it is allowed to snap up the former Royal High School on Calton Hill.

The trust behind a planned rebirth of the building, which has been lying largely empty since 1968, has also promised to open up public access to the site if its plans get the green light.

However the cost of the proposed relocation of St Mary’s Music School to the former Royal High School on Calton Hill has soared by around £10 million since initial plans were announced earlier this year due to the scale of development planned.

Now expected to cost upwards of £25 million, the scheme will involve the addition of a major new school building in erected in the grounds of the A-listed landmark, which itself will be turned into a concert venue.

Under new plans designed by Edinburgh-based architect Richard Murphy, a new main entrance hall and foyer will have to be carved out underneath the existing 1829 building to create a new public entrance to three separate performance spaces, including a 300-capacity main arena.

Other key features of the project - a rival scheme to a controversial luxury hotel development that is facing huge opposition - include the creation of a new publicly-accessible garden on the site of an existing car park.

Roof gardens will also be on built on top of the new “low-lying” school buildings, which architects insist will be less visible than existing buildings on the site which are due to be demolished.

A new glazed floor will be installed beneath the building’s famous “Athens of the North” portico and above the foyer, which will also be lit by natural daylight via large glass doors looking onto Regent Road. New terrace gardens to the south of the site will also offer concert-goers spectacular views of Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags.

The Royal High School Preservation Trust, which is being bankrolled by American arts philanthropist Carol Grigor, has already made Edinburgh City Council a £1.5 million offer to take buy the building, which will be able to accommodate 120 pupils rather than the existing 80.