THE former Royal High School of Edinburgh is set to become a “National Centre for Music” under new plans backed by an arts philanthropist.
Carol Grigor will provide funding totalling £55 million to transform the 192-year-old A-listed building.
The building, located on Calton Hill, has been largely unused since the school moved out in 1968. It is owned by the local authority, which has long been seeking a new use for it.
Last year ministers decided the former school could not be turned into a hotel.
Plans have now been submitted to Edinburgh Council by the Royal High School Preservation Trust, focused on turning the building into a “world-class centre for music education and public performance for the benefit of the whole of Scotland”.
READ MORE: A short history of the Royal High School
The proposals would involve the building of “clearly defined spaces for classical music education, community access and engagement and performance”, they state.
The centre would keep St Mary’s Music School – which has already been approved by Edinburgh councillors – at its heart, while also including a cafe, gallery and visitor centre.
William Gray Muir, chair of the Royal High School Preservation Trust, said restoring the building remains “one of the most exciting and important cultural developments” in Edinburgh and Scotland as a whole.
“Our goal is that as well as providing an exemplary use for the building, excellence in accessibility and inclusion will be absolutely central to the ethos of how the Royal High School is used,” he explained.
“The passage of time from 2016 to 2021 has allowed us to consult on and revise some aspects of our design proposal and to evolve our ambitions for the building to create a vision for a new National Centre for Music. In doing so we have brought in new partners in IMPACT Scotland and the Benedetti Foundation, who with us and St Mary’s Music School see this project as a means to create an entirely new way for everyone to engage with and enjoy classical music and the arts.
“It has the potential to show Scotland and Edinburgh at a new vanguard of classical music education and cultural inclusion.”
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