Images of historic school building's new look revealed

FIRST images showing how a historic former school building in the Capital is to be turned into a "world leading" climate change research centre were today unveiled.

• An artist's impression of how the former school building would look following the revamp

Edinburgh University plans to spend around 6 million transforming the original Royal High School on Infirmary Street – where Sir Walter Scott was once taught – into the Edinburgh Centre on Climate Change.

Under its ambitious plan, the B-listed building at High School Yards, which was built in 1777 and was also home to the Edinburgh Dental School until it closed in 1994, will be refurbished in a project that will include a major extension that will become a cafe looking on to Surgeon's Square.

Talks are also taking place with city council chiefs about reopening the High School Yards steps, which link the building to the Cowgate but were closed off seven years ago amid concerns about the number of drug addicts using them.

The interior of the building will also be transformed and is to feature seminar space, lecture and conferencing facilities, meeting rooms, a press room, a refurbished exhibition space, and a student hub featuring a computer suite, social space and informal meeting areas.

Award-winning architect Malcolm Fraser has drawn up the plans for the site and intends to make it one of the most eco-friendly redevelopments of such an old building.

Mr Fraser said: "I hope our previous work in Edinburgh demonstrates that we regard history as being an opportunity. That is what encouraged us to try to make Surgeon's Square a vibrant area again, rather than just a car park as it is now.

"We want to respect the existing building and make it work socially as a gathering place for students, exhibitions, and possibly a new cafe opening up Surgeon's Square. "We hope this will give the building a new lease of life and reinvigorate the building."

Materials used for the building will be locally-sourced, while work will be done to ensure that energy use is minimised.

"The university recognises that one of the principle and largely undiscussed aspects of climate change is that we need to make existing communities and buildings work better," said Mr Fraser. "Re-use of the old high school demonstrates this well."

The university, which will work in collaboration with Heriot-Watt on the project, is hoping to get work started next year.

In a project brief, university chiefs said: "The centre will accommodate world-leading research into climate change and provide a national hub of efforts to tackle climate change.

"The vision is to create a world-class interdisciplinary research and teaching facility focused on key climate-related challenges facing society."

The plans have been submitted to city planners by the university and a decision is expected by councillors by the end of this year.

FROM MONKS TO ARCHAEOLOGISTS

THE building sits on the site of the former Blackfriars Monastery, which was destroyed in 1558 by a mob of followers of John Knox.

In 1566, magistrates persuaded Mary, Queen of Scots to donate former church lands to the city and the original Royal High School was built in 1578.

It was demolished in 1774 and replaced by the larger school building, which still stands today. Former pupil Sir Walter Scott's intitials can still be seen today among 18th century graffiti at the entrance to the building.

The building is also well known as the school where teacher James Pillans invented the blackboard and coloured chalk.

Overcrowding meant that the school was closed in 1829 to make way for a new Royal High School at Calton Hill. The High School Yards building has since been used to house a hospital, a dental school and Edinburgh University's department of archaeology.