National Museum to become home to unused 'Speaker's Chair' for parliament building that never was

Georgia Vullinghs, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary History, at the National Museum of Scotland, alongside the "Speaker's Chair" at the old Royal High School building on Calton Hill. Picture: Stewart Attwood

The National Museum of Scotland has acquired the quirky piece of furniture kept in place for well over 40 years at the former Royal High School on Calton Hill.

It has been donated to the museum and removed from the building ahead of its transformation into a new National Centre for Music, work on which has just got underway.

The "futuristic" chair, which has been compared to Captain Kirk’s seat in Star Trek, is expected to go on public display at the Edinburgh attraction once conservation and preservation work has been carried out.

Georgia Vullinghs, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary History, at the National Museum of Scotland, alongside the "Speaker's Chair" at the old Royal High School building on Calton Hill. Picture: Stewart Attwood

It was installed in the old Royal High School’s main hall when the building was converted into a planned home for a Scottish Assembly in the run-up to the controversial devolution referendum in 1979.

Although there was a slender majority of 51 per cent in favour, the number of votes in support fell short of a crucial threshold of 40 per cent of the eligible electorate.

A straightforward majority was required in the second devolution in 1997, but the Calton Hill landmark was overlooked in favour of a site at Holyrood for a brand new building when a home for the parliament was chosen the following year.

The museum has several other objects connected to Scottish politics and democracy in its collection, including the final pre-production prototype for the desks Holyrood debating chamber and a “democracy tent” taken around the country by pro-devolution campaigners in the 1990s.

The Presiding Officer's chair is prepared for removal from the planend debating chamber in the former Royal High School on Calton Hill. Picture: Stewart Attwood

The old Royal High building has been largely empty since the school relocated to a new site in 1968.

Proposals to turn the site into a national photography centre before a council-led design competiton to instigate a luxury hotel, only for the winning scheme to attract fierce opposition from heritage groups.

A rival bid proposed to turn the building into a new home for the independent St Mary’s Music School was announced in 2015. It secured the backing of the council after the Scottish Government rejected the hotel redevelopment.

The music school vision, bankrolled by arts philanthropist Carol Grigor, was expanded into the idea for a National Centre for Music.

The Presiding Officer's chair has finally been removed from the Scottish Assembly's planned debating chamber in the former Royal High School building on Calton Hill in Edinburgh. Picture: Stewart Attwood All images © Stewart Attwood Photography 2023. All other rights are reserved. Use in any other context is expressly prohibited without prior permission. No Syndication Permitted.

Georgia Vullinghs, assistant curator of modern and contemporary history at the museum, said: "The furniture represents a key moment in the story of devolution and the history of Scottish politics.

"This large, blocky chair and its futuristic design is emblematic of a confidence in significant political change for Scotland in the late 1970s, but which did not ultimately happen at that time.

"This generous donation will allow us to better tell the story of that fascinating moment in Scotland’s history through our collections.”

William Gray Muir, chair of the Royal High School Preservation Trust, which is pursuing the redevelopment of the building, said: “We are delighted that this piece of constitutional history will have a fitting home in the museum, where it can help tell the story of how modern Scottish politics encountered the legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment.

The former Royal High School building on Calton Hill is about to be turned into a new National Centre for Music and a home for St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh.

"The significance of the buildling and its symbolic importance to our national political and social ambitions is indisputable. Its past, present and future form a critical part of

Edinburgh’s status in the world. We aim to add a new chapter to that story.”