Old Royal High School

The building was constructed for the use of the city's Royal High School, and gained its alternative name as a result of a proposal in the 1970s for it to house a devolved Scottish Assembly.

[3] The A-listed building was erected for the Royal High School between 1826 and 1829 on the south face of Calton Hill as part of Edinburgh's Acropolis, at a cost to the Town Council of £34,000.

[5] It was designed in a neo-classical Greek Doric style by Thomas Hamilton, who modelled the portico and Great Hall on the Hephaisteion of Athens.

[12] Critics also contended that the Calton Hill site was relatively inaccessible, lacked sufficient office space, and would be difficult to secure against a terrorist attack.

[13][14] The Under-Secretary of State, Lord Sewel, remarked of this decision: "Many people understandably assumed that the Old Royal High School building on Calton Hill would be the automatic choice for the site.

[16] In 2004, the council gave its support to a plan by former royal press secretary Michael Shea to use the school as a Scottish National Photography Centre at a cost of £20 million.

[21] The plan, put forward by DHP and Urbanist Hotels, involved the construction of two additional six-story wings on either side of the building in a modern architectural style.

[31] In 2015, the Dunard Fund gave the Royal High School Preservation Trust £1.5 million held in a restricted reserve which can be released only for expenditure connected to purchasing the building.

[36][37][38] Edinburgh Council accepted plans for the St. Mary's Music School in 2016[39] but the hotel developers said their 2010 contract gave them sole rights to the site until 2022.

[44] During that inquiry, the Director of Edinburgh World Heritage, Adam Wilkinson, admitted to Photoshopping a picture of the proposed hotel development that was shown to the public at a Save the Old Royal High School meeting at Central Hall in Tollcross in March 2017.